Urawa Red Diamonds women secured a third consecutive win in the WE League regular season, beating Tokyo Verdi 3-1 at home on Saturday. The result keeps Urawa top of the table with nine points from three matches, while Tokyo Verdi drop to third place with six points and one defeat.
Kotono Sakakibara opened the scoring in the fourth minute, and by then Tokyo Verdi already looked uneasy. Wakana Onishi doubled the lead before half-time, and Miki Ito added a third just after the interval. Rihona Ujihara pulled one back for the visitors, but the gap was too wide by then.
And here's the thing about substitutions — Urawa made them methodically, bringing on Sunshine Fontes and Kozue Ando before the break. Tokyo Verdi responded with Honoka Sunaga and Nanami Kitamura in the 64th minute. Ema Matsuoka picked up a yellow card in the 52nd minute, and the match had a rhythm that never quite settled.
To be fair, Tokyo Verdi had looked sharp in their last outing with a 4-1 win over Parsyro Nagano. But against Urawa they never got going, and the clean-sheet run came to an end. The visitors refused to go away, but Urawa closed the game out without fuss.
The table goes out of the window in these games, but nine points from three wins puts Urawa in a strong position. Tokyo Verdi's loss means they can no longer dream of an unbeaten start, and the relationship between form and expectation has shifted.