Maintaining good form, aiming for a 3-game winning streak!

　Sec. 12 will face Omiya Ardija at home. It is a crucial match where we want to end the league before the break with a victory, taking advantage of the momentum of two consecutive wins. On the other hand, Omiya is currently in 12th place. After their victory against Yokohama FM in Sec. 7, they have suffered three consecutive losses with one draw in between. However, in the previous match against Hiroshima, they dominated the game but lost due to conceding one chance. Manager Garo also analyzed, "They are a team with technical skills, good passing, and can control the game even in the J-League."

　Especially with the precise kicking of MF Lucas, the powerful MF Fujimoto and Kobayashi Yoshiyuki are scary when they are on a roll. Attention must be paid to their set plays, which are initiated by them. On the other hand, Tokyo wants to take control of the game in the midfield, utilizing the mobility of Lucas and the two forwards. They aim to take the lead and secure victory.

　Manager Garo spoke about the reason for the good performance, saying, "In just 4 months since taking office, the players have understood my tactics very well." As the words suggest, Garo's soccer has begun to permeate the team, but when it comes to "3 consecutive wins," it has not been achieved in the past. If we only look at the league matches, we have to go back to the 2002 2nd stage (4 consecutive wins from the 8th round against Sapporo to the 11th round against Sendai. Including the V-goal victory in the 9th round against Kobe). Today, taking advantage of the home field, we aim for the first 3 consecutive wins in the league since 2002.

　The starting lineup will be the same as the previous match against Kofu. In addition, Toda, who has been away from the team since the beginning of the season, returned and made his first appearance on the bench. Omiya will have a 4-4-2 formation with FW Grau and tall FW Morita as the two top players, and a box-shaped midfield. Before the match, a ceremony was held to celebrate Miyazawa's 100th appearance in the J1 league, and the game kicked off at 3:04 pm at Ajinomoto Stadium, under the clear May sky, with Omiya's kickoff.

Lucas scores first with a PK! However, Omiya is still dominating...

　Omiya took a shot at the start. In the first minute, FW Grau cuts in from the left side and swings his right foot. In the third minute, midfielder Davidson Jun Marcus aims from the middle. However, both were one-off and there was no fear. Tokyo creates a decisive chance in the fourth minute. Tokunaga dribbles up the right side, evades Kawaguchi and one-twos, and receives a return in the area. From there, he sends a fast ground cross directly to the front of the goal. However, just before Akamine and Lucas could connect, the Omiya DF clears it and escapes to a corner kick.

　At 6 minutes, we get a free kick on the left side of the opponent's field. Miyazawa's long kick is met by Jean in the area, who jumps in with his head. The shot hits the right post and bounces back, but Jean, who immediately tried to get up and follow up, is tripped and brought down by the opponent's defender, resulting in a penalty kick. At 8 minutes, Lucas takes it perfectly and we take the lead! With this being Lucas' third consecutive goal, our morale is high and Tokyo has completely taken control of the game. We dominate the midfield, attack from high positions on both sides, and create numerous chances.

　13 minutes, Kawaguchi connects from Akamine's post, Miyazawa takes a middle shot. In the 15th minute, Lucas -> Akamine on the left side -> Kajiyama in the center expands to the right. Tokunaga runs into the goal and takes a powerful direct shot. They created a decisive opportunity from a wide attack, but were stopped by the good save of the opponent's GK Aratani. In the 16th minute, Imakano who advanced into the area receives a pass and crosses it in front of the goal. Akamine meets the sharp cross, but it goes just outside the frame.

　23 minutes, Omiya launches a counterattack from a FK. Kawaguchi keeps the ball after receiving a precise long feed from Miyazawa and passes it to Suzuki who came up from the left. Suzuki takes a shot from the edge of the area with speed, but once again the opponent GK makes a save. Kawaguchi follows up with a shot, but it goes over the bar. In the 29th minute, Kawaguchi sends a ground cross to the center of the goal from a FK on the right. Jean takes a swing in front of the goal, but the GK catches it. Despite creating chances, they are unable to score.

　At 34 minutes, Shigetaka Shigeno, who was chasing the opponent, was substituted due to an injury to the back of his right thigh. Masashima was brought in. However, without being shaken by this incident, they firmly held off Omiya's attacks on defense. At 38 minutes, they launched a counterattack from Omiya's corner kick. At 42 minutes, Omiya's MF Fujimoto entered the area and connected with FW Grau → MF Yoshiyuki KOBAYASHI, but Jean cut it off and launched a quick attack. However, they were unable to score an additional goal and ended the first half with a score of 1-0.

Conceded a goal from a set piece, heartbreaking comeback loss

　In the second half, Omiya brought on FW Sakurai and MF Saito. Sakurai was placed as an attacking midfielder, forming a 3-forward lineup with FW Grau, FW Morita, and MF Kobayashi. Tokyo was unable to adapt to this change and began to be pushed back. In the 54th minute, Omiya launched a wave of attacks. Crosses were continuously sent in from the right and left, and finally FW Morita headed a shot. However, the ball was caught firmly by Doi in front of his body.

