FC Tokyo v Sapporo: Preview

 J2 Matchday 3

While the 3-0 loss to Chiba last Sunday was difficult to take, on the run of play the scoreline was harsh on us, and we have the perfect opportunity to bounce back tomorrow at home to Sapporo. Eight weeks have passed since the first home game, and while crowds were down across the board all over the J.League last weekend, I expect the Tokyo faithful will be out in droves, making Tokyo Bairn's job of picking first in Guess the Crowd quite tough.

US
You know my feelings about Yuhei Tokunaga in midfield...I've not seen El Golazo today so I have no idea if he will start there again (although I have a horrible feeling he probably will), but when I publish a formation in previews its the team I WANT us to start with, as you can't legislate for stubborn managers who persist with using players out of position.

In this game, and not just for sentimental reasons, I think its obvious that Kazumasa Uesato should start in the holding role alongside Casual, with Tokunaga sliding back to his natural position, right back. Its harsh on Kenta Mukuhara, who had a strong game against Chiba, and some might argue that Muk offers a lot more going forward than Tok and would be a better all-round option given a straight choice between the two, but it appears that Tok is 'un-droppable'.

Anyway, I'm wasting far too much energy blabbing on about Tokunaga, lets move on to Roberto Cesar! The Salad's second half display at Chiba was good, he looks a very dangerous player with the ball at his feet, and again, because this is the XI I want, he should start alongside Daiki Takamatsu.

Gas Talk Episode 4

A big hisashiburi to all Gas Talk listeners from myself and Dan from Aishiteru Tokyo. We met up on Wednesday evening, and got through almost an hour of FC Tokyo discussion. Obviously there was quite a lot of ground to cover, with plenty happening at the club during the six week layoff.

The rundown (58 and a half minutes):

• Part 1: the lay-off: injuries and the revised fixture list;
• Part 2: (from about 12:30) Chiba 3-0 FC Tokyo;
• Part 3: (from about 40 mins in, maybe!) how we might set-up in the absence of Hirayama & Yonemoto; the club's sponsorship situation, and the three games coming up.

You can listen on the player below, download the mp3 yourself by clicking on the Gas Talk logo to the right, or find us on iTunes by searching "Gas Talk" - if you already subscribe it's there waiting for you!

 Enjoy.

Chiba 3-0 FC Tokyo

J2 Matchday 2

The J.League resumed this past weekend, but a casual glance at the scoreline from FC Tokyo's first game back would seem to indicate the players thought they had another weekend off. In truth though, until Chiba's first goal in the 77th minute, we looked good value to at least hang on for a point, having wasted two glorious chances earlier in the second half. But the Chiba player we feared the most in the lead up to the game, Tor Hogne Aarøy, finally had his way, putting them in front and then adding the gloss with the third in the dying minutes.

In my Preview last Friday I said "there [was] no doubt whatsoever about the 'keeper and back four," but I clearly didn't factor in the possibility that Kiyoshi Okuma would channel Hiroshi Jofuku and think that playing Yuhei Tokunaga as a holding midfielder was a good idea, despite having the entire 2010 season available as a reference that it wasn't. And despite having Naotake Hanyu and the fit-again Kazumasa Uesato - actual midfielders(!) - on the bench.

I've said enough about what I think of Tok playing in midfield - if you read any of my Nine Months of Hell... series at the end of last season you know my feelings there - but on a different point I think the choice of two out-and-out holding players sends out the wrong message in a season when we should be going out to attack teams and impose ourselves on games, rather than worrying too much on restricting opponents. Far better, surely, to include a more creative player alongside Takuji Yonemoto: the Kofu practice game the previous Saturday was a perfect example of that, when Hanyu and Yohei Kajiyama worked well in a central three with Yone.

Anyway, Tokunaga's selection instead of Roswell in the centre of the park meant that Kenta Mukuhara slotted in at right back, but otherwise the team was the same as I'd predicted and was widely expected: Gonda; Mukuhara, Morishige, Konno, Abe; Tatsuya, Tokunaga, Casual, Yone, Yazawa; Takamatsu, with Shiota, North, Uesato, Hanyu, Hokuto, Otake and The Salad on the bench.

