Football is back and V-Varen Nagasaki got their second win of the season as they beat Giravanz Kitakyushu on Saturday. Here is the story of matchday 2!
Pre-Game Entertainment
This is not something I would normally include in my match report, but the club really did well in arranging some pre-game entertainment for all the supporters, who were watching the match against Giravanz from home as no supporters are allowed to attand the J.League games just yet. First, a local TV station showed V-Varen’s 3-1 win over Kamatamare Sanuki from November 11, 2017, with which the team secured promotion to J1 League for the first time. Afterwards, the club started to screen a two-hours matchday program on Youtube, which could be watched by supporters around the world. Former president Akira Takata, who is now a club ambassador, was part of the show in the studio while his daughter and current president, Haruna Takata, together with Yusuke Maeda, was at Transcosmos Stadium to provide some impressions from behind the scenes. Also, Bayer Leverkusen’s academy manager made an appearance to wish V-Varen all the best for the coming games. V-Varen and Bayer have a partnership in youth development since 2017 and have since arranged several training camps for their youth teams in Germany and in Japan. Below, you can find the video of the program, but unfortunately no English subtitles are available.
Starting XI
There had been plenty of questions regarding V-Varen Nagasaki’s starting XI, but I cannot imagine, that anyone predicted the team, that Makoto Teguramori chose for the game against Giravanz. I was very worried when the formation shown was a 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders, but already at kickoff, the players lined up in a 3-4-3. The defense was unchanged from week one with Toru Takagiwa in goal with Freire, Kakuda and Futami in front of him. In central midfield, captain Hiroki Akino was joined by Masaru Kato, who played his first game for Nagasaki and replaced Caio Cesar. On the left side, Masashi Kamekawa at wingback was joined by winger Takashi Sawada. On the right side however, Takumi Nagura, who had only started one game for V-Varen so far (in April 2018) and Seiya Maikuma, who joined the team from Momoyama Gakuin University last winter, made surprise appearances. Cayman Togashi started again as only striker in the center.
Forwards Luan Madson and Victor Ibarbo, who had not made the team in week one, were joined on the bench by Tomizawa, Tokunaga, Kida, Caio and Yoneda.
Giravanz played in a 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders and manager Shinji Kobayashi chose the following starters: Nagai – Fukumori, Muramatsu, Ikoma, Nagata – Kawakami, Kato, Takahashi, Tsubaki – Ikemoto, Suzuki.
For more information about the starting members and bench players along with a few stats, please refer to the match overview on the J.League’s website: https://www.jleague.jp/en/match/j2/2020/062728/live/#live
The First Half
In the heavy rain of Nagasaki, Giravanz Kitakyushu started the game aggressively, eager to push for an early goal, but V-Varen managed to calm things down within the first five minutes of the game and had their first chance in the fourth minute, when Akino sent a beautiful pass to Sawada, who’s cross from the left was cleared for a corner by defender Muramatsu. Kakuda managed to connect to Akino’s corner kick, but his header went wide. A minute later, after headers by Sawada and Togashi had won the ball for V-Varen in midfield, Masaru Kato started another attack for Nagasaki, shifting play to the right side of the pitch with a pass to Nagura, who found Maikuma, who went one on one with Nagata before sending in a low cross, seemingly targeting Cayman Togashi. Togashi, however, let the ball through and it reached Masashi Kamekwa, who had been left unguarded in the background and, with all the time in the world, let off a beautiful right-footed shot, which hit the top right corner of the goal and V-Varen took the lead five minutes in.
Three minutes later, V-Varen created another good chance, but Nagai was able to save Nagura’s shot. Giravanz, although having nearly half of the possession and getting themselves into a good position several times during the first 20 minutes, struggled to get a shot on goal. Their best chance came after 15 minutes, but Freire managed to block Suzuki’s shot from the left side. As the rain became stronger, V-Varen took control of the game even more, but chances came mostly from set-pieces. When chances were created from open play, most of the time, Kamekawa and Sawada were involved as 55% of Nagasaki’s attacks came through the strong left side, like after 39 minutes, when the hardworking Cayman Togashi connected with a Kame cross, but his header went wide.
Giravanz’ offensive play finally came to life again, when they made their first substitution after 40 minutes and Kokubu replaced Ikoma. In the 44th minute, Naoki Tsubaki played a nice one-two with Tomoki Ikemoto before letting off Giravanz’ first shot on target, which was caught easily by Toru Takagiwa.
