FC Tokyo 2-0 Kitakyushu

J2 Matchday 27

After winning a dance-off, birthday boy Dorompa whisks Hello Kitty away...

A small-ish weeknight crowd of 10,229, including a hardy group of about 100 supporters up from Kyushu, rolled up to Aji Sta on Wednesday night to see FC Tokyo take on Kitakyushu. This game, along with seven other 7pm kickoffs, completed Matchday 27, which started way back two weeks ago when Tosu belted Okayama.

This game in hand on both Tosu and Sapporo would see us move four points clear with a win, but going in we knew Kitakyushu would be a tough nut to crack, as we discovered when we travelled there at the end of July, when Casual's saved penalty and Tomoki Ikemoto's wonder strike earned them a famous 1-0 win.

Unsurprisingly, we were unchanged, even though the players had had only two full days to recover from Sunday's win over Yokohama FC. And the man I suggested we rest, Sotan Tanabe, started off like he had read my preview and had a point to prove, buzzing around the flanks and linking play effectively.

There was early drama though, when an attempted cross-field pass by Masato Morishige clattered into Hideto Takahashi 's head, releasing Ikemoto, who raced forward with Yasuaki Oshima in support. Oshima received the ball and lashed a shot that may have been creeping in at Shuichi Gonda's far post had the big 'keeper not got his fingertips on it.

Aside from that there wasn't much else in the way of entertainment first half, apart from the Kitakyushu 'keeper Yuya Sato rushing 25 yards out of his goal to throttle left back Yuki Fuji, following his lapse in concentration that allowed Yuhei Tokunaga to get around the back and get a cross in, in the 19th minute.

That, and, of course, Tatsuya Yazawa flinging himself to the floor at the first hint of contact, most notably in the 28th minute when he screamed for a pen when 'upended' in the box, but the ref (who we'll get back to later) was having none of it. Yazawa has a lot to like about his game, and he's undoubtedly been a key player for us this season, but his tendency to go down very easily is one trait I wish he'd drop from his bag of tricks.

FC Tokyo v Kitakyushu: Wednesday 7pm

J2 Matchday 27 Preview

FC Tokyo returned to the top of J2 with a comfortable 3-0 win over Yokohama FC on Sunday, and The Gasmen are back in action tomorrow night at Aji Sta when we host Kitakyushu. This game, along with seven others kicking off at the same time, will complete an elongated Matchday 27 (originally MD 5) which began two weeks ago when Tosu thumped Okayama and continued last Wednesday when Sapporo took top spot after ambushing The Spews 4-2.

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We know he generally doesn't like to change a winning team, and Mr. Okuma has kept faith with the same core group of players wherever possible this season, but he may be tempted to rest one or two here, with a tricky trip to Tokushima on the horizon this weekend.

Before Sunday I would've said Naotake Hanyu was a prime candidate to be rotated out for this game, but of course his three minute brace against Yokohama FC makes that unlikely, so, with Naohiro Ishikawa itching for his first start of the season, I believe the manager will rest Sotan Tanabe and bring Nao into the XI.

I could see the same team as Sunday starting this game, of course, and we hardly need "freshening up" after scoring 14 goals in our last three, but Tanabe has been very hit or miss in the past month, and might benefit from a spell here before we face what looks a sterner test away on Sunday.

It'll most likely be the same 18, regardless of who starts, as The Salad has joined Daiki Takamatsu in returning to training, though on a reduced workload for the time being.

THEM
As we all remember, Kitakyushu ended our 11-game unbeaten run back at the end of July, thanks to a sublime strike from Tomoki Ikemoto in the second half. It could have been oh so different though if Casual had scored from the spot in the first half, but it wasn't our day and their defensive doggedness saw them earn a famous win.

FC Tokyo 3-0 Yokohama FC

J2 Matchday 26

Hanyu goals, just like London buses

On a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon at Kokuritsu, FC Tokyo locked horns with Yokohama FC for the first time since 2007, with The Gasmen knowing a win would take us back to the J2 summit following Sapporo's scoreless draw with Tokushima on Saturday.

