This will be our third official match and our first home game of the season. Our match against Nagoya Grampus is the "Panasonic Stadium Suita 10th Anniversary Match." It's the same match as the "Kaki Otoshi" (Drinking Festival) 10 years ago, and an alumni match will be held after our match. I didn't experience that event myself, but since joining Gamba in 2012, I've felt firsthand that Panasonic Stadium Suita is a stadium filled with the thoughts of everyone involved with Gamba, and I'm happy to be able to play in such a wonderful atmosphere every time. I'm truly happy to be on the pitch again at this milestone, especially since our opponent is my former club, Nagoya, which holds a special place in my heart. This is a special match in many ways, and I hope to win it and celebrate with everyone with a Gamba Clap!

So far, we have played two matches: the Osaka Derby, the opening match of the J1 J.LEAGUE 100 YEAR VISION LEAGUE , and the 1st Leg match of the AFC Champions League 2 Round of 16 against Pohang Steelers. The former ended in a penalty win and the latter in a draw, but there were many periods where the team was able to embody Jens (Coach Head Coach)'s football style, and we saw many scenes where the whole team worked together to press from the front, especially in ideal situations where we were able to steal the ball.
However, in both games, we still need to improve the quality of our first pass after stealing the ball, and the whole team needs to work on our ability to finish off chances. Because we've been creating chances in games, if we can finish off those chances, I think we'll be able to play more in our own style.

Our opponent, Nagoya, will be coming into Panasonic Stadium Suita in a positive mood after a win in Head Coach Mihailo PETROVIC 's first match. The key to success will be seeing how well our compact defense can handle this. They'll likely be man-to-man when they have the ball, but I don't think they'll be as man-to-man defensively focused as they were under Kenta (Hasegawa) last year, so we'll need to assess and respond accordingly. That said, as Jens has repeatedly said, Gamba's style of football this year is one that places more emphasis on "how we play than how the opponent plays." Following Head Coach's consistent philosophy, we want to play our own style of football.

Since I joined Gamba, I have won all four games against Nagoya. In fact, I am quite good against my former team, and I can hardly remember losing to Kashiwa Reysol, the team I played for before that when I was with Nagoya. I will carry on that good chemistry and grab victory in the 90 minutes this time. Please support me.