CITIC Brothers won the championship in the second half of the season, head coach Keiichi Hirano: Thank you to the fans for sticking with them

CITIC Brothers performed a miracle this season, finishing last in the first half of the season and bucking the trend in the second half to win the championship. When interviewed, CITIC Brothers head coach Hirano Keiichi thanked the fans for their persistence and admitted that the downturn in the first half of the season was to some extent expected.

Hirano Keiichi said that after the team won the championship in 2024, a meeting was actually held. "At that time, it was mentioned that situations like this will happen in the first half of this year in the future, and we must find ways to prevent it in advance. In order to prevent the decline of the team's strength, there were ways to prevent it, but the situation in the first half of the season was faster than expected, so there was another meeting in the second half of the season to confirm the team's direction."

Hirano said that he confirmed three things to the team after that, which is that rather than winning the championship, he hopes that every game will be better than every game, that every player will get better day by day, and that he must consider the future and hope to practice it until the end. "Winning the championship is of course important, especially for the fans, but as a president Coach, try not to worry about it in your mind. Of course, I really wanted to say that I wanted to win the season championship, and I would definitely say that as a player, but as a coach, there are some things that I can’t express, so after going through the first half of the season, I won’t forget this situation, and I hope the team can get better.”