Chiba v FC Tokyo: Preview

J2 Matchday 2

### I know the J.League is calling this Week/Matchday 8 in J2, as it was on the original fixture list, but as it's the second game of the season, I'm going with Matchday 2. I've edited 2011 Week 1 & (what was to be) 2 posts to reflect this new "Matchday" convention. ###

The wait is almost over. Six weeks after large parts of north-eastern Japan were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 - and the J.League subsequently went into an enforced recess - league play resumes tomorrow, and FC Tokyo are back in action on Sunday with a visit to Chiba. Our boys have been kept busy during the lay-off, playing a total of nine practice games or charity matches, rounded off by yesterday's 4-1 win over Meiji University at Kodaira.

Chiba are definite promotion candidates, and as you may remember I had them at number 2 in my Preseason J2 Power Rankings, so, on paper, this looks as stiff a test as we'll have all season. We've had some players return to fitness (Yohei Kajiyama, Daiki Takamatsu), and others join the first-team squad (Jade North, Kento Hashimoto), but it appears we will be without some key names (Naohiro Ishikawa, Pedro Junior, Roberto) for this weekend at least (as well as long-term absentee Sota Hirayama, of course), meaning our squad depth will be tested somewhat. Here's what I think we have to look forward to...

US

I generally like to be a bit controversial with my team selections, but I don't think there are that many questions about who will play and where this Sunday to be honest. Here's how I think we'll line up - what do you think of the new look?! The days of using Paint are over! All hail this11.com (but unfortunately I couldn't give Gonda a yellow shirt)! Those of you paying attention will have noticed it's the same XI that started against Kofu last Saturday, and handed the Yamanashi side their arses on a plate.



There's no doubt whatsoever about the 'keeper and back four, and even though I've often banged on about us being a 4-4-2 team first-and-foremost, until both Roberto Cesar and Pedro Jr are at full fitness (although The Salad does appear to be very close) I believe we can get away with 4-5-1 (or 4-2-3-1, whatever you want to call it), with Takamatsu leading the line.

In central midfield in this formation Casual and Naotake Hanyu can roam fairly freely (even though I expect Roswell to play a 'holding' role as well to some extent) knowing that Yone will anchor the middle of the park, and this is the one area where I think we'll have an advantage, as the hosts are 4-4-2 and play two holding midfielders, meaning whichever one of Casual and Roswell is in the more advanced role should be able to see a lot of the ball and hopefully use it effectively. When they have the ball, the extra body should help prevent them passing through us, while the Tatsuyas will be needed to track back and help the fullbacks put pressure on their wingers.

On the flanks Yazawa and Tatsuya Suzuki pick themselves while we await the returns of Ishikawa and Pedro Junior, and to be fair both of them deserve their spots after doing well and getting amongst the goals in the practice/charity games. Yes, that was me (kind of) being complementary to Tatsuya Suzuki. Don't get used to it!

Takamatsu proved he was ready to start with an excellent performance in the Kofu practice game, and his return softens the blow of losing Hirayama to a degree, while I expect we'll see The Salad come on for at least half an hour depending on the situation in the game. Just for arguments sake I'll have a shot at predicting the bench too: Shiota; North, Mukuhara; Takahashi (as central midfield cover), Hokuto, Otake; The Salad, although Kazumasa Uesato played yesterday after not featuring at all over the weekend, so he might be included instead of either North or Takahashi.

THEM

A founding member of the J.League in 1993, Chiba plummeted out of the top flight for the first time in their history in 2009, finishing rock-bottom. That was despite the best efforts of their "inspirational" striker Seiichiro Maki, who was filmed crying after losses more times than he scored goals during their fateful season. The two-time Nabisco Cup champions then found life in the second tier a little harder than they might've expected, finishing fourth, eight points behind the third promoted team, Fukuoka.

Determined to regain their top flight status, they went out and made a big splash (in more ways than one) in the transfer market, signing the world's tallest outfield player, Norwegian giant Tor Hogne Aarøy, along with two players from their new Dutch manager Dwight Lodeweges' former team, FC Edmonton*: Canadian winger Matt Lam and Dutch holding midfielder Sander van Gessel.