　Tokyo made a substitution, replacing Akamine with Rychely in the 55th minute and Kawaguchi with Inonami in the 60th minute to bring in a new midfielder. Kajiyama was moved up one line and the team tried to regroup with the player changes. Shortly after each substitution, in the 55th minute, Masushima had a header shot from a left corner kick. In the 60th minute, Inokoshi passed to Jean from a right corner kick, but both shots narrowly missed the goal. On the other hand, Tokyo's defense was increasingly stopping Omiya's aggressive attacks with fouls, resulting in many free kicks and corner kicks for Omiya.

　Despite holding on at the final line, they were able to defend well, but in the 76th minute, from a throw-in on the right by Omiya, FW Grot received a wedge and MF Kobayashi Daichi entered the area and took a powerful shot. It was saved by Tsuchi's fine play, but from this corner kick, Omiya DF Tomita scored a header and equalized. After that, it became a back-and-forth counterattack between Omiya, who continued to attack, and Tokyo, who tried to use Rychely's speed to exploit space.

　In the 89th minute, Suzuki, who had been trying to break through, was brought down and earned a free kick from about 20 meters outside the left area. Kajiyama took a direct shot, but couldn't find the target. However, Omiya's attack didn't stop and as the game approached the 3-minute mark of stoppage time, they were awarded a free kick outside the left area. It was a tense moment, but MF Kobayashi took the kick and the sharp trajectory of the shot found the top left corner of the goal... Giving up a goal just before the end, the game was over. It was a disappointing comeback loss. As a result, they still have the Nabisco Cup, but the league season will go into a break with 5 wins, 2 draws, and 5 losses in 12 games.

　【Player Comments】《Imano》"There were a lot of Omiya players in the midfield, so I couldn't go for the ball. I also dropped back to the defensive line, and Kajiyama and Miyazawa had no choice but to drop back as well. We were focused on defending, so we couldn't threaten the opponent. Each of us needs to be more vocal, aggressively go for the ball, and connect it to our attack. We couldn't fix that during the game."《Tokunaga》"In the first half, we couldn't score when we needed to, and we lost our pace. We tried to get the second goal, but we couldn't score and the momentum was lost. I had a chance as well, but if I had scored there... In the second half, the opponent's passing was good, and we had no choice but to defend. We need to make sure we don't make the same mistake again. Switching our mindset is important, so we want to fix it during this week."

　[Summary of Manager Garo's Press Conference] "In the first half, we were able to create the shape we wanted and take the lead with one goal. We also had many chances. However, we needed to score more goals with the number of chances we created. I mentioned this during halftime. In the second half, Omiya, who was losing, came out aggressively and disrupted our rhythm. We were not able to mark as tightly in the midfield as we did in the first half, and we gave them space. So we brought in Inonami and tried to press more firmly. At the same time, we also brought in Rychely to utilize his speed. Unfortunately, we were not able to change the rhythm. We played really well in the first half, but we fell apart in the second half. However, it was a game that we could have at least drawn. It's a shame we couldn't do that. (What is Mochida's injury status? Did his substitution have an impact?) We won't know until we do an examination. Mochida is an important player for the team, but his inability to keep up with the marking was not the reason for our loss. Mashima, who came on as a substitute, also played well. (After finishing one-third of the league season, what areas do you need to improve during the break?) We still have the Nabisco Cup. The conditions are tough, but as long as we have a chance, we won't give up on qualifying. As for areas to improve during the break, we will think about that after it's over."

　[Omiya Miura's press conference summary] "FC Tokyo changed coaches and their style started to take hold. We confirmed our defensive and offensive strategies and entered the game. However, we became passive. Especially in terms of defense, it's not about who is at fault, but we lacked aggressiveness. Even if we were to concede a penalty, Tokyo completely controlled the pace of the game. It was fair to lose 0-1 in the first half, and if we had conceded a second goal, it would have been a very difficult situation. The performance was poor, so I decided to make two substitutions and change the game. I brought in FW Sakurai and MF Saito, and placed Sakurai in the attacking midfield position. In the first half, the support from FW Morita and FW Grau was too far away, so I thought we should have one player in the attacking midfield position. Also, I brought in MF Saito, who can control the defense, because I thought the game would be over if we conceded a second goal. I think the momentum changed dramatically thanks to these two players. Even after equalizing, we didn't have the intention to defend and we didn't want to break the good flow. It was important that the players didn't lose their attitude of "let's go score". (There were a lot of crosses?) When we have tall players in the front line, we always try to play simply. From there, we wanted to pick up second balls, and FW Morita and FW Wakabayashi entered the penalty area to scare the opponents. After all, you can't score if you don't enter the penalty area. In the previous game, we didn't have that at all, so I instructed the players on the wings to cross early. (In the end, were you helped by Daisuke Kobyashi?) Both teams had chances from set pieces. The result is determined by whether or not there are players who can score. Not just him, but in other teams as well, there are many games where a striker with a good finishing ability can help even if the performance is poor. In soccer, players who can score are valuable. Recently, we have been playing evenly matched games, but we haven't been getting results, so we tend to become negative. FC Tokyo is a valuable victory because we knew that if we took the lead, they wouldn't lose easily. I am satisfied with our performance in the second half."