Match Report
Emperor's Cup JFA 101st Japan Football Championship
final
2021年12月19日
(Sun)
14:04 KICK OFF
- Venue
- National Stadium
- Attendance
- 57,785
- Weather
- Sunny
- Referee
- Yusuke Araki
update
Urawa Reds
2 - 1
1
1st Half
0
1
2nd Half
1
Oita Trinita
- 6'
- Ataru Esaka
- 90+3'
- Tomoaki Makino
GOAL
- 90'
- Pereira
Substitution
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yellow Card
|
|
|
Red Card
Player
- 1
- Shusaku Nishikawa
GK
- 1
- Shun Takagi
- 2
- Hiroki Sakai
- 4
- Takuya Iwanami
- 28
- Alexander Scholz
- 15
- Takahiro Akimoto
DF
- 3
- Yuto Misao
- 14
- Henrique Trevisan
- 15
- Yuta Koide
- 41
- Takahiro Sekine
- 17
- Atsuki Ito
- 29
- Kai Shibato
- 18
- Yoshio Koizumi
MF
- 6
- Yuki Kobayashi
- 8
- Masato Machida
- 11
- Hokuto Shimoda
- 25
- Seigo Kobayashi
- 31
- Pereira
- 33
- Ataru Esaka
- 7
- Kasper Aalund Junker
FW
- 13
- Kohei Isa
- 16
- Arata Watanabe
- 12
- Zion Suzuki
- 3
- Tomoya UGAJIN
- 5
- Tomoaki Makino
- 8
- Daigo Nishi
- 21
- Tomoaki Okubo
- 24
- Koya Yuruki
- 40
- Yuichi Hirano
SUB
- 22
- Pope William
- 41
- Ryosuke Tone
- 7
- Rei Matsumoto
- 10
- Naoki Nomura
- 17
- Kenta Inoue
- 43
- Masaki Yumiba
- 20
- Shun Nagasawa
Stats
9
Attempts
4
4
GK
6
4
Corners
5
12
Direct FK
11
0
Indirect FK
4
0
Offsides
4
0
Penalties
0
Trial-match comments
Ricardo Rodriguez
(Head Coach)
- (It's a great win, but Trial itself must have been tough. Do you think you played like the Reds did in today's Trial?)
"First of all, we didn't know how Oita would play. They might have gone for a diamond 4-4-2 like they did in the previous match Kawasaki Frontale, or they might have continued with three defenders as they have done in the past. There were many possibilities in Trial, so it was not an easy Trial for us, as we had to decide how and where to create space.
However, I think we were able to play the way we wanted to in the first half, and we didn't give the opponent any chances, so I think we started very well.
We managed to score one goal in the first half, which was good, but in the second half, we had a hard time holding the ball and playing. We had a chance with (Nin) Esaka, and we had a chance to score more, but we couldn't score, and Oita's side changed their approach a little, bringing in tall players up front, so we changed our style. We brought in players, made the back heavy, and tried to hold on to the 1-0 score in that situation, but we were still caught up. However, even though we were caught up, I think we fought with confidence and never got scared. That reaction was good, and it was like a final surprise, like the match against Kawasaki Frontale (in the YBC Levain Cup), where we scored a goal at the very last moment and won.
(Today was the final game of the 2021 season, but in the season since you came to Urawa Reds, what have you been encouraging your players to do, or what have you been keeping in mind as coach Ricardo, that led to today's title?)
"First of all, for us, the Emperor's Cup is a different approach (from the league) that leads to the ACL (AFC Champions League). Speaking about the Emperor's Cup so far, in the matches against Kyoto (Sanga FC) and (SC) Sagamihara, and of course in the league as well, the players started off really well in the Emperor's Cup, and there were also some parts where Trial unfolded really well, so I thought that everyone was able to concentrate in these situations.
Although we conceded a goal in this Trial, we had been playing through this tournament without conceding any goals up until that point, so I thought that everyone was able to stay focused well.
However, what's important in this Trial, the final Trial, is to be able to fight properly, and by fighting, I mean not only tactically speaking, but also thinking about what part of the opponent's space we want to use, but also fighting the same way we have done up until now, in terms of close contact with the ball, and fighting in those areas, and with the same mentality as always, that's what we talked about.
Even after being tied, the team stood up and fought hard for the rest of the game, scoring goals and winning the championship. First of all, it's been a tough year, but we're very satisfied that we've earned our goal as a team, a ticket to the ACL."
(Did it go from a "good season to a great season" as Coach Ricardo often says?)
"I think that's right. It's wonderful to reach the final, but we were the winners in that. Over the past year, we have changed our style and achieved our club's goal of becoming champions again, as part of our three-year plan, and of course the ACL has been achieved as well. And I think that the efforts we've made over the past year or two have led to the gold medals that the players are wearing around their necks."
