Verdy were the team who grasped the pace in the early moments. In the 6^th minute, Junki Koike left his defender for dead and played a cross from the right wing to set up a headed shot from Shohei Takahashi, after the latter had battled for position with Buijs in front of goal. The shot then took a deflection off a defender and hit the left post before falling in front of Takayuki Fukumura, who took a swing at the ball but came up empty. In the subsequent moments, Verdy continued to keep possession and move the ball with patience as they pushed into opposition territory, creating and exploiting space with clever attacking play. In the 10^th minute, a passing move on the left side drew the defense out of position and Haruya Ide playhttps://verdy.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/image/game/31289_1200x675_5fabe0fd39953.jpged an early cross to the opposite side. Having made a late run behind the shoulder of his marker, Koike found himself free and met the cross with a first-time volley, only to see his effort drift wide of the left post. In the 14^th minute, Fukumura and Sato combined to play the former into space. As Fukumura reached the byline, he hit a sharp cross into the box for the waiting Jin Hanato, but the ball was blocked by a defender. In the 32^nd minute, slow buildup by the opposition pushed Verdy back and an early cross entered the box. The opposition player nearest to the ball let it go through to the left post, but Matheus fought bravely to deflect the cross out of danger. While Kyoto saw more of the possession as the half wound down, Verdy remained focused and eventually their high pressing led to powerful attacking moves once again. The team then spent the final minutes repeatedly threatening the opposition goal. However, they were still one step short as the whistle sounded for the break.

 

As play resumed, Verdy hoped to build on the positive momentum they generated in the first half and earn goals. Ryoya Yamashita was brought on for Shion Inoue to start the half and the manager’s decision would bear fruit soon afterward. It was the 51^st minute and after the back line recovered a long ball from the opposition, Takahashi hit a looping pass over the heads of the Kyoto defense, finding Hanato on the front line. Hanato then played a simple pass down to Joel Chima Fujita in the Verdy half, and the latter took advantage of the gaps in the back line with a 20-meter through pass. Yamashita was first to respond and he used his speed to carry the ball in on goal before hitting a shot between the legs of the goalkeeper that found the net and succeeded in giving Verdy the lead. Things had gone exactly according to plan up to that point, but in the 55^th minute, the players would lose focus. After serving as the key man at the base of Verdy’s midfield, contributing in attack and defense and supporting the team’s initiative, Fujita conceded possession with a mistake and set the opposition off on the counter. The ball was carried into the Verdy final third and before the defense could reorganize, Utaka met the ball to give Kyoto an equalizer. Just as in their previous several matches, Verdy had played well but still found themselves losing grasp of the result. However, the team were determined not to let history repeat itself and gradually pushed their opponents back once again. In the 61^st minute, multiple players combined with short passes to set up Fujita for a mid-range shot as space opened up in front of him. The shot was not on target, but it was still illustrative of Verdy’s ability to stretch the defense and put pressure on goal. In the 83^rd minute, Fujita carried the ball forward from the base of midfield and set up opportunities to score with the ball on the goal line, but the opposition managed to avoid conceding with a series of desperate blocks.

 

In their previous two fixtures, Verdy had knocked on the door to victory and frustration was growing at the thought that it might still not happen. In fact, the result seemed destined for a draw until the 89^th minute, when Verdy’s number 11, the man with the bright blonde hair, broke the deadlock. After a desperate clearance by the opposition was intercepted by Masashi Wakasa at the halfway line. Ide retrieved the second ball and carried it forward at his feet. When he saw that the defense were slow to close down, he swung his right foot for a powerful mid-range shot with no rotation that swerved and was sucked into the back of the net for the Verdy winner. For the remainder of additional time, the opposition threw numbers into the box, but Naoya Konda had been brought on as a substitute and led the defense to win the battle in the air and close down attacking players, preventing anyone from finding the freedom for a shot as the match drew to a close.

 

On this day, Verdy finally secured their first win in seven matches and the joy felt by the players was beyond measure. While they might be forgiven for wanting to savor the feeling, there is no time to pat themselves on the back. Only nine matches remain this season and the team will want this win to be impetus to secure the full three points in all of them. They will have only three days to prepare for that task before heading off for a series of consecutive away matches.

Your thoughts on the match?
We’d been through a difficult period where results just didn’t go our way. Despite not earning the three points in each of those games, the players have always performed very well on the pitch and engaged positively in training. It was enough to make me wonder what we’d done to anger the soccer gods, but they finally smiled down on us today, in recognition of the players’ efforts and the quality of our football. I was also happy to get the win through that wonderful goal by Haru(ya Ide) and it reminded me once again what a great group of players we have. In addition, I am grateful to the players for their unwavering commitment to the way we play, despite the failure to get results. It is my desire to get more wins and continue playing this style of football. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Verdy supporters who traveled to Kyoto and gave us power until the final whistle. We’d been unable to pay our fans and supporters back lately, but I am very happy to have done so today. I still hope to pay them back more and more in the future and to do so by playing good football that will please the fans, supporters, and every member of the Verdy family. The players did a truly brilliant job today and I am grateful to them from the bottom of my heart.

Keeping Ide on the pitch until the final whistle today contributed to the win. Did you not consider taking him off at any point?
I didn’t have any plans to take Haru off, today. There were other reasons (other than the hope that he would score) that I kept him on, but in the end, he hit a wonderful shot, the kind he doesn’t take regularly, and I was very happy to see it find the net.

You seemed to do a good job of probing the gaps in the Kyoto back line. What was your impression?
I wanted us to play the ball between the lines a bit more in the first half, but as far as the second half is concerned, I think the players did an excellent job.