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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Give Me Five (sorry...)

After the hard-earned point in Osaka, we hosted already-relegated Sapporo at Aji Sta last Saturday evening. After a couple of early scares, we tore them to shreds in the second half.

FC Tokyo 5-0 Sapporo

J1 Matchday 30

Sapporo had taken four points from the two games since their relegation was confirmed, including three from a memorable win at Urawa, but they were depleted in defence for this one, with Jade North missing due to injury, Kazuki Kushibiki suspended and Tatsuki Nara away with Japan's Under 19s. We welcomed back Masato Morishige from suspension, and Jang Hyun Soo came in alongside Morige, with Hideto Takahashi needed in central midfield following Aria Hasegawa's red card against Cerezo. Kenta Mukuhara was dropped again, with Yuhei Tokunaga returning to right back.

We almost got on the board in just the second minute when Yohei Kajiyama played a lovely ball through to Lucas, but although the big man had time to pick his spot his low drive cannoned off the outside of the keeper's left-hand post. We then had a scare of our own in the 10th minute, but Takuji Yonemoto slid in just in the nick of time to clear the ball out for a corner after Sapporo defender Shunsuke Iwanuma darted into the box.

In the 17th minute Jang grabbed our first of the evening, and his first for the club, firing in a bullet header from Naohiro Ishikawa's cross after Sapporo failed to clear his initial corner. Jang celebrated by rushing over to the manager for a bear hug, but just two minutes later we were almost caught on the break again (again on our right) but Yasuaki Okamoto curled his shot across the face of goal and out for a goal kick.

That was it for goals in the first half, but we didn't take long to kick into gear after the restart, and Sotan Tanabe grabbed his first goal since the home win over Yokohama at the start of September with a fine finish across the keeper from a tight angle in the 47th minute. Then Ishikawa, who hadn't scored in the league since the away win over Kobe at the end of March, grabbed a quickfire brace, his first coming in the 59th minute with a composed finish from eight yards out after the ball broke perfectly for him, and then just five minutes later he finished a perfectly-weighted ball over the top from Morishige first-time with his left foot.

Funnily enough, Nao's number was originally posted on the subs board after his first goal, with Nemanja Vucicevic ready to come on, but after the ball didn't go out of play for a couple of minutes the 18 changed to a 7 and Yonemoto made way for Nema, with Ishikawa's second coming just a minute later!

Nema's been in everything the last four or five weeks, and he grabbed his fourth league goal for us to cap the scoring in the 81st minute, a surging run from a central area on the right freeing him up for a left foot strike from outside the box which flew past the keeper and in for 5-0.

A thoroughly satisfying evening, and the first time we'd scored more than three in a game all season. The win saw us creep back into the top half of the table in 9th, five points behind third-placed Urawa with four games to go. We're unlikely to catch them, but in our four remaining games we could have a big say in all three league races up for grabs: the title race (we play Sendai at home on the final day); the scrap for the third ACL spot (we play away at Nagoya (5th) next); and the #RelegationDogfight (we play Kobe (14th) at home in Matchday 32 and Gamba Osaka (16th) away the next week).

Up the Gas!

Nema Again!

Catching up here, firstly with the away draw against Cerezo.

Cerezo Osaka 1-1 FC Tokyo

J1 Matchday 29



(Highlights above from the club's official YouTube channel)

The players showed good character to come from a goal down at the Kincho Stadium, and it was that man Nemanja Vucicevic who did the business again, netting the equaliser in the 74th minute to finish off a superb move that he himself started deep in our half.

The first half ended goalless despite a number of chances at either end, the best of ours probably a shot from the edge of the box that hooked wide from Yohei Kajiyama after Takuji Yonemoto's superbly-timed tackle won the ball back. Cerezo looked threatening on the break, and Kenyu Sugimoto's flick went just wide as Shuichi Gonda raced out of his net to close down the Olympic striker.

In the fifth minute of the second half we went a goal down after a brilliant strike from outside the box by their left back Yusuke Maruhashi. A crossfield ball from Hotaru Yamaguchi found Maruhashi one-on-one with Naohiro Ishikawa on their left, and with Nao playing him loosely but looking to cut off a dribble to the byline Maruhashi instead cut inside and rifled a shot into the top corner at Gonda's near post. It was almost 2-0 just a minute later when Sugimoto sent Yoichiro Kakitani clean through on Gonda with a delightful flick-on, but Kakitani failed to hit the target and we breathed again.

Nema came on as our second change in the 63rd minute, and the goal eleven minutes later was absolutely first class, with his finish the last of his five touches in the move. First, he won the nicked the ball from behind right on the edge of our box on the left and played it back to Hokuto Nakamura. He took the return pass from Hokuto and found Aria Hasegawa in the centre circle, all the while continuing a diagonal run through the middle. Aria played the ball to Lucas and darted down the right-hand channel, Lucas returned to Nema who then played a superb through ball to Aria, whose first-time cross was met by Nema arriving in the box, and his strike beat the keeper at his left-hand post.

That goal will hopefully go on Nema's highlights reel on his website, and he's making a great case to be kept on next season, though we're still wondering why he hasn't started a game yet (perhaps an indication that he won't be?). Anyway though both teams had 15 minutes to find a winner none was forthcoming and we held out well enough at the end, though Aria was sent off for his second yellow card in the 93rd minute for an unnecessary challenge on former Gasman Teruyuki Moniwa. That's Aria's 3rd red of the season.