Meiji Yasuda J1 League, No.23 against Kyoto Sanga F.C. Comments after the game

First of all, I would like to thank Kyoto Sanga F.C. for the great fight today. I think the first half was not bad. In the second half, the quality of the game was a little bit uneven, but we were still able to create great chances. I think we had a lot of chances to enter the Kyoto penalty area.

I am proud of and grateful for the work of the medical staff these days. Taka (Takahiro Sekine), Tomo (Tomoaki Okubo), and Matsuo (Yusuke) were able to join the team. Although there were a few time restrictions, they were ready to take the pitch. It was a pity that Samuel (Gustafsson), who had been doing well in the build-up to that point, had to be replaced after 25 minutes.

In the second half, we made various substitutions. The quality of the team may have decreased, but I think they fought well. I think the man of the match today was the right center back Rikito Inoue. I think he was great both in defense and in his handling of the ball in attack.

As I said earlier in the locker room in front of the players, tomorrow morning (Ayumu) Ohata will leave for Paris. I am looking forward to seeing him fight on behalf of Japan.

Of course we could have won this match, but it was our third clean sheet in the last four matches. I'm looking forward to a good week of practice before the summer break against Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo."

[Q&A.]
(Samuel Gustafson What happened to the player and why was he replaced? Also, Yota Sato player missed the game, did something happen to him as well?)
"Yota Sato was not able to be a member of the team yesterday and today because he was sick and had a fever. Samuel was holding his neck area and we didn't want to gamble there either, so he was replaced."

(Today, the pinch was concentrated in the last five minutes of the second half of the first half. Do you think there is an issue in that time?)
(Did you have any issues in the last five minutes of the first half?) "In the last seven or eight minutes, we were tired and we had a new combination of players, so we couldn't control the ball well and lost a lot of balls. We tried to force the ball a little too much and lost the ball, which led to chances and set pieces for our opponents. That was one of our opponents' strong points.

(What changes did you expect to see in the player substitutions in the second half? Also, Rikito Inoue why did you change players?)
Reito (Inoue) had a cramp in his leg. He had been playing very well up to that point, so I didn't want to let him continue to play with a cramp and have it get worse.

We had discussed before the game that Tomo and Taka would play no more than 60 minutes. When I saw the speed of Rio (Futa), who came in on the right wing, I felt he was a player with the ability to win games. The same goes for Matsuo on the left. The last changeover was due to a leg cramp of Rei Ito. So, I dropped (Ito) Atsuki to the defensive line and used Matsuo as a FW, aiming to get out from the back.

[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]