Shuichi Gonda returned to the Tokyo XI for the first time since Matchday 10, and replaced the injured Hitoshi Shiota in the only change to the 18 from the thumping of Ehime FC. For the visitors, their response to a 7-2 battering on the same ground last weekend was to have 63 year old striker Kazuyoshi Miura make his first start in two months, lining up alongside Kaio in a 4-4-2. Miura's name was cheered by both sets of supporters before the game, definitely the first time we've heard the Tokyo end cheer an opposition player who has never worn the red and blue.

The opening exchanges were pretty much one way traffic as we controlled possession and probed for gaps, and thankfully our early nerves were settled by an 8th minute opener, the only surprise was the source...Casual's head. From Tatsuya Yazawa's outswinging corner from the right, Yohei Kajiyama held off his man and met the ball from about 8 yards, guiding in a header at the near post, with Yokohama 'keeper Kentaro Seki committing the goalkeeping cardinal sin of letting the ball in at his near stick.

I'd be here all day if I listed all the other chances we had in the first half, but to surmise: Lucas could've had a first half hat trick but blazed over or wide three times, Yazawa was guilty of almost as many misses, Sotan Tanabe had an attempt on target blocked out for a goal kick by Naotake Hanyu, and Yuhei Tokunaga fired off one of his trademark bullets that cannoned off the intersection of post and bar and bounced back off Seki's back for a corner; but the scoreline stayed at 1-0 until the break and while it remained that way we could never feel completely comfortable.

The visitors came out and controlled the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but never really threatened. We were impressed by their young central midfielder Kensuke Sato, and although Kaio had plenty of touches, he had to drop quite deep to receive the ball and was never close enough to goal to cause us any problems.

With things puttering along, Mr. Okuma decided to give Tanabe the hook just on the hour and introduced Naohiro Ishikawa, and within five minutes of his entrance Nao had another assist to his name as we took a 2-0 lead. A minute after Gonda was forced into a diving save from substitute Yosuke Nozaki that grazed the post on its way out for a corner, we countered and Nao broke down the right drawing two defenders, which left Hanyu in acres of space in the centre.

FC Tokyo v Yokohama FC: Sunday 3pm

J2 Matchday 26 Preview

The logjam at the top of J2 got a whole lot more interesting on Wednesday night, when Sapporo roared to the top of the table following a 4-2 win over The Spews. The red and blacks have won eight of their last nine, including four straight, and we have to tip our caps to them (and not only for beating the dirty greens!), as they seem to have timed their run perfectly, climbing from 9th at the end of Matchday 17 to the summit just nine games later (though they have played a game more, of course).

Our game in hand is against Kitakyushu at Aji Sta next Wednesday, but before that we return to Kokuritsu on Sunday afternoon to face Yokohama FC, who are coming off a 7-2 shellacking at the hands of The Spews, also at The National Stadium, last Sunday. This will be just our third league meeting: we won both games in their only J1 season, 2007 (the second, coincidentally, was 'away' at Kokuritsu); while we split a pair of Cracker Cup group stage games that year.

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Eleven goals in our last two, happy days are here again, and it looks like we'll finally get to see Number 20 in the XI again.... Gon-chan! Welcome back son!

Yes, thats right, after Hitoshi Shiota suffered an injury to his left ankle in the warm-up to our 5-0 romp over Ehime FC last Saturday (but managed to soldier on and play the full 90 minutes), it appears Shuichi Gonda will at last get the chance to recapture his rightful status as our number 1 goalkeeper.

Shiota has been steady enough in his unbroken 15-game stint between the sticks, equalling the club record for consecutive clean sheets along the way (as I mentioned in Part 2 of Halfway Home), but his distribution and decision-making, especially at coming for crosses, is and has always been questionable.

Ehime FC 0-5 FC Tokyo

As Ben has noted there was a bit of concern coming into this game despite last weeks' ANNIHILATION of Kyoto, as our away form in these pishy wee running track stadiums has been pants of late and not great all season. Also, Ehime were the ones that brought us down to earth after our previous Sanga romp earlier in the campaign.

Shikoku was subject to rotten typhoony weather again for this one, with only 4,246 turning out. Extreme kudos to those FCT fans that made it down. The rain produced one of these pitches which would have meant the game being called off in most countries, with the ball holding up in water. However, I have seen much worse (but only in Japan) and as ever the players just got on with it.

