Both teams took their spots after the handshakes and photos, settling into their shapes as the last of the pre-match noise faded into a steady rumble.
Arsenal stood ready in their familiar spacing, Yokohama in a tight and disciplined block across from them.
The whistle went, and the match opened with Arsenal kicking off.
Izan received the first touch, dropping slightly off the line in his false nine role before rolling the ball back and drifting forward again, but that touch ended up being his last for a while.
Yokohama had come prepared.
Every time he so much as drifted near a pocket of space, two blue shirts closed it off.
When he tried to move across the frontline, another shadow stepped in.
It wasn't reckless pressure either.
It was coordinated, loud, and constantly re-adjusted from the backline, with them even stopping him from dropping too deep to get the ball, while the commentators caught on quickly on the broadcast.
