By Pearse McLaughlin
It’s Urawa Red Diamonds who claim all three points here at Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium as they ran out comfortable 3-0 winners away at Kashiwa Reysol. 3-0 is the right result upon reflection as it a match where Urawa Red Diamonds created countless opportunities and could have had more.
Kashiwa Reysol manager, Nelsinho Baptista has altered his formation from the 3-4-2-1 that lost 1-0 last time out to Sanfrecce Hiroshima and has gone with the 3-1-4-2 formation. Nelsinho Baptista has made four changes from their last J-League 1 game as in comes Sachiro Toshima, Tomoya Koyamatsu, Matheus Savio, Keiya Sento to replace Kota Yamada, Mao Hosoya, Keiya Shiihashi, and Eiichi Katayama.
Urawa Red Diamonds manager, Maciej Skorza has gone with the exact same side that won 2-1 last time against Albirex Niigata. Maciej Skorza is looking for consistency and will want his side to pick up another win and push their way up the table.
In the opening 25 seconds of the game, Urawa Red Diamonds nearly take the lead immediately through Yoshio Koizumi as he finds a pocket of space in the centre of the park roughly 25 yards from goal, where he gets the ball out of his feet and shifts it onto his left foot without much back lift but smashes the ball off the inside of the right-hand post but bounces clear. A whisker away and a warning sign for how dangerous the Red Devils can be. It remains 0-0.
First big chance of the game for Kashiwa Reysol came on the 15th minute as Tomoya Koyamatsu’s half volley just bends inches wide of the right-hand post. It was terrible defending initially by Urawa Red Diamonds as they failed to clear the ball on several occasions before the ball broke kindly to Tomoya Koyamatsu, but he struck the ball with the outside of his right foot and unfortunately for him was always bending wide of the right-hand post.
On the 22nd minute Ken Iwao’s out swinging ball into the box from the right-hand side following a corner, Shinzo Koroki rises highest at the near post and flicks the ball into the back post where captain and former Marseille defender, Hiroki Sakai ghosted in but couldn’t plant his header into the back of the net. Hiroki Sakai was leaning away from goal and tried his best to head the ball back across goal, but Tatsuya Morita was equal to it with a comfortable stop in the end.
Breakthrough for Urawa Red Diamonds right on the stroke of halftime as Shinzo Koroki nets his first league goal of the season at the perfect time. It all starts at the back as Marius Hoibraten plays a searching ball down the left channel to Yoshio Koizumi who knocks it down to the onrushing Takahiro Sekine who does brilliantly to fake to go back inside then go to the by-line and cut the ball back to Shinzo Koroki who get the ball out of his feet and sends the keeper the wrong way. Terrific team goal. 1-0 to the Reds.
Urawa Red Diamonds go in at the break with a one goal advantage and will be the happier of the two sides. It was a first half where Kashiwa Reysol did dominate the possession stats without really creating anything clear-cut but when Urawa Red Diamonds stride forward, they look dangerous. You can see the Red Devils adding to their advantage but it’s still in the balance at 1-0.
With 15 minutes left of the 90 to go Takumi Tsuchiya failed to sort out his feet and the ball broke kindly for the super sub-Alex Schalk who made no mistake and fired a powerful shot into the bottom left-hand corner. Unlucky defending by Takumi Tsuchiya as he intercepted the ball from Atsuki Ito, but the ball ricocheted kindly into the path of the former Ross County striker. 2-0. Mountain to climb now for Kashiwa Reysol.
On the 82nd minute and it’s all over here as Takahiro Akimoto’s acrobatic effort bounces into the top left-hand corner. Outstanding technique and you’ll struggle to find a better goal this weekend. It all started with Kaito Yasui as he dribbles down the left flank before cutting inside and playing the reverse ball into Tomoaki Okubo lays it off to Alex Schalk as he hangs a ball up to the back post where Takahiro Akimoto Scissor kicks the ball into the top left-hand corner. 3-0 Urawa Red Diamonds.
It finishes three nil to Urawa Red Diamonds in what was an evenly fought contest in the first half before Shinzo Koroki opened the scoring right on the stroke of half time and Kashiwa Reysol never recovered from that moment and Urawa Red Diamonds blew them out the water and ran out easy winners.
Kashiwa Reysol will need to start picking up wins soon or their manager, Nelsinho Baptista could find himself out a job as his side sit in 17th place having played a game more than Yokohama FC and after this weekend’s fixtures could find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table. Yet to win a league game out of six attempts so far and with just the 2 points Kashiwa Reysol need a victory fast if they are to stave off relegation to the J-League 2.
Next up for Kashiwa Reysol face is an away trip to Albirex Niigata in the Japanese League Cup on Wednesday 5th of April before returning to J-League 1 action next Sunday the 9th of April where they will host Kashima Antlers.
Urawa Red Diamonds will be looking for more of the same when they return next week to J-League 1 action. They are having a stellar season so far and now up to second position in the table having played a game more than their closest rivals. Impressive, nonetheless.
Next up for Urawa Red Diamonds is an away trip to Kawasaki Frontale in the Japanese League Cup on Wednesday 5th of April before returning to J-League 1 action next Sunday the 9th of April where they will travel away to Nagoya Grampus.
Kashiwa Reysol: Tatsuya Morita, Taiyo Koga, Takumi Tsuchiya, Hayato Tanaka, Tomoki Takamine (Keiya Shiihashi 83’), Sachiro Toshima (Faruzansana Mohamado 63’), Hiromu Mitsumaru, Tomoya Koyamatsu (Kota Yamada 69’), Matheus Savio, Keiya Sento, Jay-Roy Grot (Mao Hosoya 69’). Subs not used: Yuki Muto, Masato Sasaki, Yugo Tatsuta.
Urawa Red Diamonds: Shusaku Nishikawa, Hiroki Sakai, Alexander Scholz, Marius Hoibraten, Takahiro Akimoto, Atsuki Ito, Ken Iwao (Yuichi Hirano 83’), Takahiro Sekine (Alex Schalk 72’), Tomoaki Okubo (Takuya Ogiwara 83’), Yoshio Koizumi (Kaito Yasui 72’), Shinzo Koroki (Bryan Linssen 62’). Subs not used: Takuya Iwanami, Zion Suzuki.
Reporter: Pearse McLaughlin
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