(Tomoya UGAJIN scored the goal in the semi-final, and Tomoaki Makino scored the goal in the final to win the match. How do you feel about what the departing players left behind, and how would you like the remaining players to carry it on?)
"Ugajin and Makino are great, but also Abe Yuki, who was not on the team this time, was able to lift the Emperor's Cup, so I'm very happy about that. I think that the players who have supported the team up until now will become club legends by winning titles like this, not just one in particular.
I think what they left behind is very big. And the remaining players, the players who will take over from now on, will have a strong sense of the "weight of Urawa" and will take responsibility for it next season, as this club will always be expected to achieve high things. I think it's important to always aim for those high things. This doesn't just apply to the three I just mentioned, but to fight while taking as an example what the people who have built the club and team up until now have done. This will be important from now on, as it will be this season, but I hope that what we have built up so far will be utilized effectively in the future as well."
(You mentioned the success of the veteran players, but I think that Abe Yuki, Makino Tomoaki, and Tomoya UGAJIN have supported the team with their dedicated attitude. How important is their presence in that sense?)
"I think what you just said is very important when it comes to creating and building a team. I think players need to have a hungry attitude and ambition at all times. However, it's not just that. I also think that we've been able to get this far thanks to the great contributions of players like the ones I just mentioned, who are veterans but have that same attitude regardless of their age and can be role models for the team.
It may not have been the case throughout the year that they were able to play for long periods of time, but even in the limited time they had, they always performed to the best of their ability and did a good job of preparing in the process leading up to that point.
Of course, there are the veteran players, but there are also other players who have not been able to play in many Trial. Abe played last time, but he was not included in the team this time. However, even among them, they have been preparing well. Shinzo Koroki, Thomas Deng, Daiki Kaneko, and other players who I have not mentioned, not only play well in Trial, but also always put in their best efforts as a team even when they are not included in the team. I think that this result was achieved thanks to these players.
I always tell my players that in order to achieve something as a team, even players who are not playing in these Trial are fighting for the team, and I think that was what we were able to achieve. I think that we were able to lift the cup not only because of the players who played in Trial, but also because of the players who contributed behind the scenes, behind the scenes, and behind the scenes, where no one can see.
Opponent team comment
Tomohiro Katanosaka
(Head Coach)
- (How do you feel now that you finished as runner-up?)
"It's frustrating after all. To be honest, I feel more and more frustrated as time goes on."
(In terms of Trial itself, it looked like the team was catching up towards the end and going into overtime.)
"We wanted to start well, but we conceded a goal early on, which is a bit disappointing. With the score at 0-0, we were hoping to capitalize on our chances, but conceding a goal early on put us in a position where we had to catch up, and Urawa showed off their attacking linkages and power. Especially in the first half, we were under pressure at times when we wanted to attack, and we didn't get many chances to get into the opponent's half and finish.
In the second half, we managed to make some adjustments and were able to move the ball in the opponent's territory, and in the end, with a strong foreign player, Nagasawa (Shun), in the flow of the set play, we managed to grab it and score, tying the score. Then, in the second attack of the corner kick, we got a great volley shot, and Makino (Tomoaki)-kun's luck, or maybe he's a player who has that kind of thing, was surpassed, and unfortunately, it was a frustrating loss.
As for the content and game development, it was a matter of how well the players could get into Trial, since it was the final, but we didn't start very well, and I think that was a painful point. Also, we were able to manage how Urawa was defending and attacking, and as time went on we were able to show some of our own attacks, but it's unfortunate that this didn't translate into results."
(The system was the same as in the semi-final, and in terms of positioning, the middle players dropped back one row when it came to attacking, and Shimoda (Hokuto) also dropped back enough to be involved in the build-up, and the flank players took up higher positions. In the second half, I think they fixed what wasn't going well in the first half by switching to a double defensive midfielder. I think there were a lot of tactics used today, what do you think about that?)
"First of all, Urawa's defensive and offensive formations were somewhat variable, and they tended to move the ball with three players. When fullback Sakai Hiroki dropped back, or defensive midfielders Ito Atsuki and Shibato Kai dropped back, they moved with three players, and we had a tendency to do that, especially when we played with two strikers. With the aim of how to defend against that three-man movement, we adopted the same 4-3-1-2 formation as in the match against Kawasaki (Frontale). However, they sometimes got in on the defensive side, and second balls were picked up by Koizumi Kaho and Esaka Nin, and the midfield was inevitably a diamond, so there was space open up next to Kobayashi Yuki. That was a weak point, so we tried to fix it in the second half. Also, our movements in the first half were not smooth, so we probably changed to a 2-man striker, 4-4. When we were in a -2 defense, Urawa also played 4-4-2, so the movement against the two strikers was not very good with just the center backs Pereira and Enrique (Trevisan), and even if we dropped the side backs Misao (Yuto) and Koide (Yuta), we couldn't get width, so I wanted Kobayashi Yuki to go to three as soon as possible, and Misao and Koide to have width. However, it didn't work very well, we didn't give them time, and Urawa followed them to a certain extent and blocked our movement. Enrique goes to the left, but Enrique's movement was a bit stagnant, or rather, it wasn't going well, so in the second half, we corrected the way we filled the space in the midfield and the movement, and made it a double defensive midfielder, with Enrique in the middle, Shimoda dropping to the left of the 3, and the width was the same with Misao and Koide.
