Stirring up Omiya DF, aiming for consecutive away victories

　Sec. 29 will face Omiya Ardija and ride to Komaba away. In the previous match against G Osaka, they achieved a dramatic come-from-behind victory and aim to continue their winning streak in this match. However, in this match, Kajiyama will be suspended due to accumulated yellow cards. Jean's left knee condition is also not favorable, so he will be absent. In addition, during the first half of the week, Inoha, Kajiyama, and Hirayama were absent from the U-21 Japan national team activities, and Inoha and Hirayama played the full match against China on the 25th (Wed). After joining the team, they have been adjusting with a separate training program, but their condition is a concern.

　Omiya, who is currently in 12th place, has been on a losing streak since the 20th round, with 2 draws in between. However, they won against Chiba in the previous round, and the team's situation can be said to be similar to Tokyo's. Their aim is to launch counterattacks from a solid defense centered around a 4-back formation, and in the attack, FW Alison, who joined the team at the end of August, is fitting in well. He scored his first goal in the previous round, and his form is improving. In particular, FW Kobayashi Daichi should be especially cautious, as it is no exaggeration to say that all attacks start from him. In marking FW Kobayashi Daichi, Inoha will be assigned, while Shigeno will mark the speedy FW Alison.

　Tokyo starts Baba instead of Hirayama in the starting lineup. In the attack, Toda and Ishikawa run to break through the opponent's defensive line and create chances. This is an important match to make a comeback towards the end of the season. Although it is an away game, we will go for the 3 points with aggressive play. Miyazawa starts as a central midfielder alongside Imano, his first start since the Niigata match on September 30th. Masushima is also on the bench for the first time since the C Osaka match on August 30th, and the game started with a kickoff in Omiya at 2:00 PM.

With Konno's consecutive goals in two matches, they took the lead early on.

　The game started off with a bang. In less than a minute, Toda, who was aiming for a breakthrough on the left side of the opponent's field, was fouled and awarded a free kick. In the first minute, Imano jumped forward and scored a header, perfectly converting Miyazawa's kick, and took the lead with his second consecutive goal!

　At 8 minutes, Omiya gives a free kick to Tokyo in the central area of the field. Omiya FW Ohashi's kick flew in front of Doi, but he couldn't catch it. DF Hato shot the ball that spilled into the right area. It narrowly crossed the goal and avoided a goal. After surviving the pinch, Miyazawa becomes the starting point, Toda and Ishikawa run to penetrate the opponent's defense from behind. Baba also actively aims for a shot. Baba's shot at 12 minutes had power and was on target, but it was punched away by the opponent's GK. At 13 minutes, from Inoue's cross on the right side, Toda closed in near the goal, but the shot didn't hit.

　However, Tokyo was unable to keep up with the rhythm and gradually Omiya took control as time passed, resulting in a back-and-forth exchange. In the 20th minute, Omiya FW Allison crossed the ball with a shooting intention and FW Kobayashi Daichi jumped in, but Tsuchiho caught it firmly. In the 26th minute, Baba intercepted the ball in the opponent's territory. He quickly launched a counterattack and passed it to Lucas. However, the decisive shot from the right side of the penalty area hit the opponent's DF and resulted in a left corner kick. From Baba's corner kick, Inoha from the far side took a shot but missed. In the 36th minute, Omiya connected in front of the Tokyo goal, and left MF Fujimoto dribbled past Imano and took a shot, but Tsuchiho made the save.

　At the 40th minute, Toda and Baba stuck to the left side and gained possession of the ball. Baba then floated a pass to the front line. Ishikawa ran in and directly connected with Toda's cross, but the opponent's defender blocked it. At the 43rd minute, Omiya defender Hato's right cross was headed by central forward Kobayashi, but it went wide to the right. While creating chances, they couldn't score an additional goal, but they remained focused on defense and went into the second half with a one-point lead.

Everyone concentrated and defended against Omiya's fierce attacks, achieving a shutout and consecutive victories!

　In the second half, after going for the second goal, in the 46th minute, Fujiyama lost the ball due to a mistake and Omiya right MF Hisanaga took a decisive shot. Although it narrowly missed the frame, in the 50th minute, Shigeki Mogi had an accident injuring his thigh and went out of the pitch. He was replaced by Miura, and Konno was moved to the final line to mark Omiya FW Allison.

