Review: Cerezo Osaka 1-0 Gamba Osaka (J1 MD29)

Cerezo dominated offensively and defensively from the start, and Ryuya Nishio scored the winning goal from a pass by Sota Kitano, both academy graduates, for a comfortable victory in the Osaka Derby.

After a postponement due to Typhoon No. 10, Cerezo Osaka faced Gamba Osaka in the Osaka Derby in the 29th round of the Meiji Yasuda J1 League. Although it was a weekday evening, the atmosphere was already "ready" for kick-off, with supporters of both teams creating a lot of excitement before the match. The starting lineup was changed by one player from the last match against Kashiwa Reysol. Koji Toriumi was left out and Hiroaki Okuno came in, with Shunta Tanaka playing in the back three in a 3-4-2-1 formation.

The players entered the stands with a tight look on their faces as the “PRIDE” choreo, created by Cerezo supporters, was shown in the stands. From the start of the match, Cerezo dominated Gamba by gaining possession and using their wide flanks. In the 8th minute, from a corner kick, Ryosuke Shindo hit the crossbar with a header. In the 17th minute, Cerezo had their first chance. Reiya Sakata, who had started the Osaka derby following the Kashiwa game, dribbled in, Sota Kitano heeled it over, and Leo Ceara found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but the angle was a little off and his shot was blocked by Jun Ichimori. In the 19th minute, a quick change of attack and defense led to the ball being won high up the field, and Kitano fired a shot through the middle. In the 28th minute, another decisive opportunity came for Ceara, as he took advantage of an aggressive defensive move by Shindo to connect with Okuno, Hinata Kida, and Lucas Fernandes, before finally shooting from just inside the penalty area after a clever move to beat the opposing defender. Again, however, Gamba's guardian Ichimori, who was a graduate of Cerezo's academy and was in the same year as Takahiro Ogihara and Ryo Nagai, was able to make a good save. The first half ended goalless, but Cerezo completely dominated the match in terms of performance. The back three was able to deal with the long balls and vertical pass attempts. They were also superior in the battle for the second ball in the midfield, allowing Gamba no shots in the first half.





"In the first half, we got off to a good start and took control of the game, and at halftime manager Kogiku said, “The game unfolded perfectly." In the second half, all we had to do was to score” (Nishio). And Cerezo succeeded in scoring a much-needed goal early in the second half. In the 48th minute, after Sakata was fouled, Fernandes sent a low free kick to the near post, and Kitano was quick to react, taking a nifty trap and moving it forward for Nishio to swipe with his right foot and send it into the net. Yodoko Sakura Stadium erupted with excitement at the strike by the Sakura's native defender, who said, “I hit it on instinct." The crowd cheered for the number 33, who expressed his joy with a yell and a jumping guts pose. In the 55th minute, Kida finally fired a powerful mid-range shot from the second ball of a free kick. In the 64th minute, Kitano cut high and struck a long shot. The aggressiveness of the team's goal-seeking continued in the second half, but the high pace of the first half meant that the entire team became a little slow in the middle of the second half. The space created by this allowed Takashi Usami to take advantage of it, leading to an attack by Gamba, but again in the second half, there were no shots on target by the opponents. In the 82nd minute, Gamba had a close call when Welton broke through on their own right flank and found the net, but the goal was disallowed for offside.







In the final phase of the game, three front-line players were substituted. Ryogo Yamasaki, Capixaba, and Satoki Uejo were brought in to replace Ceara, Fernandes, and Kitano, who had been on the offensive at full throttle from the start. Uejo made a spectacle of himself immediately after coming on, threatening the goal with a direct free kick, while Yamasaki created time on the front line and Capixaba also made a tackle to stop an attack by the opponents. Cerezo once again tightened up their defense, and in the added time of the second half, they shut out Gamba's power-play attack to the very end, even with the CBs up. As Tanaka recalled, “We were able to do what we wanted to do by stopping what our opponents wanted to do,” and Cerezo won the 48th Osaka Derby in the J1 League. I felt again that this moment is the reason why we have been working so hard all season,” said Shindo, who fought hard wearing the captain's mark in this match. In a special match that was not just one of 38, Cerezo won a great victory that will go down in Osaka Derby history.