The Emperor's Cup starts towards the final title acquisition of the season

　The Emperor's Cup, in which the 1st and 2nd rounds have already been played, begins its final tournament for Tokyo today with the 3rd round, with J1 teams joining the competition. In the past three years since promotion to J1, FC Tokyo has been defeated by J2 teams Kofu, Yokohama FC, and Shonan in the early stages of this tournament, so they cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes.

　Facing them is Honda FC, a JFL seed. They have been a formidable opponent, with whom we have had many intense battles during our time in the JFL as Tokyo Gas. They are currently always in the running for the JFL championship and possess the highest level of amateur skills. We cannot underestimate them, but as professionals competing in the top league, Tokyo must demonstrate the difference in strength. We cannot afford to stumble easily on our path to winning the title. Amaral starts on the bench. Jean is injured, so Fujiyama takes his place as center-back, and Yusuke Kondo starts as the forward. The game has started.

開始4分、近藤祐のゴールで早くも先制するが…

　Connect the kickoff ball and Yusuke Kondo attempts to break through the left area, winning a corner kick. In the 4th minute, Miyazawa passes to the space on the right side of the front line. Although it didn't reach Ishikawa, it hit the opponent's defender and crossed the end line. Miyazawa then connects the right corner kick obtained from this to Ishikawa with a short pass, and crosses from the right. The ball goes over Toda's head in the center of the goal, but Yusuke Kondo follows up and pushes it in with his left foot, GOAL! Tokyo has already taken the lead.

　It seemed that they would grasp the rhythm with this opening goal, but Honda also waits for a chance without feeling down. In the 12th minute, DF Abe, who was free in the far post from a right FK, made a shot, but it went over the goal. In the 20th minute, MF Maeda passed a through ball to Furuhashi, who broke through in front of the goal from a quick attack. Fujiyama prevented him from taking a shot by getting close to him. However, right after that, Ishikawa received a back pass in the opponent's territory. Honda's MF Kawashima intercepted it and sent it directly to FW Furuhashi. Furuhashi advanced with a dribble and aimed for the goal from the middle without any pressure. The ball was sucked into the upper right corner of the goal. With this clean shot from Furuhashi, who is also the top scorer in the JFL, they were caught up to the same score.

　Tokyo added crosses from Kaji and Ishikawa in the 26th and 27th minutes. In the 29th minute, Kelly broke through the front line with a heel pass while being surrounded by two defenders on the right side, and Toda connected with a cross, but the goalkeeper caught it. In the 40th minute, they won four consecutive corner kicks, but Yusuke Kondo's shot went over the goal. They couldn't quite get into the rhythm and the score remained 1-1 as they headed into the second half.

Tokyo pushes ahead, Honda continues to chase without giving up

　In the second half, Amaral was substituted for Miura. Tokyo took a gamble by making Miyazawa the lone defensive midfielder. However, as Tokyo increased their tempo, Honda also raised their pace to match. In the 47th minute, Honda was stuck on the right side by Furuhashi and allowed a cross, but Doi barely managed to hold off Nitta, who was free in front of the goal. In the 51st minute, Miyazawa's pass to Kaji was intercepted, and Tokyo launched a quick counterattack. Kawashima cleared the ball from the Tokyo defense and shot. In the 54th minute, Uruno attacked the area from Nitta's post.

　However, in the 55th minute, Yusuke Kondo, who picked up the opponent's DF clearance, sprinted up the left side with speed and crossed the ball after carefully observing the front of the goal. Kelly, who was waiting on the far side, scored a goal with a well-aimed header! They scored an additional goal early in the second half. However, in the 62nd minute, they allowed Honda DF Yoshimura, who came on as a substitute for the right MF, to advance and create a decisive situation where Maeda jumped into the cross. In the 63rd minute, Yusuke Kondo's shot was caught by the opponent's GK.

　In the 65th minute, Wu (aka Chang) was substituted for Toda in the defensive midfield position. Just as they were trying to take advantage of Chang's energy and attacking runs, and push Honda aside, something unexpected happened. In the 68th minute, Amaral cleared Honda's corner kick. Yoshimura picked up the ball and dribbled into the penalty area, where a cross was delivered. Tokyo's defenders cleared the ball, but it fell to DF Mukojima and Maeda, who took consecutive shots. In the midst of the chaos, the ball that had spilled in front of the goal was kicked in by Abe.

　Tokyo was once again caught up. In the 75th minute, Abe was brought in to replace Yusuke KONDO. They started to create decisive chances again. In the 80th minute, Abe chased a pass sent forward by Kaji while competing with a DF, making a backward pass. Ishikawa ran in at top speed but was just a step late. In the 85th minute, Abe intercepted a quick attack from Honda and dribbled in for a shot. Following that, Chan made a header from a left corner kick. Then in the 86th minute, Honda's Maeda received a second warning and was sent off. Facing a Honda team reduced to 10 men, in the 87th minute, Chan's long throw was connected by Amaral, and Kelly took a decisive shot from the right of the goal, but the opposing DF who came in to cover cleared it. Shortly after, Kelly's volley shot from directly in front of the goal was also blocked by Honda's goalkeeper Nakamura with a fine save. Ishikawa's free kick, Kanazawa's shot, and a shot from Kelly after a drop from Amaral in stoppage time all failed to break through Honda's concentrated defense. The match went into extra time under the V-goal rule.

