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The story
Matchday 13 of the Meiji Yasuda J1 League was played around the country on the 31st, with FC Tokyo beating Okayama away to climb into the provisional top spot, stretching their run to 8 consecutive clean sheets and 12 games unbeaten. Teruhito Nakagawa opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time, and the team struck again right after the second-half restart to seal the win. On the 5ch “Geinou/Sports Flash+” board, the thread sprawled well past the match result itself — touching on FC Tokyo’s surge while captain Yuto Nagatomo sits out injured, roster shuffling among mid-table clubs across J1, J2 and J3, and regional gaps in TV coverage and attendance.
Matchday 13 of the 2026/27 Meiji Yasuda J1 League was held around the country on the 31st.
Playing away at Okayama, FC Tokyo took the lead through a goal from Teruhito Nakagawa in first-half stoppage time (AT).
Then right after the second half kicked off, Nakagawa broke clear up front and slotted it home with his left foot to make it 2-0 for FC Tokyo.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
well, it's Gamba, so…
Still, it's crazy how the strongest team in the J.League keeps changing every year
What happened to Gas (FC Tokyo's nickname, from former sponsor Tokyo Gas), the club that reliably stayed mid-table forever?
It's pretty common for a mid-table club without ACL (Asian Champions League) fixtures to catch top teams worn down by a packed schedule
Teams like Machida and Kashiwa are doing well to stay near the top while rotating their squads
If Kashiwa can rest Koga and Fujio and still win with Inukai and Mitsuta starting, they could really break out
Probably just that the squad came together and the manager's tactics clicked
Home vs Machida (1-5), Away vs Shimizu (1-1), Home vs Kashiwa (0-0)
The games I watched on DAZN: 9 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses
I'm done going to the stadium. I'll just pray for the title from in front of my computer.
Attendance: 14,287
Mito Shinkin Stadium
Attendance: 8,694
Sanga Stadium by KYOCERA
Attendance: 16,099
That criticism makes zero sense
They even fill the National Stadium now
'Break out' isn't the word — Kashiwa finished a close 2nd last year, so this is right on schedule for them
Machida's the one really overperforming
Torn ACL in his right knee
No, that's not what I'm asking
There are people saying the team got stronger once Nagatomo stopped playing, so I'm asking — was he actually a regular starter before that?
Because he was supposed to be a backup to begin with
At the start of the season he was 2nd or 3rd on the left-back depth chart — Kento Hashimoto was the de facto starter, competing with Ishihara and Kasheef.
But Kasheef's been getting more minutes lately, so even if Nagatomo comes back, he probably won't see much playing time…
Having FC Tokyo as the opponent this round was huge for maximizing the economic impact at Okayama's new stadium
After all, they already pulled off 30 million yen in economic impact once before in Tottori (it's on record in the prefectural assembly minutes, so the Kiyota faithful can't say a thing about it)
Wasn't it already decided they'd tear down the nearby baseball stadium and build the new stadium there?
Please don't trash-talk the master
Everyone looked so down — turns out they'd just gotten crushed by Tokyo…
Yeah, the stadiums share the same grounds
Totally get that lol
I'd rather see Okayama or Nagasaki take it
Which team let him go?
Forgot the reply tag
Background and Key Points of This Topic
FC Tokyo beat Okayama in Matchday 13 of the 2026/27 J1 season, climbing to the provisional top spot with 8 straight clean sheets and 12 games unbeaten. Yuto Nagatomo has been out of the squad throughout this run, and it’s easy to miss the gap between the thread’s simplified take — “the team got stronger once Nagatomo left” — and what the actual depth chart showed (commenters pointed out he was already only the third-choice left-back at the start of the season, not a starter). On the broadcasting side, against the complaint that “you can’t watch because it’s exclusive,” others pushed back, noting J1 is available through multiple outlets including ABEMA, BS, and terrestrial broadcasts — highlighting a mismatch between the league’s steadily expanding broadcast coverage and some viewers simply being unaware of it. The regional gaps in attendance (14,287 in Okayama, 8,694 in Mito, 16,099 in Kyoto) also deserve a caveat: these differences come down to stadium capacity and how much attention a given match draws, not a straightforward ranking of which clubs are more popular.
*This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Flash+) thread “[Soccer] J1’s FC Tokyo climbs to provisional top spot with 8 straight clean sheets & 12 games unbeaten! Hiroshima beats Mito, Kyoto beats Shimizu.”
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