Tokyo were given an early scare when danger man (actually a kid) Saito drove into the box and fired a diagonal shot just wide, but from then on the visitors took control with Lucas playing the target man role well. A sharp finish from Soutan and a nice diving header from our greatest player ever gave us the lead just before half time. Konno had scored from a crossed free kick which had resulted in a second yellow for Mikan defender Maeno, which really signaled the end of the contest. Our captain celebrated the goal with the old Bebeto cradle thing, how sweet.

In the second half we made the ten men pay with Hanyu eventually firing home a loose ball, Lucas converting a pen and Nagasato sliding in to finish off good work from Tokunaga. Lots of positives to take from this with Lucas finally coming good as the pivot of the team and good contributions from all in midfield. It was also nice to see Mukuhara keeping his place in preference to Hokuto after his great display last week. Eleven goals in two weeks, brushing the opposition aside, and other teams have slipped up in this time (notably Tochigi) to leave the top of the table looking slightly less crowded.

We are obviously very pleased so why am I not doing cartwheels? BECAUSE IT'S J2 AND J2 IS RUBBISH GET US OUT OF HERE QUICKLY!!!

Next up Yokohama FC at home at Kokuritsu, who shipped 7 (seven) to Verdy this weekend. How many will we put past them? Or will J2 throw up another silly result? Tune in next week folks.

TB

Ehime FC v FC Tokyo: Saturday 6pm

J2 Matchday 25 Preview



                    

Round 2 against The Fightin' Mikans!!!
(and the drooling chick...)

The 6-1 win over Kyoto was historic - the first time we'd ever scored six in a league game, and it matched our biggest-ever home league win - but it won't mean much if we don't kick on from it and string some positive results together.

As I/we mentioned in the Kyoto match report & Episode 9 of Gas Talk, we followed-up our 4-1 win over Kyoto back in May with a tame 1-1 draw against Ehime at Komazawa, and through a quirk in the fixture list we find ourselves facing The Fightin' Mikans again after another battering of Kyoto. This will be our first ever league visit to Shikoku.

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The big talking point this week is whether Kenta Mukuhara's superb display at left back against Kyoto, highlighted of course by his first goal for the club, was enough to keep Hokuto Nakamura out of the XI for this game and for the forseeable future.

Here at On the Gas we believe Mukuhara should stay in the side, not just for his goal but for the fact he's a natural defender and has come through our ranks as such (as an aside, one of the best moments of the 6-1 was Muk's goal celebration, nothing elaborate but he was just overjoyed, and you could see how happy fellow youngsters Tanabe and Takahashi were for him too), whereas Hokuto is a born-and-bred midfielder who's adapted to fullback as there was no room for him further up the pitch.

But knowing Mr. Okuma as we all do our fear is that Hokuto will come straight back in, as he did after missing the loss to Kitakyushu through injury back at the end of July. Now I use the word 'fear' there and its probably a bit over the top as Hokuto has never let us down at fullback, but how could the manager possibly drop Mukuhara after last Saturday?!

FC Tokyo 6-1 Kyoto

J2 Matchday 24

"You damn right I can take free kicks!!!"

Thank you again, Kyoto, for getting our season back on track for the second time this year. While we'd like to erase the first half hour of this game from our memories, once Lucas had equalised we completely overran them and the last hour was a procession. There's a 26 minute Gas Talk (Episode 9) recorded in three Parts before, at halftime and then after the game for you to listen to, but lets run through the major talking points from our biggest-ever home win at Aji Sta.

THE GAME
Masato Morishige was passed fit so our regular central defence pairing was reunited with Yasuyuki Konno naturally coming straight back in after his exertions with the Japan national team. With Hokuto suspended Kenta Mukuhara switched over to left back and Yuhei Tokunaga returned to right back. In midfield and upfront we were again unchanged, and it looked like we were going to have the same old problems in the first ten minutes, as we enjoyed more possession but never looked threatening.

