Play a game with confidence against Yokohama FM and bring victory to yourself

　In Sec. 30 of the league, all matches will be held on Sunday, facing Yokohama F. Marinos. They will be playing away. In the previous match, they showcased dynamic play in both offense and defense, taking the lead, but lost momentum in the second half and conceded a goal from a set piece. Recently, they have been under pressure in the closing stages, which is a point of reflection, but Coach Okuma expressed his determination for the future, saying, "Including the substitutes, I want to gather the individual power as the team's power and draw in victory." Yokohama FM, on the other hand, is currently in 6th place with 48 points. After the last match, defenders Nakazawa, Kurihara, and midfielder Kano have been injured, putting them in a difficult situation, but they have changed their formation to a 4-3-3 with MF Matsuda as a lone defensive midfielder in the last two matches. The midfield and forward lines have been revitalized, achieving consecutive victories. In this match, they will use center-backs Ogura and Hato. Originally, they have talent from midfield to the front line, maintaining a high ball possession rate. Tokyo will be without Morishige due to accumulated warnings in this match. Kim Yong-gun, who is participating in the Asian Games, will also continue to be absent, so Tokunaga and Konno will serve as center-backs, while Yonemoto and the recently returned Kajiwara will form a double defensive midfield. The key to defense will be to apply pressure from the front line and prevent the opponent from entering the goal area as much as possible. Recently, the side attacks have been functioning well, so if they can exploit the space on the side of Yokohama's lone defensive midfielder, chances should increase. Currently, they are in a tough situation, sitting in 15th place and unable to break free from the relegation battle, but the players have stated, "There’s no point in calculating wins. We will fight with only the thought of earning points in the match in front of us," and they are determined to take each match seriously. The match started at 14:03 with Tokyo's kickoff at Nissan Stadium, where the sun began to shine through the cloudy sky.

Yonemoto steals the ball, Hirayama marks the 500th goal in J1 Tokyo and takes the lead

　From the start, we quickly switched from defense to offense. In the 4th minute, a cross was initially contained by the opposing DF, but Yamanaka pressed aggressively against Yokohama FM, stealing the ball from MF Nakamura. The ball went to Hirayama, who positioned himself forward. Hirayama made a move to evade the opposing DF just before the area and scored with his left foot! He marked his 500th J1 goal in Tokyo and took the lead early on. Just after the goal, in the 8th minute, we regained the ball in midfield, and Ishikawa, who drifted left, dribbled past the opposing DF, delivering a backward pass to the center. Hirayama took a decisive shot, but it went straight to the GK. In the 24th minute, from a corner kick, Kajiyama on the left found Yamanaka in the center, who boldly aimed for a long shot, but it lacked power. After that, we allowed Yokohama FM to dominate possession and faced several attacks, mainly from set plays, but we defended calmly and transitioned quickly. Starting from Hirayama and Ishikawa, we connected to counterattacks. In the 38th minute, from a corner kick, Hirayama acted as a decoy in the center, allowing Konno to break free, followed by Hanyu and Kajiyama, who crowded the goal area and attempted a shot, but it was cleared by the Yokohama DF just before the goal... In the end, Tokunaga took a shot from the left area, but it went wide. In a back-and-forth development, both teams failed to capitalize on their chances, and we went into halftime with a one-goal lead.

平山 scores a sharp winning goal to pull even with the tie! Pushing Yokohama FM away

