The 21st All Japan Youth (U-15) Futsal Championship will be played in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, between 9 and 11 January to determine the best youth futsal team in Japan. As the tournament gets underway, let's take a look at the previous championship.

In the previous tournament, which was held at Sky Hall Toyota in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, a total of 16 teams – nine teams that qualified through nine regional tournaments across the nation, six teams that were distributed to some of those regions according to the number of the participating teams that competed in the qualifying in the tournament before (two from Hokkaido, one from Kanto, two from Hokushinetsu and one from Tokai), and one team from the host region – competed. The 16 were divided into four groups, with four teams each, to have round-robin league contests.

Some teams took advantage of their own individual abilities and some capitalized on their collectiveness, and majority of the first-round games were heated ones. After all, Consadole Asahikawa U-15 (Hokkaido 2/Hokkaido), Nagaoka JYFC borboleta (Hokushinetsu 1/Niigata) and Brincar FC U-15 (Host region/Aichi) made it to the final four round with three consecutive wins, while Maebashi Junior Youth (Kanto 1/Gunma) wound up coming out of three-some battles to clinch the semifinals.

Consadole and Nagaoka squared off against each other in the first semifinal match. Nagaoka struck first in the 6th minute and added another in the following minute to take the momentum. As TAKAHASHI Hiroto said before the games, "because we came up short last year, we would definitely like to get the championship," Consadole began their rally and scored two back to cut the deficit, but it was as good as they could do and Nagaoka won 4-2 to proceed to the gold medal match.

In the second semifinal game, Brincar and Maebashi faced against each other. "As the Aichi Prefectural representatives, we will get in the game with strong mindset," said FURUI Shunpei of Brincar, who made the final four round for the second straight year. Brincar took the pace from the beginning of the game and ended up winning 8-2, thanks to a hat-trick effort by KUBO Tojiro. Maebashi displayed their strengths in the first round, but they came in the game with different line-up and it allowed Brincar to have the momentum of the game.

In the championship game, Nagaoka got off to a 4-0 lead in the first eight minutes, as NOMOTO Taichi completed a hat-trick in the span. Brincar scored one goal as ITO Kouki netted one, but they weren't able to completely catch Nagaoka off balance. Brincar tried to score playing all the players in the front court, but Nagaoka captured the title with a 5-2 win in the end. "We received so much support from our mates in the stands," said SUYAMA Yuma of Nagaoka, who became the best club in Japan and brought back the trophy to Niigata Prefecture for the third consecutive year.

All Japan Youth (U-15) Futsal Championship

Sat. 9 January 2016 - Mon. 11 January 2016
Aichi／Sky Hall Toyota
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