2025 Meiji Yasuda J1 League Round 1 match against Vissel Kobe Post-match comments

"I think the team did a good job, given the difficult circumstances of playing an away game against last year's champions, and with many new players. Although we had some unlucky moments, such as having a goal disallowed, I think we were very close to winning, so I'm not completely satisfied.

I am pleased with how the players maintained discipline and continued to execute tactics with a high level of intensity. They have the skills and quality, so I think they will be able to keep the ball more effectively in the final third in future matches.

We have two more difficult away games coming up, but we want to get three points instead of just one like we did today, so we'll take that as a positive and get ready to go."

[Question and Answer Session]
(I think you have a lot of offensively talented players on the bench, but do you take the risk and bring them on to get the three points, or do you think a draw is not so bad? What are your thoughts after the 65th minute?)
"I think it depends on the opponent and the flow of the game. Today we were playing against last year's champions, so it was important for us to bring home a good result.

We have new players with high offensive abilities, and we have been practicing with them in preseason, but we can only see their true performance in official matches. I would like to deepen my knowledge of them as I play in matches. I hope to be more courageous in future matches, including my play and my decisions.

(What was the aim of combining Kaito Yasui and Ryoma Watanabe as defensive midfielders?)
"Kaito (Yasui) and Ryoma (Watanabe) are doing a great job in the center of the team. Kobe's Gegenpress is one of the strongest in the J-League, and they are a team that recovers a lot of balls there. Against that team, Kaito and Ryoma did a very good job today."

What is your assessment of the new players? Do you think they have performed well or can play better?
"I think all of our new players did a good job today. Some exceeded our expectations - I won't mention their names now - but there were also no players who fell short of our expectations. Looking ahead, I think that gives us reason to be optimistic. For example, we had a new player like (Nagakura) Miki on the bench. We considered playing Miki during the game, but towards the end of the game, Kobe was playing some dangerous set pieces, so we decided to keep the tall Thiago (Santana)."

[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]