　In the second half, Yokohama FM gained momentum and launched a counterattack. In the 46th minute, from a passing play in the front line, MF Shimizu sent a through ball into the area, and FW Ono utilized his speed to break through. In the 49th minute, Yokohama FM's MF Nakamura sent a long pass from his own half to the front line. Shimizu ran for it, but Tokunaga managed to escape with a throw-in. From this left throw-in, the play continued, and left-back Tanaka took a shot from the middle, but Gonda caught it. In the 53rd minute, Shimizu dropped a left cross from Yokohama FM, and central FW Yamase tried to take a shot, but the Tokyo defense covered him tightly and suppressed the attempt. In the 55th minute, Ricardinho was brought in to replace Oguro. In the 56th minute, FW Handa came in for Yokohama FM's FW Yamase. Then, in the 59th minute, FW Handa, just after coming on, was held up in the right area and delivered a ground cross to the overlapping full-back Amano. From the scramble in front of the goal, FW Ono was there to finish it off... The Tokyo defense, which had been focused until then, was caught off guard and conceded the equalizer. However, without looking down, they calmly counterattacked with resilient defense. In the 66th minute, from a development by Kajiyama, Ishikawa initiated a counterattack, and Hanyu brought the ball into the area, trying to return it again, but the opposing defense blocked it. In the 79th minute, Hanyu on the right side made a pinpoint side change to Hirayama on the left front line. Hirayama passed to Ricardinho, who cleverly evaded the opposing defense's mark and dropped the ball, allowing Hirayama, who followed around, to score with his right foot!! The determination not to give up, along with the speedy and precise play from Hanyu, Ricardinho, and Hirayama, led to the go-ahead goal. Just after that, in the 80th minute, Nakamura on the left side sent a vertical pass to Ricardinho in the center, who then passed to Hirayama in the area, and Ishikawa in the center of the area connected with a decisive shot, but it went just wide... After missing this chance, they faced a fierce counterattack from Yokohama FM in the closing stages, but in the 89th minute, they brought on Shigematsu for Hanyu. They pressed from the front to try to regain the flow. Then, in the 90th minute, they faced a wave of attacks from Yokohama FM's corner kick, with shots coming one after another, but the Tokyo defense blocked each one with their bodies. They showed a united and passionate performance to hold on and finished the match. They secured a valuable victory away from home. 【Player Comments】《Hirayama》 "For the first goal, Yone stole the ball, and we were able to launch a quick transition attack. If Yone can win the ball in a high position, it creates a big chance. It paid off. The same goes for the second goal, but I aimed to take a controlled shot. The second goal came from a good pass back from Ricardinho. Recently, we've been working on our coordination in practice matches, understanding each other's movements, and I think we've started to mesh well. Right now, I'm playing desperately. The situation remains tough. I want to win all the remaining matches, but I believe it's important to prepare well." 《Yonemoto》 "What matters most right now is the result above all. I'm glad we could win. Yokohama FM's MF Shunsuke Nakamura can hold the ball, so I was thinking of pressing as high up as possible. Especially at the start of the match, I wanted to go in hard, and it went as planned. After that, I thought if we could close in tightly and force them to lower their heads, we could neutralize their strengths. However, in the second half, we dropped back a bit and lost control of the pace. I want to correct that moving forward." 【Coach Okuma's Press Conference Summary】 "I think we are gradually improving with each match. If possible, I want to keep the goals conceded to zero, but soccer is a sport where you always concede at least one goal on average. I told the players that they need to overcome that understanding to pull off a win, and gradually they have been able to overcome it, including mentality and condition. What we achieved in today's match is not overconfidence but something we can have confidence in. However, the situation in the standings has not changed at all. I want to keep the good parts while leaving behind any overconfidence in this stadium and prepare from scratch for the next match. I want to approach the remaining matches as if they are the first match." 【Yokohama FM Coach Kimura's Press Conference Summary】 "It's frustrating not to win at crucial moments. I think we had a lot of half-hearted plays where one pass was slightly off, both in attack and defense. Tokyo is compact, so we discussed in the meeting about spreading the play vertically and horizontally and exploiting the gaps in between, but we didn't manage to spread it vertically well. We were quite aware of the horizontal play. In defense, we were also half-hearted in marking transitions and not getting easily beaten. I don't want to make excuses about the absence of our two center-backs, but there were makeshift aspects, and we lacked combination and communication. We couldn't push up the back line, and we were exploited there, unable to clear the ball most of the time. That might be one of the reasons for our defeat."