As they looked to break the trend that enveloped them, Verdy made big changes to the squad. Matheus returned to the starting lineup after recovering from the injury he suffered before the previous match, while Shohei Takahashi slotted in at left side attacker. In midfield, Rihito Yamamoto was chosen at libero, while Naoto Sawai and Koki Morita were paired in front of him. Finally, on the front line, Jin Hanato was chosen in the free role, along with Shion Inoue at ride wide striker and Mizuki Arai at left wide striker.

Verdy were the first of the teams to develop their rhythm as the match began. The players were able to win the ball and carry it high up the pitch, after which they began to probe at the Yamagata goal. However, they were unable to generate shots and instead suffered on the counterattack. In the 6^th minute, a long ball fell behind the Verdy back line and a Yamagata attacker had a free run on goal. Matheus left his line to close him down, but the ball was played past the Verdy goalkeeper and rolled into the back of the net. Verdy now looked to push back, but they suffered a series of mistakes in their build up play that prevented them from carrying the ball to the front line. With few players making runs up top and no avenues in on goal, the players were forced to switch sides and recycle possession repeatedly. In the 32^nd minute, Verdy would be pinned back by a counterattack and after successfully blocking a shot on goal, an opposition player pounced on the second ball and let loose with a mid-range effort that found the right corner of the net to put the team down by two. Hoping to change the momentum, the Verdy bench would move in the 41^st minute and Sawai was taken off for Koike. However, the players were unable to generate a positive rhythm and in the second minute of additional time, a looping pass over the back line led to another goal, putting Verdy three behind as the half time whistle sounded.

At half time, Verdy would once again look to change the momentum by making three substitutions. However, they were still unable to break down the opposition for large portions of the second half. In the 72^nd minute, Hanato acted as a target man and played Koike in on goal, but his shot just missed the target. From that point, the players were better able to stretch the defense and create space, but they still had trouble creating shooting opportunities.  Finally, in the 80^th minute, Yamagata broke into the right corner of the Verdy penalty area and a cross was turned in at the near post for a fourth goal. Verdy brought on Okubo and refused to give up, but nothing went right and they were unable to further impact the result before the final whistle.

The four goals claimed against them on this day were the most Verdy have conceded this season. In addition, the team’s emphasis on attacking play makes the three matches they have gone without a goal of their own hurt even more. During this recent stretch of five matches, the team achieved victories by multiple goals, suffered draws after being unable to score, and lost by multiple goals themselves. It was certainly an eventful two weeks. Now, the players will have a one-week break in which they can try to stabilize things before the next run of five consecutive matches, when they will once again try to pile up points. The squad must confront their style head on and improve as much as time will allow.

Your thoughts on the match?
It was a very disappointing game. In particular, I regret that the first half did not go according to our plan. As far as the second half is concerned, I think it was more acceptable. I will look over what went wrong and work to make improvements. I know that the players are doing their best and that they tried many new things, but in the first half, especially during the early minutes when things were going our way, I think our problem was overconfidence and a lack of competitive spirit. We seemed to forget that everything about the way we play is designed to earn goals and we didn’t press our advantage enough or play with immediate determination to score. We may not have much time left to work on things, but I want to make improvements to that aspect. We didn’t play badly over the course of the 90 minutes as a while, but we need to get back to basics, whether it’s showing the will to compete, winning or losing the second ball, or not giving up possession of the ball. As far as the first half is concerned, there are a lot of things to go over in those areas and in addressing them, I want to help the players return to our style of play. Finally, I want to say that I am truly sorry to the fans and supporters who traveled all the way to Yamagata and cheered us on until the very end. Next time, I want us to play the kind of football that will reward their support.

In no other match this season did the team seem so unable to bypass the first wave of the opposition press. You mentioned that things didn’t go according to plan. Can you be specific about what went wrong?
We wanted to be a bit more varied in our positioning, but it didn’t go well in the beginning.

What did you hope to accomplish by lining up with two players in a free role up top and with the changes in personnel from the previous match?
With the double free man, I wanted Shion (Inoue) to create an advantage for us in midfield and also lessen Hanato’s workload by freeing him from the responsibility of dropping back into midfield. That way, he could play closer to the goal and do more near the square and finishing zones. I also wanted to open up some space on the right side that we could use. We didn’t have long to work on these things and the players did well to try in spite of that. Honestly, though, it didn’t go very well.

Your back line was breached several times, today. What are your thoughts on that?
We were weak in applying pressure to the players making the pass. I’m also disappointed that we lost almost all the battles for the second ball. We have to look back at those aspects of our play and do the obvious things like closing down space in the middle or executing challenge and cover. I definitely want to address those issues.