The match was not settled in 120 minutes, but we managed to win in a tough penalty shootout.

　Tokyo wanted to take advantage of their numerical superiority, but it was Honda that created the first chance. In the 3rd minute of extra time, Yoshimura picked up a loose ball from a right corner kick and took a decisive shot. However, Tokyo's defense cleared it with all their might. In the 7th minute, Abe received a vertical pass from Miyazawa and took a shot. In the 10th minute, Kanazawa's long shot was caught by the GK. Honda also showed a counterattack, but the defense centered around Doi did not allow any shots. As the second half began, the match progressed almost entirely in Tokyo's half, but they just couldn't break through for a goal. In the 3rd minute of extra time, Chan and Amaral launched a quick attack, and Kelly took a shot, but it was saved by the GK. In the 9th minute, Kaji's early cross was dropped by Amaral, and Abe took a shot from very close range to the right of the goal, but the GK made a fine save. In the 10th and 11th minutes, they launched successive attacks, but ultimately, the match ended without a resolution after 120 minutes, leading to a penalty shootout.

　The first kicker in the PK shootout is Honda. Furuhashi, Mukojima, Abe, Masuda, and Yoshimura all scored, and Tokyo also had Amaral, Kelly, Abe, Kanazawa, and Ishikawa who scored without giving up. However, in sudden death, Doi saved the ball kicked by Tokyo's sixth kicker, GK Nakamura. On the other hand, Tokyo's Miyazawa kicked the ball neatly into the upper right corner of the goal, finally ending the long battle. Despite a close victory, they advanced to the 4th round against Vissel Kobe on December 20th in Marugame, having passed the 3rd round.

【Player Comments】《Yusuke KONDO》"The scene of the opening goal, I felt like I hit the ball after Toda-san competed for it. Kelly's goal assist, I thought someone would be able to finish it, so I sent it far. It was physically tough, but recently I've been able to score even in practice matches and my condition has been good. I want to keep doing my best in the next match."《Doi》"We ended up playing at the opponent's pace, and honestly, I felt really tired. It would have been better if we could attack more easily, for example, through wide play. Honda's determination was stronger, and I thought everyone was good at penalty kicks. After saving one, I felt like I couldn't save any more, so I definitely wanted Miyazawa to score as the next kicker."

[Summary of Coach Hara's Press Conference] "I am glad we won the penalty shootout, but the content of the match was not good. Throughout the season, this was the worst performance. The atmosphere was different from usual. As can be seen from the results of other matches, it was the first game, and there was a difficulty in entering this tournament. I thought Honda was a wonderful team with great cohesion, but even with one player less and cramping, everyone was doing their best. In contrast, Tokyo seemed to be trying to play easily or smoothly. After taking the lead, I thought we could continue like this, but once we were equalized, things went wrong, and even after taking the lead in the second half, we relaxed again. In the past, we fought from a position like Honda's today and were able to win, but losing in the first match for three consecutive years in J1 means that we have developed a sense of relief after the league matches. The players who supported today's match were Yusuke Kondo, Fujiyama, and Wu, who have not had many opportunities to play until now. On the other hand, Moniwa, Ishikawa, Kaji, and Kelly, who returned from the national team, were not in good condition, and including their mindset, there are reasons why the game turned out this way. I felt the difficulty of the Emperor's Cup. However, it was a match that could have gone either way, but I think we were lucky to win in the penalty shootout. I believe it is a chance given by the gods, and we must ensure that we play a good match next time. Players who cannot fight, whether they are from the national team or foreign players, should be left out and approach the game accordingly."

[Summary of Honda and Coach Yasuma's Press Conference] "Since the beginning of this year, we have set the goal of defeating J-League teams. Even if we were told it was close, I regret not being able to break through the wall. I want to thank the players who gave their all. Although we were down to 10 men, reducing the forwards would have made us too defensive, so we slid our positions to defend in the first half of extra time and returned to a two-top formation in the second half. It's unfortunate that we couldn't use one more substitution card. FC Tokyo is the team I have fought against since my playing days as Tokyo Gas, and I approached this match with respect. The transition from defense to attack had a speed I had never experienced before, so we focused on sliding to defend and also on containing Kelly. We aimed to minimize points and narrowed it down to these two aspects. I didn't think we could hold out defensively for 90 minutes, so we wanted to draw them into a slow attack and win with our aggressive style of football. I think we did well on those two points. However, even though we contained them, we couldn't win. Amaral is indeed great, and when we were about to push forward in the second half, the atmosphere in the stadium changed. I regret that we couldn't break through the solid defense led by Fujiyama and others. However, facing a J team is a valuable experience, and everything becomes a goal. I want to improve our abilities and further raise the team's level."