Nabisco Cup kicks off. Seize the opportunity!

　The Nabisco Cup will also start this season. This year, it will be held by 16 teams from J1, divided into 4 groups. First, a home and away qualifying league will be held, and the top 2 teams from each group will advance to the knockout tournament. It will be a long tournament until autumn, but this qualifying league will be held during the J1 league's break period and alongside the activities of the Japanese national team. This tournament is eagerly awaited for the emergence of "New Heroes".

　FC Tokyo, which is in Group B, will play against Shimizu S-Pulse in the opening match. The starting lineup consists of DF=Kaji, Jean, Ito, and Fujiyama. In the midfield, Shimohira and Miyazawa. Ishikawa, who recently transferred from Yokohama F.Marinos, is on the right MF, and Toda is on the left. Kelly is in the attacking midfield position, with Fukuda as the lone striker. Following the 7th league match, the team approached this game without a substitute goalkeeper, as Coach Hara stated, "I want to convey an attacking attitude to the players."

Tokyo shows an aggressive attitude and takes the lead with Miyazawa's powerful shot!

　From the beginning, Kaji creates an attacking shape from the right side with aggressive movements. In the 3rd minute, he sends a perfect cross in front of the goal, but it narrowly misses Toda. In the 6th minute, Miyazawa shoots after connecting a free kick obtained on the right side. In the 11th minute, Kelly and Fukuda connect with Miyazawa's side change, and finally Miyazawa takes a middle shot, showing a positive attitude towards attacking and demonstrating a good attacking shape.

　On the other hand, at the 17th minute, FW Yokoyama, who ran up to the front line, hit the post, and Baron, who ran in from behind, took a shot. It narrowly missed to the left of the goal, but it showed the fear of taking even a momentary chance and creating a scoring opportunity.

　However, in the 19th minute, Tokyo's Fukuda accurately received a pass from Kelly on the right side and ran into the goal. Miyazawa swung his left foot and took a powerful shot that hit the crossbar, but the rebound hit the goalkeeper's back and went into the goal! This goal disrupted Shimizu's attempt to counterattack and gave Tokyo the lead.

Ishikawa's impressive play shortly after transferring shines and steals an additional point!

　In the 20th minute immediately after the opening goal, Ishikawa dribbled in from the right side and took a shot. In the 22nd minute, this time Fujiyama from the left side attacked and won a corner kick. In the 25th minute, a cross from Fukuda, who ran behind the defense after receiving a pass from Kaji, went up with excellent timing, and Kelly ran in and took a shot after dropping the ball. The ball missed above the bar, but it threatened the Shizuoka goal.

　There were scenes where the ball was lost due to a lack of coordination, but there were also numerous instances of a combination play attempting to attack, such as a through pass from Ishikawa to Fukuda, a cross from Toda to Ishikawa, and a pass from Kaji to Fukuda. The defense also remained focused, and even Baron's header shot in the 42nd minute was saved by Doi with a corner kick.

　And just before the end of the first half in the 44th minute, Ishikawa broke through on the right side and received a pass from Toda. He then dribbled with speed and faced the goalkeeper one-on-one. Finally, he drew the defender and sent a final pass to the center, where Kelly scored a goal. They scored an additional goal at the best possible time and headed into the second half.

Baba and Fukuda get the third goal from a perfect combination! Fresh

　Shortly after the start of the second half, Shimizu MF Sawato took a chance and took a shot, daringly attempting a counterattack. However, there was no "fear" for Shimizu, who had lost representative players such as Mitsudomoe and Ichikawa, and Tokyo's defense remained calm and responded. They did not allow any decisive chances to be created. In the 61st minute, Baron struck a heading shot from the long hang time of Shimizu's right side MF Hiramatsu's cross, but Doi made a save just before it could go in. Supported by the good play of the defense, Tokyo controlled the ball.

　On the contrary, as the time to keep the ball increased, the opportunities for shooting decreased. In the 68th minute, Tadashi BABA was substituted for Toda, and in the 73rd minute, Kei ISHIKAWA was substituted for Hoshi. By using substitutions effectively, the attacking posture remains unchanged.

　And in the 78th minute, Tadashi BABA, seeing no pressure in the midfield, dribbled up and sent a perfect through pass that seemed to guide Hiroshi FUKUDA, who was trying to break through the defense. Fukuda calmly finished this ball and scored a goal! The combination of Baba and Fukuda, who had just returned from injury, created a delightful additional point and pushed Shimizu away.

　In injury time, Ito and Shimizu MF Sawato tangled in the penalty area and gave away a penalty kick, but Sawato's shot hit the crossbar. Helped by the opponent's mistake, we achieved a comfortable victory with a score of 3-0!

　In particular, young players who were given opportunities by Manager Hara played freely and stretched themselves. And they produced "results" perfectly, making the best start in the first match of the Nabisco Cup.

[Summary of the press conference by Coach Hara] "It feels like we won after a long time (bitter smile). We had many injured players, and although the performance was not bad, we couldn't score goals and kept conceding on the counter-attack in the previous matches. However, I told the players that the direction is not bad at all, and we should continue playing our current style of soccer and score when we have the chance. I also emphasized the need to be more tenacious when defending against counter-attacks. Instead of changing our attacking style just because we lost or conceded goals, we approached this Nabisco Cup with the intention of continuing our attacking soccer. I was worried because we couldn't score in the first half today, but Miyazawa scored a goal and Ishikawa broke free and scored an additional goal just before the end of the first half, which I think was a good performance. It is true that S-Pulse had many injured players and their overall strength was lower than usual. However, winning the first match, especially with assists from Ishikawa and Baba, and Fukuda scoring a goal, shows that the young players in the team are improving, and I think we had a good start to the Nabisco Cup."