J League kicks off, facing Omiya's return to J1

The J-League is finally starting. In the 1st Sec. 1, Omiya Ardija, who won the J2 last season and returned to J1 in just one season, will face off against them. They will welcome them at home.

Tokyo will face the game with Ha DAESUNG and Komano absent due to injury, and Kajiyama starting as a defensive midfielder. Tokunaga will play as the left full-back, while Hashimoto will take the right side, in a 4-4-2 formation. Ogawa will make his professional debut on the bench, while Takahashi and Tanabe will also be on the substitutes for the first time this season.

Omiya also has FW Dragan Murgja at the forefront, with FW Ienaga at the top. MF Nejtspechunik and Izumisawa hold the sides in a 4-4-2 formation.

The opening match, which will be held in February for the first time in the history of the J-League. Although there were clear skies during the day, the match started at 7:04 pm with a kick-off from Omiya, under the cold weather with lingering winds.

Despite overcoming Omiya's momentum and holding onto the ball to create chances...

In the early stages, Omiya was aggressive and quick to switch, but we ended up being a little defensive. Omiya attacked from both sides and gave us multiple set-piece opportunities, but we remained calm and handled it well. We didn't allow any clear chances and gradually started to possess the ball more.

12 minutes: Kajiyama on the left side → Higashi → Yonemoto who broke through on the left front line, despite losing his balance, catches up and passes to the center. Mizunuma couldn't finish it, but the ball falls to Maeda in the right area. Maeda calmly sends a pass to the front of the area and Higashi, who made a precise shot, runs in. However, the ball hits the Omiya DF in the area.

27 minutes: From Tokunaga, who took a high position, Mizunuma passes directly to the opponent's back from the left area. Abe makes a move and shoots from the left area, but it is saved by the GK.

Afterwards, they continued to push the entire team forward with a compact formation, and the game was mostly played within the Omiya team's half. However, Omiya also carefully adjusted the distance between players and their defensive line to respond.

38 minutes: Abe from the right area → Mizunuma with a short cross to the far side. Tō's header shot falls in the center, and Abe reacts to it. He quickly closes in and creates a scoring opportunity. However, his foot slips slightly and he is unable to finish. They were unable to break through Omiya's defense and the first half ended scoreless.

Conceded a goal by being caught off guard, faced a bitter defeat while trying to make a comeback

Tokyo substituted Kawano for Mizunuma on the second half and put him on the right side. Higashi moved up to the front line and Abe switched to the left side, trying to break down Omiya's defensive block that was holding back.

52 minutes: Kono jumps out to meet Yonemoto's feed to the right front line, skillfully turning around and passing the DF. East rushes into the right goal area and receives a close-range pass, but... He is blocked by the opposing DF and unable to shake the net. Next, Kono exchanges passes with Kajiyama on the right front line and moves into the right area. Hashimoto pushes up and receives a through pass. They try to create a chance with the combination of the three players that they showed in the first half, but their timing was just slightly off.

68 minutes: Nakajima is substituted for Higashi on the left side. Abe moves back to the top. Shortly after, Maeda takes a shot while advancing, but it lacks power and is saved by the GK. Omiya then connects in their own half, and Wada feeds the ball to the right front line. FW Murja tries to break through. Maruyama was marking him while running alongside, but he was able to get ahead and make a ground pass to the center. Omiya FW Ienaga's shot from the left area was blocked by Hashimoto, but the ball fell in front of him and MF Iwakami was able to score with a powerful shot... Omiya took advantage of the quick transition and scored the first goal by finding a gap.

77 minutes: Replaced Kajiyama with Tanabe as a defensive midfielder. Increased the tempo of the attack and prepared for a counterattack.
82 minutes: Hashimoto, who advanced forward, dropped a pass to Tanabe on the right area, and Kono in the center took a powerful shot, but it hit the bar... In the final minutes, we continued to push Omiya and made various challenges towards the goal, but we were unable to break through their defense until the end. We ended up with no points and a bitter defeat in the league opener.

※Please refer to the FC Tokyo official mobile site for player and coach post-match comments.