Asian Champions League Group F Matchday 4
Thank god it wasn't his knee again...Both photos from Tokyo Chunichi Sports |
It was a much-changed Tokyo XI from the loss to Kashima on Saturday, with Hitoshi Shiota replacing the injured Shuichi Gonda in goal, Aria Hasegawa coming in for the suspended Hideto Takahashi (who was due a rest anyway), and Sotan Tanabe, Yohei Otake and Kazuma Watanabe given starts over Tatsuya Yazawa, Naotake Hanyu and Lucas (who all took spots on the bench). This was the first time in this young season that we'd seen Mr. Popovic prepared to rotate, and three unenforced changes among five in all was quite a bold move and an indication he felt fresh ideas were needed on the pitch.
We were somewhat surprised to see Otake start in the hole, with Tanabe on the left, as we'd never really seen Otake given time in that role under the two previous managers, but The Little Maestro was right into the thick of things, and his class on the ball was evident from the opening minutes.
Great header from Kazuma. |
Naohiro Ishikawa fired off the first shot of the game, and then in the fifth minute Watanabe signalled his intentions by getting a neat shot away on the turn, unfortunately too close to the Beijing 'keeper. Two minutes later though, those two combined to give us the lead, after Jang Hyun Soo intercepted a Beijing clearance and was fouled about 40 yards from goal. Ishikawa looped in the free kick and Watanabe rose completely unmarked around the penalty spot to power in a header that went in off the right hand post.
An early goal was just what we needed, and Beijing attempted to take the sting out of the game by keeping the ball for much of the next ten minutes, but with our midfield and defence pressing effectively quite high up the pitch they were unable to create any clear chances for their big Brazilian striker Reinaldo.
When we did have the ball we looked to spread it wide, with Otake and Hasegawa spraying passes out to Tanabe and Kosuke Ota on the left, and a little more quality on a couple of ocassions from Tanabe might have seen us extend our lead, but his crosses, and one attempt to play a return ball to Otake, came to nothing.