The game was turned on its head in the 11th minute when Tatsuya Yazawa was dispossesed near midfield, which sent the Kyoto defender Morishita off to the races. He played in Takumi Miyayoshi, who took a touch and let fly shooting low and hard, with the ball going through Hitoshi Shiota and into the net to give the visitors a shock lead.

Just as Miyayoshi's goal had come out of the blue, so did our equaliser in the 31st minute, as after the goal Kyoto had looked by far the better side, confidently knocking the ball around and negating any mini threat we could muster. Casual brought the ball up from around the centre circle and, after brushing off a couple of defenders, slipped the ball into Sotan Tanabe's path on the right. Tanabe crossed first time and even though the ball was slightly behind Lucas, the big man got some contact on the ball and knocked it into the ground, with the ball looping just over the 'keeper Mizutani's outstretched arm and into the corner for 1-1.

Almost straight from the restart Naotake Hanyu unleashed a thunderous left-footed drive that was parried away, but we only had to wait five minutes to go ahead, thanks to a classic FC Tokyo counter-attacking goal that was our trademark until the introduction of the blueprint.

T'was a peach.

Yazawa took possession deep in our half and switched the ball to Tanabe, who took off with Mukuhara flying down the left looking to overlap. I was worried Tanabe was going to delay his pass for too long, but he sent Mukuhara away and the fullback cut the ball onto his favoured right foot before launching a brilliant strike across the keeper and into the far corner. Quite a way to score your first goal for the club.

We continued to have the better of things up until half time, and then started the second half in perfect fashion with Morishige, given "the freedom of Chofu" by the napping Kyoto defence, firing in a header from six yards from Yazawa's outswinging corner from the right.

Gas Talk Episode 9

From 1-0 down to 6-1 winners...

Wow, what a turnaround, and you can hear it in our voices throughout this Episode, as we discuss the ho-hum last six weeks out the back of Aji Sta in Part 1, then our excellent last 15 minutes of the first half inside the stadium in Part 2, before raving about the demolition job The Gasmen performed in the second half in Part 3.

As usual you can listen on the player below, download the mp3 by clicking on the Gas Talk logo on the right, or search "Gas Talk" on iTunes, thanks again to Takeshi for getting it up on there so quickly.

Enjoy.

FC Tokyo v Kyoto: Saturday 6.30pm

J2 Matchday 24 Preview

After what will forever be known as "The Kumagaya Debacle" (the game wasn't that bad, but everything else around it was), FC Tokyo finally return to the home comforts of Ajinomoto Stadium tomorrow to host Kyoto. This promises to be a fascinating J2 weekend, with the other teams in the top seven facing fellow top seven teams (does that make sense?), so its up to us to hold serve at home and stay on top.

We should really be eight points clear at the top, but its our own fault we aren't, as consecutive losses followed by the draw at Kumagaya has us level on points with Tochigi, with another four teams within three points of us, as we enter the business end of the season with 15 games left.

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The manager will make one enforced change, as Hokuto Nakamura is suspended after racking up four yellow cards, and, it appears, one he'd prefer not to make as Masato Morishige looks likely to miss this game after turning his ankle at training on Wednesday.

On the Gas Prediction:
IN: Konno, North
OUT: Morishige, Hokuto

Takumi Abe is the natural replacement for Nakamura at left back, but in yesterday's training session at Aji Sta Kenta Mukuhara played there, with Yuhei Tokunaga returning to right back and Jade North and Tomokazu Nagira in the centre.

With Yasuyuki Konno available again after Japan's two World Cup qualifiers, he's nailed-on to return at centre half, so if yesterday is any indication (and if Morishige is indeed out) its between North and Nagira to partner the captain.

Therefore all signs point to the Aussie getting the nod for his second start of the season, as he's moved back ahead of Nagira in the pecking order and was on the bench at Kumagaya.

Further up the pitch you'd expect there won't be any changes, even though our build up and attacking play has been fairly stagnant in recent weeks. That means it'll be another start on the bench for Naohiro Ishikawa, while Genki Nagasato and Daisuke Sakata will hope to be involved (and both should be ahead of Tatsuya Suzuki) at some point.

