Today is the third day of the expedition, and finally the first day of the tournament. The long-awaited international tournament begins.
Opening ceremony at the main court with stands in the morning. There was also a performance by the drum corps.
The stands were filled with students from the Guangzhou Evergrande Football School.

Group photo at the opening ceremony venue

1st Round will be the local Guangzhou Evergrande Football School team. However, the first team is currently on a trip to Spain.
The opponent will be the third team. We cannot afford to lose.

The pre-game meeting was conducted carefully.	Finally, to the first match pitch

The match was dominated by overwhelming ball control against an opponent with a clear difference in skill, but there was stiffness seen throughout the team, possibly due to first game nerves.
The poor condition of the field also seemed to be a concern, resulting in an overly cautious game plan and a lack of decisive plays due to many lateral and backward passes.
While doing so, the opponent was able to directly score a chance from the FK.

"The team's challenge," as pointed out by Coach Okuhara from the first day of the expedition, was the game management immediately after conceding a goal.
They have not been able to recover from there and have not been able to achieve good results even in the Kanto League.
Now, I was worried if I could make a comeback from here, but on this day, I quickly caught up to the equalizer from CK.
Has one challenge been overcome?
FC Tokyo continued to attack, but Guangzhou Evergrande's intense defense and physicality in front of the goal prevented them from scoring, resulting in a 1-1 tie at the end of the first half.

Kashima Antlers, who regained their composure at halftime, were stopped by Guangzhou Evergrande, who started to slow down near the end of the first half.
From the start of the second half, FC Tokyo dominated the game and in the 9th minute, Kobayashi scored a goal from a persistent attack in front of the goal!
Finally, in the 23rd minute, Kobayashi once again scored from a direct free kick in a similar location as the one in the first half, making it 3-1 in favor of the first half's Guangzhou Evergrande.
Afterwards, Shiraishi scored more points and the game ended with a score of 5-1.
Guangzhou Evergrande ended the second half without creating any chances, as many players suffered from cramps.
For FC Tokyo, it was a second half where they wanted to score 2 or 3 more points, considering the goal difference in the future.

The match ended 5-1, and it was a game that clearly showed both the strengths and weaknesses of this team.
The attacking unit in particular has a very high level of ability, so I hope they will take more responsibility and attack more aggressively, and it was a game that made me expect more from them.

One-on-one battles on the side	After the game, players communicate with each other.

This tournament is divided into 2 groups with 8 teams, and the top 2 teams will advance to the final round tournament. Tomorrow's opponent is Shandong Luneng Taishan Football School.
So far, they have produced over 30 players for the Chinese national team and over 140 representative players including youth teams. They are also a prestigious institution with nearly 50 national tournament victories in their development program.
I think the opponent today is much higher level than us, but I want to win at all costs for the sake of overcoming the group by firmly organizing today's tasks and responses.