Dealing with Aarøy will be the major issue for our defenders - at 204cm he's well over 20cm taller than both Konno and Morishige - but as we saw in the Kofu practice game last Saturday when we negated Mike Havenaar (a relative midget at 194cm!), pressure on their wingers will be the key to keeping the behemoth in check. Yuhei Tokunaga and Takumi Abe will need to play Yonekura and Lam tight to prevent them getting decent crosses into the box, and as I mentioned earlier, the Tatsuyas will need to do some work in our half of the pitch as well.

On Matchday 1 Chiba visited Kitakyushu and strolled to a 3-0 win, with big Aarøy netting the third after earlier strikes from Masaki Fukai and Koki Yonekura. They lined up thusly: Okamoto; Sakamoto, Takeuchi, R. Aoki, Yamaguchi; Sato, Van Gessel, Yonekura, Lam; Fukai, Aarøy. And last Saturday they rounded off their preparations in similar style to us, thumping a J1 team, a result that left me with mixed emotions: always glad to see Kawasaki get beat (4-1, with 2 goals from backup striker Kota Aoki), but a bit worried about Chiba turning in that sort of performance.

This is an especially tough game to predict. We clearly have the personnel to win, and as we all know we had a far better record away from Aji Sta last season than at home, but I expect Chiba will end up going up with us, and the way we handle Aarøy will go a long way towards deciding the result.
There should be goals in this, but I'm settling on a.... DRAW.

*Lodeweges was the inaugural manager of FC Edmonton, but left before their first-ever competitive game.

FC Tokyo Update - Ready for Sunday

The countdown is now well and truly in full swing, with only four days left until the J.League resumes, but more importantly for us, five days remaining until FC Tokyo return to action with our trip to fellow promotion-hopefuls Chiba. As with our last update, plenty's been happening around the club as we get ready for Sunday, although the squad was dealt a massive blow in our training game against Tochigi. First things first though...

Gotemba Training Camp

  The lads spent three days down in Shizuoka two weeks ago, and wrapped up a fairly intensive training camp on Thursday the 7th. This little trip presented the manager with a great chance to work Daiki Takamatsu (returning from his knee injury) and Jade North (just signed - though he had started training with us in February) up to speed, though unfortunately the two practices a day meant that the squad weren't able to get time off to enjoy the excellent outlet mall down there...

FC Tokyo 2-3 Tochigi SC

(Training Match 4 x 45 minutes)
  Oh, boy. Nobody saw it coming (that's usually how it works with broken legs), but we lost our attacking fulcrum (love that word) Sota Hirayama to a double leg fracture in this game, the Sunday before last. He'd gotten through 80-odd minutes, only had to get through to the end of the second 'quarter' and he would've been off for a bath, but then disaster struck. A 50-50 challenge, two guys slide in, one is a little late, and boom, you've lost your big striker for 4-6 months.
  Anyone who felt we didn't need Daiki Takamatsu or raised an eyebrow when we signed him is now eating humble pie (mine was alright, though a little bitter), as he now becomes the man, at least until The Salad is at full fitness and Big Bear feels he's ready to start and lead the line.
  The game? Oh, right. Yeah, we lost the marathon 180-minute encounter 3-2, but that was irrelevant on the day we lost the big man. As far as other team news went, starting from the back: the four 'keepers all played a quarter, with Shuichi Gonda getting the first 45; Yuhei Tokunaga returned and played the first two quarters; Jade North played the second and third 45s at centre half (pairing with Yasuyuki Konno for the second); Roberto played alongside Takuji Yonemoto in central midfield for the first 70-odd minutes (until Yone was replaced by Kazumasa Uesato, who went on to score our second goal); and Takamatsu made his first Gasmen appearance and got through almost 60 minutes, coming on for Tatsuya Yazawa towards the end of the second quarter and then playing all of the third. An extremely timely return from injury for big Daiki.
By the way, Tatsuya Suzuki scored our first goal, five minutes into the first quarter.

