The timing of this fixture was slightly strange for me.
I’m currently working through the Nadeshiko League for a custom Football Manager 2026 database and, this week, I had reached VONDS Ichihara. So I had spent several evenings looking at their players as names, positions, ages and little digital attributes, only for them to suddenly appear on my screen as actual human beings trying to stop SFIDA Setagaya winning a football match.
Football Manager had escaped the laptop.
The starting XI contained few surprises. Mizuki Horie and Misuzu Uchida starting together was encouraging, while SFIDA were wearing the white away strip, which I don’t remember seeing particularly often this season.
Then there was ZA Oripri Stadium.
The pitch looked tired. There is probably a sensible financial explanation for that because maintaining football grounds at this level is hardly a licence to print money, so I don’t want to be too rude about it.
Still.
It needed a bit of TLC.
Behind the goal, the grass also seemed to stop almost immediately beyond the posts, which was such a minor and pointless detail that naturally I spent much of the first half looking at it.
VONDS Had Not Read the Script
Within five minutes, Nana Watanabe had already produced a superb defensive clearance.
Heroic. As usual.
SFIDA tried to move forwards but everything felt slightly scrappy, rather like the pitch itself. There were broken moves, an obvious offside and very little rhythm.
Then VONDS started winning corners.
One after another.
At 14 minutes they had one. Then another. At 17 minutes another delivery forced Mio Otsuka to parry behind for yet another.
For a short period the match seemed to have accidentally switched formats and become a corner-taking competition.
Fortunately, VONDS weren’t particularly good at them.
That didn’t make the situation entirely comfortable.
This was a team that had lost its first fourteen league matches of 2026, conceding heavily enough to produce a minus-33 goal difference. The normal promoted-team nightmare.
Then something happened.
A goalless draw with second-placed Loveledge Nagoya (who we recently beat 2-0) was followed by wins over Nittaidai, Ehime and Orca Kamogawa. Ten points from four matches. Three consecutive victories. Three consecutive clean sheets.
Suddenly VONDS looked organised, awkward and rather more alive than a team sitting bottom of the league had any right to.
At least the soundtrack was familiar.
The travelling supporters could be heard despite being difficult to spot on the broadcast and, before long, somebody started the elongated chant.
SFIDAAAAAA.
SETAAAAGAYAAAAA.
Good. Everything was normal again.
Sort of.
Three Seconds of Brazil
SFIDA gradually started finding their way into the match.
Saya Shinohara produced a lovely long ball. Kokone Kitagawa became increasingly active on the left and, from a well-worked corner, produced the best opportunity of the opening 25 minutes, sending her effort narrowly wide.
Then came an important tactical development.
Mana Odagawa appeared to have hurt her back and one of her VONDS teammates attempted to fix the problem by lifting her at an angle and stretching her.
Modern sports science continues to innovate.
Shortly afterwards, Maasa Taguchi produced a gorgeous no-look backheel.
This is one of the things I adore about watching SFIDA.
Sometimes they produce a passage of football that resembles peak Brazil winning the 2002 World Cup. A backheel here, a clever combination there, someone drifting intelligently between the lines.
Then the next pass goes out.
The illusion lasts about three seconds.
It is this combination that has captured my heart.
The rest of the first half followed a similar pattern. VONDS remained dangerous enough to prevent SFIDA relaxing, while SFIDA slowly began looking like the better side without looking substantially more likely to score.
Watanabe worked relentlessly at the back, once getting caught out of position before immediately sprinting back to repair the problem herself. Kitagawa kept working down the left. Saaya Kato appeared on the opposite flank.
Shinohara delivered another corner in added time.
Horie sent the resulting effort well over.
Half-time.
0-0.
Nobody had been terrible. Nobody had been brilliant.
Football had occurred.
The Ayaka Nemoto Half
The second half began with Ayaka Nemoto throwing to Aina Kurokawa, who worked the ball backwards before SFIDA eventually moved it through Taguchi.
For several passes, this was Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona circa 2008.
Then the move broke down.
Never mind.
More encouragingly, SFIDA were beginning to control possession and Takashi Hamada became noticeably more animated on the touchline.
Nemoto was increasingly central to everything.
She charged down the right to win a corner after 51 minutes and kept returning to that flank. VONDS still produced the occasional counter-attack, including one particularly tidy passing move in the 56th minute.
The shot at the end was dreadful.
Still, a warning.
By the hour mark SFIDA were applying much more consistent pressure.
Nemoto received the ball on the right and floated a wonderful dropping cross into the area. Haruka Miyamoto tried to deal with it.
Tried being the operative word.
