The second half was dominated, but ended with no goals due to missed opportunities.

In the second half, Tokyo creates chances by overcoming the opponent's press. In the 48th minute, Higashi receives a foul while trying to receive Ota's vertical pass, resulting in a free kick from the left side. Ota sends the ball to the front line from this left free kick, and Chang Hyun Soo heads it, but it goes wide. In the 55th minute, Tokunaga from the right front line connects with Lucas, and Hasegawa runs into the right area to receive a vertical pass from Watanabe. Watanabe turns and gets into a shooting position, but it is blocked and results in a corner kick.

In the 58th minute, Hasegawa, who tried to go around the middle after a pass exchange on the left side, received a foul and got a free kick from just outside the area on the left. East took a direct shot but hit the left post. The rebound was connected and Watanabe dropped it to Ishikawa in front of the goal, but he was held back by the opponent's defender and couldn't score. As Iwata's energy gradually decreased, they calmly connected passes and took control of the game.

In the 65th minute, a free kick from the left side goal line was passed to the center by Higashi. Ishikawa received the ball and dribbled past one defender before taking a shot, but it was offside. In the 71st minute, Vucicevic was substituted in for Higashi and played as an attacking midfielder. Then in the 76th minute, Takahashi came in for Ishikawa. Hasegawa and Vucicevic switched positions.

Reacted to loose ball on the front line in the 90th minute. Vucicevic calmly sent it to the space on the left area, and Watanabe ran into it in a decisive position, but couldn't get past the defense of Iwata DF. In stoppage time, from a throw-in by Tokunaga on the right side, Hasegawa -> Vucicevic ran in with good timing and took a shot, but it hit the opponent's DF and resulted in a right corner kick. Furthermore, from this corner kick, Watanabe sent a header to the front of the goal, but was blocked by the opponent's DF. In the second half, they regained their rhythm and created many chances, but the game ended in a scoreless draw. They only managed to get 1 point.


[Player Comments]

"In the first half, we were too focused on defense. The ball wasn't coming up front and I couldn't keep it. I tried to drop back and receive it, but Coach Popovic instructed me to pull forward against Iwata's defense and let Keigo use the space there. However, I couldn't create any opportunities. In the second half, we were able to create our own time, but we couldn't win without scoring. (There were some close chances, right?) We can't win if we can't convert those chances. My finishing accuracy was also lacking. We all want to have a higher awareness of shooting, but instead of relying on "someone else," I want to fight with the determination to take it myself."

《Gonda》
"We were able to keep a clean sheet in the end, but with this defensive style, we couldn't go on the attack. In the second half, Iwata dropped back and we were able to create chances by exploiting the space. This week, we practiced "winning the ball back in a better position and attacking", and this was the result. Even though we didn't concede, it wasn't a great performance. We couldn't put pressure on the ball holder and on the other hand, we wanted to push our defensive line higher but couldn't do it. On the other hand, Iwata used MF Matsura as a number 10 against our back four, which allowed them to find space."


[Coach Popovich's Press Conference Summary]
"There was a big difference in performance between the first and second half. I am not satisfied with the first half, but I think we showed a good performance in the second half. However, because the first half was not good, we ended up with this result. The game is 90 minutes long, so it's not enough to just have one good half. Of course, it's not easy to maintain control throughout the entire 90 minutes, but we are aiming for that and we want to continue playing that kind of soccer in the future. Due to Hyonsu's injury, we couldn't follow the game plan we had for the second half, but I think we were able to show what we wanted to do in the second half. It's very important to continue playing our style even when things don't go well. We will continue to prioritize that in the future."


[Iwata - Takashi Sekizuka Press Conference Summary]
"It was the first time we kept a clean sheet in defense, but it was very disappointing that we couldn't break through Tokyo's goal. However, in terms of performance, it was very good and all 11 players fought together as one. In that sense, we will continue to play many games based on this, so we want to fight firmly. Today, many supporters came and created a good atmosphere. I am grateful for their support until the end, believing in us to score one point. We also want to prepare diligently to get three points. (Did you want to score in the first half when you had more than 10 shots?) Yes, that's right. I think it would have been very good if we could have scored the first goal in the first half."