We were able to make those adjustments and get things moving, but we couldn't break through, and in the end it became like a power play with a set piece. Even in that situation, we just needed to score one point, and even though we were still down 0-1, we continued to be in a position to score one point, and I think that was our plan, and that was how we fought up until then. Then they scored that amazing goal, and there was nothing we could do about it."
(Your faces were covered during the scene of the tying goal, but what were your honest feelings at the time? And what did you talk about in a long, passionate huddle on the pitch after Trial?)
"The tying goal was scored in a similar way to the semi-final against Kawasaki. It was a bit of a power play and we were behind first and Trial was going in a tough direction, but we managed to tie the game in that time and I wondered if we could create a miracle like in the Kawasaki match, and I think it was because the players really didn't give up. It was an unbelievable moment. That was the feeling I had when we tied the game.
In the huddle after Trial, I spoke to the players, saying that I have been in charge of Oita Trinita for six years and today's game was my last, about my thoughts over those six years, which were to thank the players, for bringing us to the Emperor's Cup final, for the fact that we achieved it ourselves, and that being here will be an asset to use this final stage as motivation for the next season. I also told the players to remember these feelings and to take advantage of the disappointment of losing today and the areas that we lacked next season, so that we can stand on this stage again and return to J1 from J2 in just one year. I told them to renew their spirits and motivate them to carry this momentum into next season.
(Coach Katanozaka, now that you have completed six years in charge, what would you like to apply to the future based on today's Trial and your experience over the past six years?)
"I think it's thanks to the players, staff, and everyone involved with Oita Trinita that I've been able to do this for six years. I believe it's only thanks to the support and cooperation of all those people that I've been able to serve as manager for six years. I'd like to express my gratitude to all of them, as well as to the fans and supporters, and everyone involved with Trinita.
In terms of good and bad things, this season we were relegated in the league, and we also had a chance to win the Emperor's Cup, but we ended up with another disappointing defeat, which is disappointing for me personally, but I am very pleased that Trinita was able to advance to the Emperor's Cup final against a great team like Urawa, and on the wonderful stage of the New National Stadium, and I think it was good that we were able to make a new mark in Trinita's history that will live on in the future.
It was the same in today's game, and in the past six years, and in the current season of J1, what Trinita has lacked is the intensity and quality of play, and in the end, the basics of football are important, and it's about whether we can surpass them there. I have tried various tactics and ways of playing, and I myself have tried various things as I have moved up the ranks, but in the end, it was a mirror game, or like today, we were matched up man-to-man, and we were surpassed in terms of intensity and quality, and I think that is why we were demoted in the league, and I think that the reason we couldn't win the Emperor's Cup final today was because we lacked those parts. I felt that the basics of football, the attitude to fight no matter what the situation, are very important.
I said this to the players in the locker room after the game, but I believe that how well you prepare in daily training, keep your sights on yourself, and fight will be useful on a stage like this, and I told them that unless they push themselves to the limits in those areas, they won't be able to win titles and achieve great results like this.
I told them that I want them to make use of these experiences, as they will have to return to J1 from J2 in just one year next year, and that I want them to not forget this disappointment and return to J1 in just one year next year.
I personally believe that the basics of soccer, such as the fundamentals of close-quarters play, running, switching, transitions, speed, and intensity, are all necessary in any category or for the national team, so going forward I would like to ask my players to incorporate the tactics I have learned over the past six years at Trinita, plus the basics, and learn that in order to achieve great results, it is important to pursue these things thoroughly, and I would like to take that experience and use it to move on to the next step."
"Finally, to everyone in the media, including people from Oita who are here, I would like to thank you very much for the past six years. I'm sure there were various things, such as my being difficult to hear and understand in this interview, but I really appreciate your support. I am also a big supporter of Oita Trinita, and it is a club that I have had the opportunity to manage for so long, and I really love it, so I am looking forward to Trinita returning to J1 in a year's time and I have high expectations of them.
As I move on to the next step, I would like to put the experience I gained over the past six years to good use, and I believe I will be able to meet all of you from the media again somewhere, so I would appreciate your continued support.
Thank you for the past six years."
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