Review: Cerezo Osaka 2-0 Urawa Reds (J1 MD15)

Endured the first half of inferiority and scored two goals in the second half. Achieved the first consecutive win of the season with a unified intention.


It was after a three days interval from the "Osaka Derby" that they had a vivid come-from-behind victory. It was the home match again in a row in this section. Cerezo Osaka received Urawa Reds to Yodoko Sakura Stadium and faced the Meiji Yasuda J1 League Section 15 aiming for the first consecutive win of the season. The starting lineup was changed by one person from the previous section. Ryuya Nishio, who missed the "Osaka Derby" due to poor physical condition, returned to the CB and formed a combination with Matej Jonic.

At the beginning Urawa took possession, but Cerezo was the first to make an opportunity. From the kick of GK Kim Jin Hyeon, Riku Matsuda and Seiya Maikuma connected the pass and broke the right side, and Jean Patric matched the cross of Seiya Maikuma, but the shot flew in front of the GK. After that, Cerezo pushed in, such as obtaining CK in quick succession, and in the 16th minute Adam Taggart, who came out to Hiroaki Okuno's pass, made a chance from breaking through with the dribble. Also in the 17th minute, Riki Harakawa entered in front of the goal and almost broke through, from the pass of Hiroshi Kiyotake. Cerezo kept the good momentum from the previous section, which they won, and approached the goal in the early stages. However, when Urawa took possession again from around the 20th minute, Kim Jin Hyeon’s kick hit the opponent and he shot the rebound, but this was an offside judgement. They had another pinch from the counterattack in the 27th minute, but this time the post saved them and they did not allow the opponent a goal. After that, Urawa's attacking time continued, but as Ryosuke Yamanaka looked back, "From about the 35th minute, on the pitch, we said each other ,'Let's endure with no conceding goals in the first half,' and unified our intention." The entire team overcame the opponent's offensive and finished the first half of the inferiority with no lost points.

After half-time, “In the second half, we all shared to go forward a little bit on defense and the build-up position on offense” (Manager Akio Kogiku), and Cerezo began to show a different development from the first half. It was in the 52nd minute for the effect to appear on the attack side. From Matsuda on the right side, Jean Patric who took a position inside, connected the pass to Yamanaka who came up from the outside, and they got a scoring chance. However, it did not catch the frame as "a little too much tensed" (Yamanaka). Still in the 62nd minute, this time Matsuda made a pass to Kiyotake, and Yamanaka, who received the pass from Kiyotake, fed a cross. This led to the opponent’s hand and Cerezo got a PK, then Kiyotake firmly scored and Cerezo succeeded in the opener. In the second half, they allowed Urawa only two shots. There were some pinch scenes from CK, but they endured the Urawa’s counterattack with GK Kim Jin Hyeon’s good saves, and then they scored the additional goal to decide the game result in the 89th minute. When the opponents were leaning forward, Nishio sent a long kick at once, Sota Kitano competed for the ball, and Mutsuki Kato held and passed to Maikuma who had started running into space. "I thought that if it was Mutsu, he would look forward" (Maikuma), and Maikuma who started running with confidence in his teammate looked carefully at the position of the GK and shot. Brilliantly he stabbed it to the far side and scored his third point this season.

The match ended 2-0 as it was. "It was a tough match, but this win is a big one for the team. It was a very valuable victory for our team from now on," said Captain Kiyotake. Also “I think the team, who can win in this way, can grow much stronger. I felt great growth in today's game," said Manager Kogiku. With the team's first consecutive win of the season, the ranking has risen to 5th place. In addition, in the half-time of this game, and after the game, a greeting was given by Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, who has been completely transferred to K.V. Oostende, Belgian First Division. A big applause was sent by the stadium to his powerful words for the future challenges and his thoughts to Cerezo.



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