The Return of The Salad
  His buddies Roberto and Pedro Junior had long since returned (though P.J. has only been back in training for a week), but Roberto Cesar finally arrived back in the country on Friday morning, and all Gasmen supporters breathed a huge sigh of relief at the news. Apparently his return was delayed due to the birth of his child, and had nothing to do with him possibly "doing a Marquinhos." Given the injury to Sota, the return of our new number 9 (and he looks in great shape, which I'll get to) is hugely important, and he and Takamatsu should be able to cover upfront, possibly in tandem, which would be a proper handful for opposing defences in much the same way we expected Sota and The Salad to be in the first place.

Six Postponed Fixtures Rescheduled
  I appreciate that the J.League had a very difficult task in rescheduling six rounds of games in J2 (and five in J1) that were postponed in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan. Finding available matchdays was especially difficult for J2, as we had no real summer break on the original fixture list. So I knew we'd have some midweek games, and I understand why it took them so long to release the revised schedule. Having said all that though, when the revised fixture list was released last Friday, one of their decisions left me completely flummoxed (another word I love), and pretty darn frustrated to be honest. Here are FC Tokyo's six rescheduled games...

• 6/29 (Wed) 7.30pm Okayama A
• 8/7 (Sun) 6pm FC Gifu A
• 9/4 (Sun) Tochigi SC H - Kumagaya
• 9/28 (Wed) Kitakyushu H
• 10/19 (Wed) Yokohama FC A
• 10/26 (Wed) Oita H - Kokuritsu

  Anything jump out at you (apart from the nice colours) there? You saw it too? Good. Yes, that's right, on Sunday, September 4th, even though The Spews are AWAY to Chiba the same day, FC Tokyo has a home game at Kumagaya Nantoka-Nantoka Park Athletics Stadium IN SAITAMA! We have three 'home' stadiums that we play at during the course of the season, I find it impossible to believe that none of them were available to use on the first Sunday in September. I'll leave it at that, it's done, but I didn't buy a SOCIO membership to travel to Saitama...

FC Tokyo 5-1 Kofu

(Training Match 3 x 45 mins)
  Beautiful, sunny day at Kodaira last Saturday, and FC Tokyo put J1 side Kofu to the sword with a polished performance that demonstrated just what we are capable of when the lads are in the mood. Positives abounded, with Yohei Kajiyama, Naotake Hanyu and Yonemoto forming a solid central triangle in midfield - Yone, in particular, looked back to his ball-winning best, snapping into tackles all over the pitch; on the flanks Yazawa (and to a lesser extent Tatsuya) was a constant menace to the Kofu defence; Takamatsu presented for the full 85 minutes he was on the pitch and was rewarded with two goals; and North showed enough to suggest he's moved ahead of Tomokazu Nagira as our third centre-half with a composed 60-minute runout. On top of that, The Salad was around, and he's been off the donuts. More on him a bit further down...

FC Tokyo Update - Busy Two Weeks

Plenty happening on and off the pitch at FC Tokyo in the past two weeks, and, seeing as though we already know that the J.League will resume on April 23rd (although there is a bit of news related to that, towards the end of this post), let's get stuck into it - in chronological order - as best as I can remember:

FC Tokyo 8-2 Yokogawa Musashino FC 
(Training Match)
A fantastic turnout of 9,236 (but unfortunately not including me - was looking at a potential wedding venue) at Aji Sta the Sunday before last saw the Gasmen pummel the JFL'ers 8-2, with Sota Hirayama netting four, and the other goals scored by Casual, Tatsuya, Hokuto and Otake (a brilliant free-kick with the last kick of the game).
Even more fantastic was the amount of money raised for earthquake and tsunami victims - more than 10.8 million yen in total made up of over 8.3 million yen in donations and almost 2.5 million from a charity auction held on the concourse before the game.

Japan 2-1 J.League TEAM AS ONE
Nagai Stadium in Osaka was the venue for the national team versus league selection charity match, which not only raised money for the disaster relief efforts, but demonstrated how football has been at the forefront of the Japanese sporting community in reacting to the tragedy in a prompt and sensitive manner - the whole event was a touching display of unity from the Japanese football family.
Yasuyuki Konno was one of the main focuses of the media in the build-up to the game, as he hails from disaster-ravaged Sendai, and our captain put in a solid 60-odd minute stint on the pitch, while Gasmen OB Yuto Nagatomo played the first half, and was his usual livewire self, bombing up and down the left touchline.