On the 13th, after the 29th round of the 2025 Meiji Yasuda J1 League Gamba Osaka, Takuro Kaneko, who repeatedly challenged opponents with his dribbles, looked back on the day's Trial and spoke of his enthusiasm for the next match, the home game against Kashima Antlers on the 20th.

(It was a game you wanted to win, but is there anything you wish you had done better?)
"Especially in the first half, we were pushed back for a lot of time, so I wish we could have started the first half playing the kind of football we did at the start of the second half."

(Shoya Nakajima is good at passing the ball close to the left wing, but perhaps Kaneko will be positioned on the right wing to receive the ball when the ball is changed to the right.)
"(Nakajima) Shoya often drops to the left, so when he turned, I was aiming for a side change and whether I or (Ishihara) Hironori would be the one to put up a hold.

I wish Hironori and I had been able to rotate a little more and do more to lure the opposing fullbacks."

(How do you feel when you go to steal the ball from the front?)
"Regarding the decision of whether or not to have the wingers come up to the center backs, there weren't many opportunities today where they could have. This resulted in Fukuoka (Shota) and Nakatani (Shinnosuke) wasting time, so if we were going to press, we should have been more courageous in our efforts.

I think that if we don't press with courage, we'll never get the ball. It didn't feel like we were being defeated, but especially in the first half, I don't think we were pressing to steal the ball. We spent a lot of time blocking and enduring, so we all talked about being patient there, but if we wanted to steal the ball higher up and aim for a short counter, I think we could have been more aggressive and courageous and gone forward more often."

(Why were you able to switch gears and fight in the second half?)
"In the first half, we spent a lot of time defending in our own half, but we managed to keep the score at zero. As the score was 0-0 going into the second half, we switched gears and talked about going all out in the second half. In particular, we talked about Matsuo (Yusuke) playing as the lone striker and aiming to get behind the defense.

If we had scored first in the second half, the flow of the game would have changed, and I think we were able to use the time well."

Your next match is a home game against Kashima Antlers, and I think it will have the biggest attendance of the season. It's important to win the next match, but how have you changed your mindset and increased your motivation over the past week?
"We've had a string of disappointing losses, so if we don't win, we'll just keep going down this path. Today was a must-win Trial, but all we can do now is switch gears and go into the Kashima match at 100%, so we want to prepare well for the match."

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[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]