FC Tokyo 0-0 Tochigi SC

J2 Matchday 23

FC Tokyo supporters voted with their feet yesterday, with a paltry 6,795 turning up in Kumagaya, Saitama, for a 'home' game against Tochigi SC. I held my tongue in my preview on Friday, but the decision to play this game at that venue was an unmitigated disaster for the club, with the turn-up well below half our average home attendance, and less than a third of our last game at Ajinomoto Stadium.

WHAT. A. BEER.

For me, there were only two positives to come out of the Kumagaya experience:

1. It didn't rain; and

2. I found Sapporo Classic at the convenience store at Kumagaya station.

On the negative side:

1. Kumagaya is a shithole;

2. It took forever to get there/back on a Sunday afternoon/night;

3. There were no beer girls or guys wandering the stands;

4. You had to go outside the ground to get a beer and then they RAN OUT OF BEER 10 minutes into the second half; and

5. The atmosphere was terrible - despite the best efforts of both sets of supporters.

And unfortunately, the negatives of the game itself also outweighed the positives. I suppose in a clash between first and second in the table we had to expect there would be a degree of the two teams nullifying each other and not wanting to leave themselves too open, but we also had the right to expect a less scrappy game in which the supposed two best teams in the league would show their quality.

Now if the ref (who along with his linesmen had an absolute nightmare) had given a penalty when Tatsuya Yazawa's plant foot got taken out from under him when he was shaping to shoot with ten minutes left, and we'd scored and won, I'd be sitting here saying we deserved to win and life's great, but he didn't, and in truth on our overall performance we didn't deserve to win.

At the selection table Big Bear did as I expected (unfortunately): bringing Yazawa straight back in following his suspension, which meant still no starting spot for Naohiro Ishikawa; and drafting in Kenta Mukuhara to play at right back with Yuhei Tokunaga sliding over into the centre, which meant Jade North had to settle for a place on the bench (but at least he's moved back ahead of Tomokazu Nagira in the pecking order).

THE GAME

We had some decent chances in the first half, the first coming in the 12th minute when Sotan Tanabe embarked on a mazy dribble from around the halfway line to the edge of the box before sliding Yazawa in on the right hand side of the area, but unfortunately Yazawa wasn't able to get around the ball and fired into the side netting.

FC Tokyo v Tochigi: Sunday 6pm

J2 Matchday 23 Preview

Having lost consecutive games for the first time this season, FC Tokyo travel up to Kumagaya in Saitama on Sunday to host the team that handed us the first of those defeats, Tochigi SC. This game was originally fixtured for Matchday 4, which is why its coming so close to our unsuccessful trip to Tochigi.

With our run of four-of-five away now over, this game starts a stretch of four-of-five at home for The Gasmen.

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There's one huge out for us this week, as captain, best player, best player in the club's history Yasuyuki Konno is away with the Japan national team for World Cup qualifiers against North Korea (tonight in Saitama) and Uzbekistan (Tuesday in Tashkent), while Shuichi Gonda was also called up as the third 'keeper, somewhat remarkably as he hasn't played for us since Matchday 10.

We'll welcome back Tatsuya Yazawa from suspension, but whether he'll get straight back into the XI is up for debate...so I'll debate the midfield and who comes in for Konno...with myself. Starting off with what I'd like us to do...

How I'd like us to set up:
IN: North, Ishikawa
OUT: Konno, Tatsuya

Firstly, the defence. The last time Konno was away on national team duty (for Ehime FC at Komazawa in Matchday 9) his spot was taken by Jade North, whose performance was one of the few highlights in a generally lackluster Gasmen display that day (Sotan Tanabe's goal was another, obviously). North did an excellent job on Ehime striker Josimar, cutting him out of the game completely, and if called upon would relish the task of taking on Ricardo Lobo and Sabia.

Further up the pitch its time for Naohiro Ishikawa to come into the XI. He's been nursed along by the club and coaching staff, and fair enough too as the injuries he's suffered in the past two years have clearly taken their toll, but sooner or later he's going to have to be tested from the start, and I believe this is the game to do it in.

Tatsuya Suzuki has to make way (HE'S NOT A STRIKER, MR. OKUMA!), and Yazawa will have to make do with a spot on the bench.