A crucial lesson in FC Tokyo’s 12-game unbeaten run to start the 2019 J. League first-division campaign has been that goals don’t need to come from top striker Diego Oliveira, so long as they come from someone.
That was all too true on Saturday at Ajinomoto Stadium as 22-year-old midfielder Ryoya Ogawa scored his first of the season midway through the second half and 17-year-old prodigy Takefusa Kubo made it 2-0 to see the league leaders past a feisty but outmatched Consadole Sapporo.
Sapporo manager Mihailo Petrovic has a knack for building fluid attacking sides, but his players struggled to find purchase against a speedy Tokyo defense that was quick to respond to any incursions into the final third and hardly allowed a shot from the visitors until midway through the first half.