FC Gifu opened the 2019 J.League season in the best possible way, with a 2-0 win over Montedio Yamagata at a sunny Nagaragawa Memorial Center. By Stuart Smith

FC Gifu starting XI: Victor, Yanagisawa, Abe, Kitatani, Nagakura, Nakashima, Miyamoto, Nagashima, Kazama, Yamagishi, De Vries.

 

A surprise to some, manager Takeshi Oki opted for a 4-4-2 style formation to start this campaign, with both full back roles going to debutants; Kou Yanagisawa on the right and Hayate Nagakura on the left. In the middle, it looked to be a narrower set-up than the one Oki had previously used, with Kensei Nakashima and Kota Miyamoto in holding roles, and Koya Kazama and the returning Yushi Nagashima in more advanced positions. Opponents Yamagata went with a 4-3-3 formation, with new signing Haruya Ide shadowing Toyofumi Sakano.

 

In the opening minutes it was Montedio Yamagata that made the running, forcing a corner after just 30 seconds and two more in quick succession. In that opening spell, Yamagata looked to get the ball wide at every opportunity, hoping to maybe expose some opening day nerves from Gifu’s debutants Yanagisawa & Nagakura, but they held up well in the face of some difficult situations. As Gifu settled into the game it was actually one of those debutants, Kou Yanagisawa, who came close to opening the scoring when he collected a ball just inside the area, but his goal-bound shot was deflected just wide of the post.

At the other end, there was a close call for Gifu as Takumi Yamada’s close range shot hit the post, and Alvaro Rodrigues put the rebound over and not long after that, Sakano put a header wide after he had made some space in the area. Half time came and the 0-0 scoreline was probably a fair reflection on how the game had gone up to that point.

 

The second half proved to be a much more attacking affair, instigated by the aggressive attacking instincts of Yushi Nagashima and Ryan De Vries. De Vries was a constant threat for the Montedio defence, running and chasing balls over the top and not giving them any peace or time to slow things down. Nagashima meanwhile was picking the ball up in slightly more advanced areas than he did in the first half, and this gave him the opportunity to run directly at defenders as opposed to midfielders. However, despite the improvement, it was Yamagata that threatened first through Kai Miki, but the wing back’s shot was acrobatically pushed around the post by Victor.

 

Gifu’s attacking play though, was giving Montedio all sorts of problems and it finally came to fruition in the 53^rd minute when Gifu deservedly took the lead. Ryan De Vries found himself almost played in on goal, but was a little wide. Instead of panicking, the New Zealander found Kou Yanagisawa on his outside, and Yanagisawa’s cutback found Koya Kazama, who rolled the ball coolly into the corner to register FC Gifu’s first goal of the year, much to the delight of the supporters and his teammates.

 

The home side were in the ascendency, and Yuya Yamagishi had a great chance to put Gifu two up, but his shot – after being played in by De Vries – passed just wide of the post. It seemed like only a matter of time before Gifu got their second, and in the 72^nd minute, they did. As Montedio tried to play out from defence, the ultra-energetic Kota Miyamoto pressured Yamagata midfielder Kenya Okazaki into losing the ball. The loose ball fell to Yamagishi, and his perfectly weighted reverse pass put Kazama through on goal and, after taking a quick look at the ‘keeper’s position, slotted his left foot shot past Kushibiki and into the net.

Yamagata applied pressure in order to try and get back into the game, but Gifu’s defence held firm to register a clean sheet and a first opening day win since 2014.

 

After the game, Takeshi Oki said “A lot of supporters turned out today, and so to send them home with a smile on their face was the most important thing. In the second half, I thought we did well in winning the ball back further up the pitch, and so that allowed us to be more aggressive. Today we played to our strengths and our defensive shape was good.”

 

Goalkeeper Victor said “Of course, a win and a clean sheet is the perfect result for me. I had a new central defence partnership in front of me (Masanori Abe & Fumitaka Kitatani) but they played really well. As a team, we worked hard. The first half was quite even with chances for both teams, but I think we were the better team in the second half. We’ve had a good winter, and I think we have some good depth in the squad. It’s a good start for us.”

A very good start indeed! It was the first opening day win since Ruy Ramos’ opening game as manager, and having been beaten by Montedio three times last year, it was good to finally get a win over them. Next up for Gifu is an away game at Tokushima Vortis, and while it promises to be a difficult game, confidence should be high going into it.