NEWS
Per-Mathias Hoegmo press conference after match against Shonan
Meiji Yasuda J1 League Round 22 match against Shonan Bellmare: Post-match comments
"I don't think the first half was bad. We just struggled a little with our pressing. We tried to launch attacks, and then we counterattacked, so we weren't that off-balance, but we still conceded a goal.
At halftime, we talked about "keeping the ball moving with a good balance and staying calm." From the start of the second half, we dominated the game and created chances. Thiago (Santana) scored two great goals. We continued to create chances after that, and I think it would not have been surprising if we had scored the third and fourth goals.
Apart from the offside situations, Shonan also had almost no chances. I think the goal that made it 2-2 was decisive. We lost the ball from a long ball. (Sato) Yodai should have stayed and covered the space, but he went forward. And the opponent was left free. I think we had enough players for the third goal, but that was what they lost.
I told the players that they can be proud of how they entered the second half and how they played most of the second half. However, I think they need to learn from the last 5-6 minutes of this match as a lesson on how to close the game. In one-on-one situations, you have to fight for your life. In the worst case scenario, you have to stop the ball even if it means giving the other team a free kick.
We need to score more points to decide the game, or close the game with determination. At the same time, I need to look back and see what I could have done to avoid this. I want to praise the players for their fight, but I also want to take home a lesson.
We were able to show great offense in front of our great fans and supporters, but perhaps our transition to defense from there was insufficient today. In the pre-match interview, I said that Shonan is a team that is very good at handling the ball and scores while creating chances. If you give Shonan space, I think they are a team with high scoring ability. And I think we were able to fight without giving the opponent much space until the last 5 or 6 minutes.
[Question-and-answer session]
(Compared to the games against Nagoya Grampus and Jubilo Iwata, when attacking, rather than the entire team pushing forward, the forwards tended to make individual attacks. This made the attack feel rushed and drawn out, but what are your thoughts on this?)
"I think part of it is the tactical decisions we made during our attacks. There were times when we should have played with a bit more determination. Another thing is that several players were tired in the final 10 minutes. There were players who had been playing for a long time, and conversely, players who were tired because it had been a while since their last appearance.
Even so, I think we were able to play without giving too much space to our opponents until we conceded the second goal. And that goal was decisive. We gave them space that we shouldn't have given them.
As we were playing with a new combination of players, I think that some of the details that we hadn't perfected were apparent in the match, but I think that was also a natural part of the flow of things."
(As the losing Shonan continued to attack with momentum, shouldn't the Reds have just gone along with it? Instead, should they have slowed down the tempo of the game a bit and played a more unpleasant game?)
"The opponents needed to score, and they changed to a 4-4-2 diamond formation, so we should have played more calmly. The 4-4-2 diamond formation opened up spaces that we could use. We should have played more calmly, but we were tired and I think we made quite a few mistakes in our decisions."
(What was the aim of moving Samuel Gustafson to attacking midfielder when the score was 2-1?)
"By moving Kaito (Yasui) back to the double defensive midfielder position, we tried to get him to balance things out. We wanted Samuel (Gustavsson) to play more freely and exploit the spaces that Shonan had open."
[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]
"I don't think the first half was bad. We just struggled a little with our pressing. We tried to launch attacks, and then we counterattacked, so we weren't that off-balance, but we still conceded a goal.
At halftime, we talked about "keeping the ball moving with a good balance and staying calm." From the start of the second half, we dominated the game and created chances. Thiago (Santana) scored two great goals. We continued to create chances after that, and I think it would not have been surprising if we had scored the third and fourth goals.
Apart from the offside situations, Shonan also had almost no chances. I think the goal that made it 2-2 was decisive. We lost the ball from a long ball. (Sato) Yodai should have stayed and covered the space, but he went forward. And the opponent was left free. I think we had enough players for the third goal, but that was what they lost.
I told the players that they can be proud of how they entered the second half and how they played most of the second half. However, I think they need to learn from the last 5-6 minutes of this match as a lesson on how to close the game. In one-on-one situations, you have to fight for your life. In the worst case scenario, you have to stop the ball even if it means giving the other team a free kick.
We need to score more points to decide the game, or close the game with determination. At the same time, I need to look back and see what I could have done to avoid this. I want to praise the players for their fight, but I also want to take home a lesson.
We were able to show great offense in front of our great fans and supporters, but perhaps our transition to defense from there was insufficient today. In the pre-match interview, I said that Shonan is a team that is very good at handling the ball and scores while creating chances. If you give Shonan space, I think they are a team with high scoring ability. And I think we were able to fight without giving the opponent much space until the last 5 or 6 minutes.
[Question-and-answer session]
(Compared to the games against Nagoya Grampus and Jubilo Iwata, when attacking, rather than the entire team pushing forward, the forwards tended to make individual attacks. This made the attack feel rushed and drawn out, but what are your thoughts on this?)
"I think part of it is the tactical decisions we made during our attacks. There were times when we should have played with a bit more determination. Another thing is that several players were tired in the final 10 minutes. There were players who had been playing for a long time, and conversely, players who were tired because it had been a while since their last appearance.
Even so, I think we were able to play without giving too much space to our opponents until we conceded the second goal. And that goal was decisive. We gave them space that we shouldn't have given them.
As we were playing with a new combination of players, I think that some of the details that we hadn't perfected were apparent in the match, but I think that was also a natural part of the flow of things."
(As the losing Shonan continued to attack with momentum, shouldn't the Reds have just gone along with it? Instead, should they have slowed down the tempo of the game a bit and played a more unpleasant game?)
"The opponents needed to score, and they changed to a 4-4-2 diamond formation, so we should have played more calmly. The 4-4-2 diamond formation opened up spaces that we could use. We should have played more calmly, but we were tired and I think we made quite a few mistakes in our decisions."
(What was the aim of moving Samuel Gustafson to attacking midfielder when the score was 2-1?)
"By moving Kaito (Yasui) back to the double defensive midfielder position, we tried to get him to balance things out. We wanted Samuel (Gustavsson) to play more freely and exploit the spaces that Shonan had open."
[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]
