On the 12th, after MEIJI YASUDA J1 100 YEAR VISION LEAGUE Round 10 match against Tokyo Verdy [MATCH PARTNER Kokudai Seminar], Hirokazu Ishihara reflected on Trial.

(There were many crossing situations today, and also some side changes, but have we managed to organize them well over the past week?)
"The rotation on the wing has been mentioned before, so I think it's connected. It's not like it happened this week in particular."

(What about the number of players and their positions when they have the ball?)
"If we're going to put in a lot of crosses, we definitely need to increase the number of players in the box. I don't think we've had many Trial where we've put in this many crosses so far, but we were able to create some chances that way today, so if we're going to do that, we need to make sure we can replicate that."

(Were there many intentional crosses?)
"That's not true. However, when Takuro (Kaneko) went inside and I was on the outside receiving the ball, I was thinking of passing it up if I had the time, and since the opponent wasn't that strong inside, I thought that was an opportunity and I was thinking of passing it up early."
(Onaiwu) I've been talking to Ado-kun all the time, even when we're not playing in Trial, and I've been watching him a lot during extra practice after training, so I think there were a few plays today where I tried to match his style. I want to improve the quality of those plays so that they actually translate into goals."

(What are some of the things that Ado Onaiwu asks of you, and what are some of the things that Ishihara asks of you?)
"Ado is the type of player who can react after seeing the ball, so rather than saying, 'Pass it right there,' it's more like, 'Just pass it roughly around here and I'll go for it.' It actually worked well, and if we can increase the number of times we do that as a team, I think we can create chances even from loose balls. We just need to improve the quality of that even further."

(The quality of the passes looked really good, but since Ado Onaiwu was able to see the ball and then move to connect with it, did the crosses look good to him too?)
"He has the technique, and Ado is quick in his movements, so he can usually move to where the opponent is coming in. That's true for (Komori) Hiyori as well, but I think it depends on the situation."

(When the opponent was playing with a five-man defense, the Reds' wingers took high positions, creating a 4-2-4-like relationship, which seemed to work very well for them.)
"We were trying to increase our side changes. Opponents with a five-man defense have a lot of players at the back, but they seem to be quite weak against side changes. I was actually doing it myself, and I think everyone knows that if you switch sides too many times, a weakness will appear somewhere. I think it was good that we were able to do that well a few times with our side changes, but I think we can do more, and unless we further improve the quality and tempo of our side changes, we won't be able to score more goals from open play."

(In the second half, since they had possession of the ball, perhaps they could have moved it around a bit more?)
"I think everyone played with a sense of ease today, but I believe we can play with even more ease against this opponent. We need to continue to reproduce what we've been doing, and everyone needs to have a shared understanding of what we can do. That's something we need to work on properly, starting from practice."

(The opponent often passed the ball around in midfield, and you were told that you needed to go after the opponent when they crossed the ball. Were you conscious of that?)
"No, I was just doing it as usual. You have to do the job of a full-back as a matter of course."

(The right center back position was filled by Kai Shibato, who was unfamiliar with the position. How did Ishihara plan to support Shibato in order to bring out his individual strengths?)
"When we were building up play, I think we were able to adjust our height and the opponent's shadow striker was targeting Kai (Shibato), so we took a lower position to draw out the wing-backs. I think we were able to do that while watching the opponent. I think it was good that we were able to give Kai options as well. The manager had told us that since Kai is not used to playing center back, he wanted us to be as solid as possible, including providing defensive cover, so we just tried to do what a full-back is supposed to do as a matter of course."

(The opponent's front line was applying very fast pressure. What was the countermeasure?)
"I thought that adjusting the height of the fullbacks would be crucial. When we were playing in a deep position, the wingbacks had to come out a fairly long distance, and there were times when the defenders behind them couldn't keep up with the sliding, so we talked about covering the space behind them at those times."

(This was his first full match of the year, but in second-half stoppage time, he sprinted to meet a pass from Shusaku Nishikawa, went out of bounds, and then sprinted back at full speed.)
"It's about feelings."

(Regarding the condition?)
"Things were going well up until then. But today I wanted to win, and it was Trial I had to win, so I went into the game with the feeling that I wanted to change the momentum, but I couldn't, and it ended up being another loss. I don't know what will happen next, but I think we should have won."

(Did you and Yoichi Naganuma discuss something like that before you went ahead with it?)
"We both had periods last season where we played in Trial but this season where we didn't, so we kept talking about 'let's keep working hard until our chance comes.'"

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