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

　The 30th round of the league was held on Sunday, with all matches played. Yokohama F.Marinos faced off against the opponent. They played away. In the previous round, they displayed dynamic plays both in attack and defense, taking the lead. However, they lost momentum in the second half and conceded a goal from a set piece. Lately, they have been under pressure in the final stages of the game, which is a point of reflection. However, Coach Okuma expressed his determination to gather the individual power of each player, including substitutes, as the team's power and bring victory in the future. On the other hand, Yokohama FM is currently in 6th place with 48 points. After the previous round, defenders Nakazawa, Kurihara, and midfielder Karino suffered injuries one after another, which can be considered a difficult situation. However, in the last two matches, they changed their formation to a 4-3-3 with Matsuda as a lone defensive midfielder. The midfield and forward line have become more active, resulting in consecutive wins. In this round, they will use Ogura and Hato as center-backs. Originally, they have talented players in the midfield and forward line, and they have a high ball possession rate. Tokyo, on the other hand, will be without Morishige due to accumulated yellow cards in this round. Kim Young Gwon, who is participating in the Asian Games, will continue to be absent. Therefore, Tokunaga and Konno will play as center-backs, and Yonemoto and Kajiyama, who have just returned from suspension, will play as a double defensive midfielders. The key in defense is to press from the front and prevent the opponent from entering the goal area as much as possible. Lately, their side attacks have been functioning well, so if they can exploit the space on the side of Yokohama FM's lone defensive midfielder, their chances will increase. Currently, they are in a tough situation, unable to break free from the battle for survival in 15th place. However, the players said, "There's no point in calculating the number of wins. We will fight with the sole focus of earning points in the upcoming match," and they will fight each game with importance. The match started at 14:03 with Tokyo's kickoff at the Nissan Stadium, where the sun began to shine from the cloudy sky.

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

　From the start, they quickly switched from defense to offense and connected their attacks. In the 4th minute, the cross was initially blocked by the opposing defender, but Yamamoto aggressively pressed the Yokohama FM midfielder Nakamura and stole the ball. The ball was passed to Hirayama, who was positioned in front. Hirayama skillfully evaded the opposing defender near the area and scored with his left foot! This marked the 500th goal in J1 for Tokyo, giving them an early lead. In the 8th minute after the goal, they won the ball in midfield, and Ishikawa dribbled past the opposing defenders on the left side and made a minus pass to the center. Hirayama took a decisive shot, but it went straight to the goalkeeper. In the 24th minute, from a corner kick, Kajiyama on the left side passed to Yamamoto in the center, who took a bold shot, but it lacked power. After that, they allowed Yokohama FM to dominate the ball and were attacked mainly through set pieces. However, they defended calmly and quickly counterattacked, using Hirayama and Ishikawa as their starting points. In the 38th minute, from a corner kick, Hirayama acted as a decoy in the center, and Imakawa, followed by Hayashi and Kajiyama, crowded the goal area and attempted shots in the midst of a scramble, but the Yokohama defenders cleared the ball just before it reached the goal... In the final moments, Tokunaga took a shot from the left side, but it went wide. Both teams had their chances in the back-and-forth game, but with a one-goal lead, they entered the second half.

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 made a run, 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, MF Shimizu dropped a left cross from Yokohama FM, and central FW Yamase tried to take a shot, but the Tokyo defense covered him well and contained the attack. In the 55th minute, Ricardinho was brought on 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 kept in the right area and delivered a ground cross to the overlapping full-back Amano. In the ensuing scramble in front of the goal, FW Ono was there to finish it off... The Tokyo defense, which had been focused until then, allowed the equalizer. However, without looking down, they counterattacked with calm and 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. Hirayama passed to Ricardinho, who cleverly evaded the opposing defense's mark and dropped the ball, and Hirayama, who followed around, scored with his right foot!! They succeeded in taking the lead thanks to the never-give-up spirit and the speedy and accurate play of Hanyu, Ricardinho, and Hirayama. Immediately after, in the 80th minute, Nakamura on the left side sent a vertical pass to Ricardinho in the center, who then sent a pass 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 the time was up. 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 and understanding each other's movements, and I think we've started to mesh well. Right now, I'm playing with all my might. The situation remains tough. I want to win all the remaining matches, but I think it's important to prepare well." 《Yonemoto》"What is important 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 from the front as much as possible. Especially at the start of the match, I wanted to go in hard, and we were able to do that as planned. After that, I thought if we could close in tightly and make them lower their heads, we could neutralize their strengths. However, in the second half, we were pushed 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 number of 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 turn into confidence. However, the situation in terms of rankings 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 couldn't effectively spread it vertically. We were quite aware of the horizontal play. In defense, the handover of marks and not being easily evaded were also half-hearted. I don't want to make excuses about the absence of our two center-backs, but there were makeshift parts, and we lacked combination and communication. We couldn't push up the back line, and we were exploited there, unable to clear most of the attacks. That might be one of the reasons for our defeat.