The Second Half
V-Varen had taken a deserved but narrow lead into the break and at the start of the second half, they continued to push for the second goal. Seiya Maikuma got fouled near the edge of the box in the 46th minute, a good position for a left footed player like Akino, but his free kick from 28 metres was saved by Nagai. More chances followed and during the first 20 minutes of the second half, V-Varen looked very well organised and rarely allowed Giravanz near their box. I was very pleased to see that as the spacing between midfielders and the defenders had been an issue for large parts of the last season. However, in the 58th minute the V-Varen defense, starting with Takagiwa, allowed Kitakyushu their best chance of the game at that point, when they basically handed Giravanz the ball near V-Varen’s own box with some dodgy passing. Kokubu sent a nice pass to Daigo Takahashi, who’s right-footed shot was just tipped over the bar by Takagiwa.
Meanwhile, V-Varen fans everywhere became excited as Luan Madson and Victor Ibarbo were getting ready to enter the game and in the 62nd minute, the moment finally arrived. Ibarbo replaced Togashi while Luan came on for Nagura and V-Varen’s new South American stars certainly did not waste any time to make an impact. In the 65th minute, Makoto Kakuda intercepted a Giravanz cross near the edge of the box and headed it towards Hiroki Akino, who quickly passed it on to Luan. The Brazilian, with a lot of space in front of him, started a run from within his own half and covered about 60 metres with the ball on his feet before playing a one-two with Ibarbo to get Muramatsu, the only defender in front of him, out of the way. He finally scored by sending a right footed shot into the bottom left corner of the goal. What a debut. The disappointment he had felt after not being part of the squad against Tochigi, as he mentioned during an interview after the game, was a thing of the past now and the perfectly executed counter attack by Luan and Ibarbo left supporters at home in awe.
V-Varen finally had a two-goal lead and continued to control the midfield for the following eight to ten minutes, but did not push forward as much as they had done most of the game. Then, in the 79th minute, Masashi Kamekawa’s clearance of a Nagata cross, landed right in front of Shintaro Kokubu, who took one touch, before letting off a left-footed shot from the edge of the box into the bottom left corner to make it 2-1. V-Varen’s goalkeeper Takagiwa, confused by Kunitomo Suzuki, who was standing in front of the goal and made a move for the ball, but never touched it, did not even manage to dive. V-Varen’s defenders claimed Suzuki had been in an offside position, but it was clear that Hiroshi Futami had dissolved V-Varen’s offside trap by standing a few steps behind his colleagues Freire and Kakuda.
In the final ten minutes (plus four minutes injury time), Giravanz did everything to push for a second goal while V-Varen sat back and defended. Ryoma Kida and Shunya Yoneda came on for Maikuma and Sawada in the 81st minute to help cover the wings and a few minutes later, Caio replaced the absolutely exhausted Masaru Kato. Kitakyushu had one more chance in the 89th minute: Koken Kato managed to connect to a very short corner kick from the left and his header went towards goal in a high arch. Takagiwa managed to get his fingers on it and directed against the bar and behind goal for another corner.
In the end, V-Varen Nagasaki managed to maintain the lead and got a deserved 2-1 win over Giravanz Kitakyushu. After two games, V-Varen is one of two teams with six points. For the full table, please refer to the J.League’s official website. https://www.jleague.jp/en/standings/j2/
Conclusion
As it is so early in the season, there is not too much we should interpret into the two games we have seen from V-Varen, especially when we consider that those two games were played with a gap of more than four months between them. However, I would like to point out one thing: last season, V-Varen struggled at home all year, especially against teams from the bottom half of the table. I remember two straight home games, which were lost 1:4 to Ehime FC and 1:3 to FC Gifu and of course the home defeat to Tochigi SC in week 41. So, one of the points I made in my season preview was that V-Varen were going to have to win such games and be more consistent, especially at home. Now, with two games into the season, V-Varen have six points and beat Tochigi and Giravanz, two teams, who are expected to finish at least near the bottom of the table. It is nothing to get too excited about, but it is a progress from the struggles of last season.
Next week, V-Varen Nagasaki will play their first away game of the year, when they visit Avispa Fukuoka and that will be an entirely different challange, but the players will be up for it. Also, in his post match interview, Makoto Teguramori mentioned that Victor Ibarbo and Luan Madson are both supposed to be starters for Nagasaki and I feel like it would be another upgrade to the team. Seiya Maikuma and Takumi Nagura had their moments against Giravanz and were part of the first goal, but they were not comparable to the threat that Sawada and Kamekawa posted on the left side for most of the game. With Luan and/or Ibarbo on the right and/or centre, Nagasaki’s attack may become more unpredictable. It is exciting to think that way and I do feel like the team is only going to become better in the coming weeks. And they will have to.
Nagasaki Blue & Orange 
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