Review: Cerezo Osaka 1-1 Nagoya Grampus (J1 MD5)

Sota Kitano's fourth goal of the season gave the team the lead, but in the second half they were unable to convert good chances and conceded a goal in the last minutes, resulting in a frustrating draw.

Five days after the previous game against Albirex Niigata, which halted a two-game losing streak, Cerezo Osaka returned home to face Nagoya Grampus in the fifth round of the Meiji Yasuda J1 League, looking for their first home win of the season. There were three changes in the starting lineup from the previous match. Niko Takahashi made his first J1 start, while Reiya Sakata and Hinata Kida returned to the starting lineup for the first time in two games.



From the beginning of the first half, Cerezo controlled the ball and made passes to get into the opponents' half. However, with Nagoya attacking out wide and simply trying to penetrate in behind our defenders, Nagoya got their first real chance in the 12th minute when a long kick from the final line was collected by Kensuke Nagai, who dribbled and fired a shot that was saved by goalkeeper Kim Jin Hyeon. In the 26th minute, Cerezo had a good chance. Sota Kitano beat an opponent and passed to Sakata on the left flank. Sakata cut in and fired a shot that was blocked by a defender. In the 31st minute, Nagoya attacked on our own left flank and had a decisive moment, but Mateus Castro's shot sailed over the crossbar. Another strong shot came from Sho Inagaki of Nagoya in the 37th minute from a cleared ball off a corner kick, but goalkeeper Kim Jin Hyeon again made a great save to prevent the goal from scoring. Then, Cerezo took the lead in first-half added time. Shinnosuke Hatanaka had the ball free and passed it to the center of the pitch. Kida then ran onto the ball and passed it forward with one touch. Nakajima ran in and sent in a cross, which Kitano fired into the net. This goal, which was scored with two vertical passes, was a wonderful reflection of manager Arthur Papas' philosophy of “always moving forward."





Cerezo had an excellent start to the second half, playing aggressively on both offense and defense, but in the 49th and 50th minutes, Lucas Fernandes failed to get a shot off the target. In the 61st minute, Cerezo seemed to be outmatched by Nagoya, who made three changes to their starting lineup, but manager Papas quickly brought on Shinji Kagawa and Masaya Shibayama to get the ball rolling again. In the 66th minute, Nakajima met a corner kick by Takahashi, but his header was stopped by Yohei Takeda, a former Cerezo goalkeeper. Takahashi is likely to continue to play a good role in corner kicks, as he did in the 67th minute, taking a kick with a trajectory that seemed to go directly into the goal. In the 74th minute, Fernandes got behind the opponent from a pass by Hatanaka and sent a cross to Kagawa, who ran to meet it, but his shot was stopped by a defender. In the 84th minute, Hatanaka met Fernandes' corner kick at the near post, but his header hit the crossbar. In the second half, Cerezo controlled the game for the most part, but after failing to convert a series of chances, they conceded in the 85th minute. Nagoya played the ball from the center to our left flank, broke through, and crossed for Mateus Castro to score. In the second half, Cerezo had not given their opponents any real chances up to that point, but they were done in by one shot. In the 87th minute, Kitano took a pass from Kagawa and fired in a shot, and in added time, Nakajima took a vertical pass from Takahashi, turned and shot. It was a good shot, but was blocked by goalkeeper Takeda. Shortly after, Fernandes met Shibayama's cross at the far post, but his shot was deflected off the post. The game ended 1-1. The two teams shared a point.





The first half was evenly contested, with each side playing to their strengths, but in the second half Cerezo were able to push forward for much of the half, so the 1-1 draw was a disappointing result. Reflecting on the match, captain Shunta Tanaka said, “We were able to perform in today's game what we have been doing in practice. We believe in what the boss (manager Arthur Papas) is offering us, and I think today was a game in which we were able to express that on the pitch." Looking ahead, he added, "We're not getting good results at the moment, but what we are doing is not wrong, so we just keep believing in it and keep working on it." The fact that they were able to keep up their speedy attack of turning the arrow of the pass forward for 90 minutes plus second-half added time was a positive outcome of this match. In the next match, they will look to improve their accuracy and score more than one goal to get their second win of the season.