Match Report: J1 Round 12: Yokohama F. Marinos vs. FC Tokyo

J.League Division 1 Week 12
	First Half 0 – 0 Second Half 0 – 1 Final 0 – 1
May 16th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Nissan Stadium (Yokohama, Kanagawa) Attendance 20,349
GK 21 Hiroki Ikura DF 5 Yusuke Tanaka DF 7 Yuzo Kurihara DF 22 Yuji Nakazawa DF 13 Takanobu Komiyama MF 10 Koji Yamase MF 3 Naoki Matsuda MF 17 Shingo Hyodo FW 14 Kenta Kano FW 9 Yazuma Watanabe FW 11 Daisuke Sakata	Starting Members	GK 20 Shuichi Gonda DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga DF 4 Bruno DF 6 Yasuyuki Konno DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto MF 40 Tatsuya Suzuki MF 22 Naotake Hanyu FW 24 Shingo Akamine FW 13 Sota Hirayama
70′ 19 Manabu Saito (for Daisuke Sakata) 70′ 20 Kota Mizunuma (for Kenta Kano) 77′ 15 Kim Kun-Hoan (for Kazuma Watanabe)	Substitutes	50′ 14 Hokuto Nakamura (for Yohei Kajiyama) 73′ 19 Yohei Otake (for Shingo Akamine) 85′ 7 Satoru Asari (for Tatsuya Suzuki)
	Goals	62′ Hokuto Nakamura
8′ Yusuke Tanaka 52′ Takanobu Komiyama	Cautions
	Ejections

Report

With a cool breeze blowing in from the bay, the weather was perfect at Nissan Stadium as FC Tokyo traveled to take on Yokohama F. Marinos in a Saturday-night clash.

With Cabore and Ishikawa out with injury, Jofuku opted to put Akamine up front with FC Tokyo’s resident monk, the newly-skinheaded Sota Hirayama.  At midfield were regulars Kajiyama and Hanyu along with Yonemoto and Suzuki, and on defense was another slight switch; Nagatomo started on the right side instead of his usual left while Bruno and Konno held ground in the center.

Hirayama seemed intent to prove his seemingly newfound devotion to higher play, racing to the ball and fighting for several headers in the first half.  Both teams struggled to find their rhythm but it seemed that Tokyo had something resembling offensive control for most of the first half.  While Gonda had no problem with the few shots that did come his way, he somewhat disconcertingly seemed a bit unsure of himself when it came to clearing, at times taking several seconds longer to consider where to punt the ball than anyone behind the goal was comfortable with.

The second half started with a Tokyo attack stifled by dodging officiating – with the line judge pointing adamantly towards the corner indicating that Tokyo deserved a corner kick, the referee ignored the protest of the players as he urged Marinos goalkeeper  Hiroki Ikura to take the goal kick, stifling Tokyo’s momentum.

5 minutes into the second half, Jofuku made the call everyone was anticipating as he substituted Hokuto Nakamura for an injured Yohei Kajiyama.  Following a longer than expected recovery from an injury, this was Nakamura’s first appearance in an FC Tokyo uniform as well as his first J.League game in roughly two and a half years (when Avispa Fukuoka lost the 2006 promotion/division series to Vissel Kobe).  Both the fans and the team (particularly Nakamura’s former teammate Hirayama) seemed to gain a second wind as Tokyo again pressed on with the attack.

10 minutes later, a Tokyo corner kick set the stage for the most dramatic score all season.   The ball sailed over the heads of three players and seemingly landed at the feet of Hirayama in the penalty box, who somehow got it to Nakamura, who blasted in a shot from the top of the box that kissed the left post and went in for the score.  Matsu over at the Rising Sun claims that Hirayama, in a rare display of teamwork, passed the ball to Nakamura as opposed to taking a shot for himself and missing wide like he always does.  Perhaps I’m underestimating the average pro player’s level of self-awareness in that sort of situation, but I’m not entirely convinced that Hirayama’s actions were anything but reflex and nerves.  In any case, he did have the self-awareness necessary to Get The Hell Out Of The Way when Nakamura took his shot, and that’s good enough for me.

But don’t take my word for it, here’s the instant replay:

Tokyo continued to press the attack for the next 20 minutes or so, including a couple great chances that were thwarted either by solid goalkeeping by Iwata or hesitancy by the Tokyo strikers, particularly Hanyu on one agonizing sequence.

Late in the match, FCT seemed to tire and Yokohama countered one last time, culminating in a superb display of reflexes by Gonda.  From then on it was all about clock-killing and Tokyo eventually took a win and three points, ending the weekend in 9th place.

Quotes

“My old high school teammate (MF 17) Shingo Hyogo is on F. Marinos, so there was certainly a feeling of not wanting to lose.  I came into the game as a somewhat forward position so I definitely wanted to score.  I’m very happy that I got the goal and I’m incredibly pleased that we won due to my goal.  From now on my target is to be able to play from the beginning of the match.” ~ Hokuto Nakamura

“We haven’t been playing winning football in the last few matches so both the players and myself considered today’s game a must-win and that’s how they comported themselves on the pitch.  Through the first 10 games we gave up the most goals in J.League, through the next 10 games I want us to give up the fewest.  To accomplish that won’t just take improving our defense, but also extending our posession time and finishing our attack.

“Thanks to Nakamura’s shot we were able to take home three points and as a team we’re certainly thankful for that, but if you look at his ability we’d like to see him get a 2nd goal as well.  His defense and his physical strength still need improvement so I don’t want him to feel satisfied yet.” ~ Hiroshi Jofuku