After winning in Osaka, and facing Hiroshima again, I think the players were really motivated, and the supporters were really cheering for us, as this was their third match against Hiroshima this month, and we were able to respond to their enthusiastic cheers, with the feeling that we must win. I think the players' focus throughout the 90 minutes led to today's victory. Of course, Hiroshima wasn't in the best condition due to injuries and fatigue from the CWC, but looking at the quarterfinals match, they were very confident as a team, and they played high-quality football, with the attitude that they would fight no matter who was on the field. There were some changes in the members today, but I don't think the changes in the members ever affected the players' spirits. We've played two matches this month, and we're in the final stages of the league match and we haven't won yet. With two losses and one draw in the last three matches, I think the strong desire to beat Hiroshima at all costs led to today's result. I thought Takashi's first goal was really great, and Anderson PATRIC Aguiar Oliveira played about 65 minutes on both offense and defense. However, after we scored a goal, our line dropped a little, and we were able to correct this in the second half, and I think we raised our line a little. However, when we play against Hiroshima, I thought the real battle would begin after we replaced our substitutes and stepped up our game, so with Minagawa and Kashiwa in, Hiroshima played very aggressively, and Kurata came on the left wing and did a good job on both offense and defense, which I think led to the second goal. In that sense, I think Hiroshima's attacks were difficult to stop, even though we knew they were coming, but we put our bodies on the line at the end and kept the score at zero, and I think the fact that we were able to score the second and third goals was a great confidence boost for the team.
However, if we don't win the final, the results of these games will be meaningless, and of course, since it's a tournament, I think it's meaningless if we don't win in the end, and we've lost twice in the finals this season, in the Nabisco Cup and the CS. I think Urawa will be very motivated to win the title, but I hope that we can both share that feeling and play a game worthy of a New Year's Day final, and that we can end up winning in the end.

Q: Regarding the second and third goals, I think you did a great job scoring them. What do you think of the players' mindset around that point?
A: Hiroshima changed gears after making substitutions around 15 minutes into the second half, so I think the players were fighting with the feeling that they couldn't win the game with just one point that they didn't receive. In that situation, Kurata, who scored the second goal, brought up from the left side, created some space there, passed it to Nagasawa, who then passed it to Usami, but I think Kurata's aggressive play on both offense and defense during that time led to the second goal, and Nagasawa also used his individual strength to break through there and score the third goal calmly at the end. After all, we've had some regrets in the last two games against Hiroshima, and I think our attitude of fighting aggressively until the end led to those additional points.

Q: The final will be held in Urawa. What do you think you need to be careful about in order to win?
A: Urawa is better at individual strength than Hiroshima. I think Hiroshima has a very strong organizational power, but Urawa is a team with very strong individual strength, so when we played them at Saitama Stadium in the CS, it was hard to tell which way it would go. They are a team that is very quick at switching between offense and defense in the ball-fighting, so I think it will be very important that we don't lose in basic areas. Also, I think the key is the mindset at the end, in the final, so I think the key is whether we can have a stronger determination to win and become champion than Urawa.