Review: Cerezo Osaka 2-2 Albirex Niigata (J1 MD1)
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The 2023 season has finally started. This season marks a milestone for Cerezo Osaka, who will celebrate their 30th anniversary in December. In such a memorable year, club legend Shinji Kagawa returned. They had the opening game with the expectations growing naturally.
However, they were forestalled by Albirex Niigata"s skillful pass work at the beginning of the match, and the press that they had prepared did not fit. “From good defense to good attack” did not work for a while, but once they found the breakthrough with a starting point of right SB, Jordy Croux, who was newly joined, and then they had a scoring chance in the 21st minute. From Croux who was widely running, Seiya Maikuma entered the half space, received the pass and fed a returning cross, and Hirotaka Tameda reacted to it without marks, but his shot went over the crossbar. Then, they conceded a goal in the 22nd minute. As a result of what Matej Jonic competed for the Niigata’s long feed, he was lured out, and Niigata made use of the empty space created.
However, as Tameda looked back after the match, "Although we gave the opponents an opener, we did not feel rushed”, they immediately caught up to tie six minutes later. Ryuya Nishio, Tameda, and Ryosuke Yamanaka connected the pass on the left side, and Croux picked up Yamanaka"s cross that flowed outside, and sent a sharp inswing cross, and Tameda jumped in from the opposite side and shook the goal net with his vigorous header. For Tameda, it was the first goal in J1 in seven years since the Avispa Fukuoka era in 2016. Just before the end of the first half, the defense from the front line worked, and as Leo Ceara and Sota Kitano had chances in quick succession, they kicked back the inferiority in the early stages and regained the initiative to finish the first half.
In the second half, Cerezo made some mistakes in the pass-exchanges and continued to struggle to reach shooting for a while. Then, in the 71st minute, the man finally made it onto the pitch. It was Kagawa who returned to the J.League and C.Osaka for the first time in 12 and a half years, this season. Then, 4 minutes later, the score was produced on his first play. Starting from Kagawa, he delivered a superb through ball to Yamanaka, and in response to Yamanaka"s cross, Hiroaki Okuno reacted to a loose ball that had been incompletely cleared by a DF and firmly kicked it into the shooting course, allowing Cerezo to reverse the score. The stadium was filled with the second-largest number of spectators in the history of Yodokou Sakura Stadium and was filled with loud cheers and the maximum voltages. Cerezo wanted to finish with a win, but conceded a goal from CK in the 80th minute. Repeating last season"s problem of "conceding a goal in the last 15 minutes", the opening game ended in a 2-2 draw.
Since they challenged the opening game with enthusiasm of "It"s not just 1 of 34 games” (Manager Akio Kogiku), they wanted to obtain three winning points as a good start, but they showed the potential power that they could reverse a score modifying plays. Also the new forces actively played. As Kagawa looked back after the match, "I"m sure we can improve the quality and close teamwork," it"s true that the content was promising for the future. In the next section, they will aim for the first win of the season in the away game against Avispa Fukuoka.
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