The ball bounced once, popped towards Kitagawa and she struck it beautifully on the half-volley.
Bar.
An outrageous effort.
For all SFIDA’s possession and increasingly dangerous football, the score remained 0-0.
Now VONDS began slowing things down. Goal kicks acquired a little more ceremony. Players who might have bounced straight back up twenty minutes earlier discovered that the grass was actually quite comfortable.
You could hardly blame them.
They were bottom of the league and fighting for survival.
SFIDA, meanwhile, are months away from merging their identity with one of Japan’s biggest football institutions.
Different problems.
Surely One of These Has to Go In
Nemoto continued.
Another excellent delivery almost found Kato.
Then SFIDA won another corner and Taguchi headed wide.
VONDS responded through Madoka Nakamura and Miyamoto, winning a corner of their own, but Otsuka claimed comfortably.
At 67 minutes Nemoto crossed again.
Horie met it.
Header.
Close.
Yunoka Arakawa replaced Kato as SFIDA looked for something different.
VONDS were still dangerous enough to make this uncomfortable. Misora Kisu found space around the penalty spot after a good attack, although Otsuka dealt with her effort comfortably.
Then Horie nearly caught Yamada off her line from distance.
Wide.
By the 75th minute, the match had reached that peculiar stage where every unsuccessful SFIDA attack felt more significant than the last.
Arakawa tried to thread one through.
Broken down.
VONDS made substitutions and immediately seemed energised.
Another corner arrived for the hosts. They took so long over it that they almost appeared unsure whether scoring was part of the plan.
The resulting header suggested perhaps it wasn’t.
Otsuka collected.
Finally, Maasa
With ten minutes remaining, SFIDA increased the pressure again.
Watanabe found Nemoto. The attack was swallowed by Yamada.
Then Kitagawa suddenly burst through.
She ran away from what seemed to be most of the VONDS defence and managed to get her shot away. Yamada saved.
Corner.
SFIDA stayed forward.
Another attack followed.
Another corner.
The clock moved through 81 minutes.
Shinohara delivered.
The ball dropped into the area and Kitagawa tried to turn it towards goal. VONDS blocked it, but couldn’t clear.
It fell to Taguchi.
Left foot.
Hit.
Goal.
1-0.
Finally.
Taguchi had entered 2026 hoping for three goals. Eighteen league matches had passed without one.
Then, in the 82nd minute of Round 19, she scored the goal SFIDA desperately needed.
It wasn’t particularly elegant. There was no sweeping passing sequence or intricate tactical mechanism behind it. A corner went into the box, VONDS failed to clear and somebody kicked the loose ball harder than everybody else.
Sometimes football is mercifully uncomplicated.
We were massive.
For approximately six minutes.
The Post
Rina Sato replaced Horie and the objective changed immediately.
Nothing silly.
Please.
VONDS, having spent portions of the second half protecting their point, now remembered that they desperately needed three.
They attacked.
SFIDA’s passing became increasingly nervous.
Then, in the 89th minute, Samia Masuda received the ball around the edge of the penalty area and absolutely leathered it.
Otsuka was beaten.
The ball smashed against the post.
No.
Absolutely not.
This was supposed to be the part where we calmly saw out a professional away victory.
Suddenly every clearance mattered.
Every slightly misplaced pass looked terrifying.
Three minutes of additional time were announced.
At 92:23, VONDS won another corner. Nothing came from it.
93:36 arrived. Still playing.
94:01.
Finally, at 94:12, the whistle went.
We Did It. Just.
Eight shots each.
VONDS actually finished with ten corners to SFIDA’s seven. Both teams hit the woodwork. There was no great statistical domination to retrospectively manufacture into a comfortable victory.
It wasn’t comfortable.
It didn’t need to be.
SFIDA had beaten second-placed Nagoya 2-0 away and then immediately lost 3-2 at home to relegation-threatened Nittaidai, because consistency is apparently considered vulgar in Setagaya.
Meanwhile, VONDS had gone from fourteen consecutive defeats to ten points from four matches.
I wasn’t expecting anything straightforward.
We didn’t get anything straightforward.
But Taguchi scored her first league goal of the season. Otsuka kept the clean sheet. Watanabe was Watanabe. Nemoto produced an excellent second half. Kitagawa hit the bar and caused problems throughout.
Most importantly, SFIDA left Ichihara with three points.
Hopefully that means any lingering fear of being dragged towards the bottom can finally disappear. This season has enough going on already without needing a relegation battle attached to it.
VONDS made us work for it.
Masuda came within a few centimetres of ruining everything.
She didn’t.
That’ll do.
White shirts leave Chiba
One loose ball settles the day
Now stop looking down
