This was a great match spoiled by the team’s quick and utter collapse following the ejection of Bruno Quadros 13 minutes into the second half. Though Tokyo managed to control the flow of the game for most of the first half and into the second, going down to 10 men proved to be the catalyst as Kawasaki took over and FCT quickly became demoralized. It was painful to watch, quite frankly. Definitely a case where one decision by the referee can affect the entire game, and nobody likes to see that. Had Bruno not gotten a stupid red card (I didn’t even bother to check the video; Matsu over at TRSN had no problem with it so it was probably deserved.
On the plus side, the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra live before the game was pretty rad, so there’s that.
The game was on some satellite channel so we couldn’t watch it, but as the team is waiting for several players to return from injury (Cabore, Tokunaga, Ishikawa, Kajiyama, to be precise) this game was a perfect excuse to get some of the younger players more playing time – partciularly Soutan Tanabe and Kenta Mukuhara. While a true exorcism of the JEF demon may have to wait until a league game, this win boosts FCT to 2nd in Group B and in position to advance to the next round.
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 Waywhen 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
59′ Takuji Yonemoto
60′ Yuhei Tokunaga
87′ Satoru Asari
Cautions
13′ Yosuke Kataoka
Ejections
Report
Sadly I wasn’t able to watch the match so I didn’t get to see Ishikawa’s hat trick… this is a trend, as almost any time I miss a home game we take home points.
Sadly I didn’t get to watch the match as I had a show in Shinjuku to shoot, but the box score pretty much says it all. Edmilson let his temper get the best of him and got his dumb ass ejected, Oita decided to play physical for the second half and amassed about as many cautions as a team can amass in a single game, and a stupid tackle by Daisuke Takahashi in stoppage time allowed Yohei Kajiyama the chance to win the game with a PK. You can read Matsu’s more detailed report over at the Rising Sun here.
Still waiting on the team to score a second goal but maybe the Golden Week Sprint will be just what the doctor ordered.
19′ Own Goal
25′ Lucas Severino
47′ Leandro
68′ Cho Jae-Jin
Goals
79′ Naohiro Ishikawa
81′ Tatsuya Suzuki
Cautions
31′ Naotake Hanyu
Ejections
Report
No report as I didn’t watch the game, but this should be noted as the first game of the season that Tokyo scored more than one goal so I guess that’s progress?
Fuck it. You want to know what happened at the game, go watch a tape of last year’s Verdy match at Kokuritsu and imagine different-colored uniforms you’ll see pretty much the exact same thing. FCT scores first and then fails to capitalize on its many chances thereafter. In the second half the team’s speed and agility seem to fade to about the level of molasses, and the opposing team gets a goal to tie it up and then a clincher in the waning minutes of the game to win it. Shameful. Absolutely shameful. I’m not even going to discuss JEF’s overaggressive play or the poor refereeing. Shouldn’t have mattered.
Hell, now that I think of it, you don’t even have to imagine different-colored uniforms, both Verdy and JEF have white away kits.
The booing started last night. At this rate it might continue for a while.
Sorry, readers – with my work starting this week I’ve been too busy to write a full report, but suffice to say that this was a hard-fought match and if a ball or two had gone a foot lower and if Kashima’s GK Hitoshi Sogahata wasn’t such a tool, we might have gotten a draw (which I think we deserved) or even a win.
For completeness sake I’m going to backdate this entry. Sorry for the delay!
By all accounts, this was an ugly game. I only watched on TV (and I missed some play here and there as I had to finesse my cracked copy of EyeTV into not being a bitch), but given how hard the rain was pouring I’m not altogether surprised.
Again, a tale of two halves. Jubilo challenged a lot in the first half (and looked very threatening most of the time) while Tokyo found its form and took control in the second half, finally deciding it with a beautiful one-touch goal by Akamine off a pass by Tatsuya Suzuki… the kind of goal that everyone’s been waiting for him to make.
So what was the difference this week? Other than the fact that Jubilo apparently can’t hit the side of a barn even if a bullseye was painted on the side, Gonda showed some incredible reflexes, blocking several shots at nearly point-blank range with an outstretched hand, as if he were catching a fly with chopsticks. The boy’s finally settled down and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
It was not the greatest game of all, but it was a win and 3 points (I seem to be saying this a lot, don’t I). Tokyo will not win their next game against Kashima unless they level up a lot in the next 6 days, but two league wins in a row will hopefully continue to boost their confidence.
Aishiteru-Tokyo.com was launched in April of 2008 when dokool decided to troll the Rising Sun Forums and was instead invited by other English-language J.League bloggers to start his own.
About the Writer
dokool lives in Tokyo, Japan, where he spends his nights at punk shows and his weekends at FCT matches (and more punk shows. He can be found at most home games (and reasonably accessible away games) in the LA12 cheering section, often snapping away with his DSLR.