　Solidly defending and aiming for counterattacks, but in the 52nd minute, Lucas seized the ball in the opponent's territory and launched a quick attack. Baba's shot from the loose ball of Omiya DF hit the left post... In the 57th minute, Toda, who had run out to the front line, shook the net, but it was offside. Tokyo was able to connect the attack by snatching the ball from Omiya DF who defended deep, but Omiya also launched counterattacks using long balls. In the 71st minute, when a through pass came out to Omiya's front line player Kobayashi, Doi jumped out but couldn't catch it. The goal was wide open, but Fujiyama persevered and defended.

　In the midst of a back-and-forth counterattack, Omiya introduced tall FW Morita in the 77th minute. They launched a fierce attack with a power play using a front three. In response, Tokyo brought in Mashima. Mashima marked FW Morita, Imakawa marked FW Alison, and Inoha marked FW Kobayashi as a countermeasure. However, the momentum was still with Omiya. In the 82nd minute, a right cross found FW Morita in the far post, who delivered a perfect header. However, Doi stopped it with a high jump and cleared it with his left hand!

　In the final stages, Tokyo's clearances were connected, and Omiya MF Hashimoto, who came on as a substitute, kept delivering crosses one after another. Tokyo was unable to push up the defensive line and the game was dominated by defensive play. Although there were tense moments, in the end, Lucas also returned to defend the goal and no goals were conceded until the final whistle! They achieved a clean sheet victory for the first time since the opening match against Oita. Regardless of the fact that they couldn't dominate the ball and attack, it can be considered a commendable game that they held the opponents to zero goals with the concentration and tenacity typical of Tokyo. They secured a valuable 3 points away from home and continued their winning streak.

　[Player Comments]《Konno》"(For the goal) I tried to move to shake off the marker because if I stayed still, the opponent would stick to me. Once I was free, I was able to score. After that, I was marked by the opponent's defensive midfielder, so I tried to run to places that would make it difficult for them and took advantage of the gaps to move forward. If I went into a defensive mindset, I would end up getting scored on, and I wanted to attack to get another goal, but I dropped back to the defense line after Shigeno was substituted. From then on, I only thought about not conceding a goal. I received instructions to mark Allison, and at first, I was nervous, but I think the man-marking worked. We faced a fierce attack, but I thought it was okay as long as they were crossing from the outside. I was only careful about being caught out and having a shot taken on a quick break. The forwards were also working hard, and everyone was focused."《Inoha》"In the end, the three defenders were marking Omiya's three forwards, almost in a man-to-man situation. I had been watching forward Kobayashi since the first half, so I was focused on not letting him do his job. I think it's commendable that we finished without conceding, but we still have a long way to go in terms of connecting play. We won today, but I don't think we would win against a higher-level team in today's football. I want to play better football."

　[Summary of Manager Kuramata's Press Conference] "Regarding the result of 1-0, it was the first time since I took over that we were able to keep a clean sheet, so I think that was good. Omiya creates a defensive block, so we aimed to exploit the space behind them from the beginning of the first half. We earned a free kick and defended the goal we scored. In the middle of the first half, Omiya was picking up loose balls in the midfield, so we made the players aware of that in the second half. We defended firmly and adopted a counter-attacking strategy, but we couldn't score a second goal, and in the end, we managed to defend a one-goal lead through a power play. The reason we moved Imano to the backline was because we were wary of the speed of FW Allison. We expected Omiya to bring in FW Morita, who is strong in aerial duels, in the final stages, so we planned to assign Mashima to mark him."

　[Omiya - Coach Miura's Press Conference] "We conceded a goal in the first minute, which was a very bad way to start the match, and the reason was a set piece. We had been practicing defense on set pieces for the past week, so the players were disappointed, and the first 15 minutes were very poor. After that, I think we managed to recover to some extent and progressed the game while creating chances. However, it was a situation where it was difficult to maintain our '4-4-2 solid defense and then attack' approach. I thought the second half would be at our pace, but if we forget about the conceded goal and don't fight in our own way, Tokyo would instead defend and counterattack. If we conceded a second goal there, it would become even more difficult, so we had to be careful and proceed with the match. I think we had plenty of chances, but we couldn't convert them, or it was a match where we could say Tokyo defended well. Tokyo took the lead, and it turned into a situation where players like Ishikawa and Lucas were able to run in the best form of Tokyo's counterattack. It's true that the flow of the game didn't go as we wanted. However, considering today's flow, we had decisive chances, and I thought it could be a game where we could score and turn it around."