Match Report: J1 Week 3 FC Tokyo vs. Montedio Yamagata

J.League Division 1 Week 3
	First Half 0 – 0 Second Half 1- 0 Final 1- 0
March 21st 2009, 2PM Kickoff at Ajinomoto Stadium (Chofu, Tokyo) Attendance 20,179
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga DF 3 Hideki Sahara DF 2 Teruyuki Moniwa DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo MF 6 Tasuyuki Konno MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa MF 22 Naotake Hanyu FW 9 Cabore FW 13 Sota Hirayama	Starting Members	GK 1 Kenta Shimizu DF 14 Takuya Miyamoto DF 3 Leonard DF 23 Hidenori Ishii DF 13 Tatsuya Ishikawa MF 16 Kim Byung-Suk MF 19 Masaru Akiba MF 17 Kentaro Sato MF 7 Katsuyuki Miyazawa FW 9 Tatsuya Furuhashi FW 15 Yu Hasegawa
62′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naohiro Ishikawa) 69′ 32 Yusuke Kondo (for Cabore) 82′ 28 Takuji Yonemoto (for Naotake Hanyu)	Substitutes	53′ 11 Takuya Miyamoto (for Tomotaka Kitamura) 67′ 6 Kouhei Miyazaki (for Kim Byung-Suk) ’82 22 Takuya Sonoda (for Tatsuya Furuhashi)
55′ Naotake Hanyu	Goals
	Cautions	’57 Takuya Miyamoto ’87 Kentaro Sato
	Ejections

Report

Under a clear blue sky at Ajinomoto Stadium, FC Tokyo tasted victory for the first time this season against a persistent but ultimately outmatched Montedio Yamagata.

Though the final score isn’t necessarily indicative of it, Tokyo kept the offensive pressure on Yamagata throughout the game, outshooting the J1 rookies 12-6 and forcing 9 corner kicks to Yamagata’s 2.  Though both teams struggled to find a rhythm in the first half, as time elapsed Cabore and Ishikawa combined to produce several close chances that were either knocked away at the last second by Montedio goalkeeper Kenta Shimizu or simply missed the inside of the post by a couple feet.

Though Yamagata threatened at times, the defense anchored by Hideki Sahara finally seemed to do what they could not in the first two matches – keep Gonda mostly out of trouble.  Though they were far from perfect, the few shots that the players in yellow managed to get off were deftly handled by Gonda, including a superb save in the first half where he punched a high shot over the goal.

On offense, the team was certainly bolstered by Ishikawa’s return to the starting lineup and the first season appearance of Sota Hirayama.  Ishikawa brought the same level of energy that he contributed to the Urawa game, but the surprise of the match was definitely Hirayama.  Though he failed to score, Sota contributed thoroughly on both offense and defense, helping Tokyo win the air game and creating many chances on goal.

The lone goal of the match came in the second half, when Hanyu took a perfect cross from Cabore and sailed it over Shimizu for the score.  It was a beauty of a goal, reminiscent of Hanyu’s effort almost a year ago against Verdy.

While most of the game after that was keeping Montedio from putting together any sort of organized attack, there were a couple notable moments.  After coming on as a substitute, Yusuke Kondo barrelled through about 3 or 4 Montedio defenders before hooking his shot over the goal.  MF Takuji Yonemoto saw his first playing time coming on as a late substitute for Hanyu.  Takuji earned a post-game curtain call by the supporters after he stopped an attack by Yamagata with a superb slide tackle in the closing minutes.

With this victory the monkey is off the team’s back; particularly that of Shuichi Gonda who dove onto the grass in celebration when the match official blew his final whistle.  Gonda displayed impressive form in this match; although he’ll likely return to the bench within the next month as Shiota completes his rehabilitation, he will surely want to continue to savor the taste of a J.League victory while he can. Though a second goal would have been nice to see (yeah, how often have I said that), a rose by any other name is still worth 3 points, and Hiroshi Jofuku recieved an important win in addition to some birthday cake.

Quotes

“It was a tough game but the entire defense held its ground and managed to minimize our risks.  We’ve given away a lot of goals in set plays so that’s what we concentrated on this week.  Not allowing any goals was a big deal; there was a lot of time on the clock after Hanyus’ goal.  My heart was racing until the final whistle.  Moniwa and I were burdened with keeping that lead, so when the game ended that “guts pose” kinda just happened spontaneously.” ~ FC Tokyo goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda

“I think we’ve definitely moved past [the first two games].  This week we discussed how to position ourselves when the team is on the attack and how to manage counters effectively.  Because of that, Tokyo was able to play the kind of soccer we wanted to play, and our confidence is attached to that.  Before we were offside frequently and rushing to come up with strategy in the middle of the game.  In practice we discussed how we need to keep perservering to get the result we know we’re capable of getting, and I’m happy that we were able to do that today.”  ~ FC Tokyo defender Teriyuki Moniwa

Errata

-FC Tokyo players managed to avoid recieving any yellow cards for their first clean slate of the season.

-All other matches played on Saturday ended in draws, allowing Tokyo to catch up significantly in the standings.

-Below the Yamagata supporters stands was a banner reading “Do you remember? ’99.11.21.”  This refers to the last week of the inaugural J.League Division 2 season, when Montedio’s draw against Oita Trinita allowed FC Tokyo to secure second place in J2 and subsequent promotion to J1.  Oita would eventually earn promotion at the end of the 2002 season, while Yamagata finally earned its spot in the top division last year.