On Friday 3 August, the second match day of the first preliminary round of JFA 5th U-18 Japan Futsal Championship took place as 12 matches were played to determine the final eight teams advancing to the final-round.

In Group A, the two teams who has already secured their spot into the final-round faced each other as Seiwa Gakuen High School Soccer Club FC (Host Region/Miyagi) and Sakuyo High School (Chugoku/Okayama) fought for the group leader spot. Seiwa Gakuen FC scored the opening goal when SAITO Atsushi fired a powerful shot into the net. Sakuyo levelled the match in the 11th minute, with a goal scored by HASHIMOTO Reira, who has been on the shortlist for the U-19 Japan Futsal National Team. In the second half, Seiwa Gakuen FC retook the lead with a 17th minute goal from MIURA Ryuya. In desperate efforts to equalise the match, Sakuyo played their power-play in the closing minutes, which led to NAKAMURA Kai’s 28th minute equaliser, but their efforts would end there as the match finished with a final score of 2-2. As a result, Seiwa Gakuen FC led the group with their advantage over Sakuyo High School in goal differential.

Group B saw a clash between Seimeigakuin High School (Kansai2/Osaka) who has one win and Nagoya Oceans U-18 (Tokai/Aichi) with two wins under their belt. With the help of MORI Taisei’s brace, it was the Nagoya side who came out victorious with a final score of 3-2. With this win, Nagoya Oceans advanced to the final-round as the leader of Group B. It was Nichinan Gakuen High School (Kyushu1/Miyazaki) who finished as the runners-up as they bested Yaita Chuo High School (Kanto3/Tochigi) by scoring seven goals, thanks to UCHIDA Koki’s hat-trick. The defending champions, Yaita Chuo left this year’s competition with three consecutive losses.

With each team left with two matches to play in Group C, Fujikoshi Technical High School (Hokushinetsu 2/Toyama) and Sapporo Otani High School (Hokkaido1) tied 4-4, while Chuogakuin High School (Kanto2/Chiba) earned a win over Seiwa Gakuen High School Futsal Club (Tohoku/Miyagi). At this point, Chuogakuin secured their spot as group leaders, leaving one more spot to fight for in the third match, which took place in different arenas. At Xebio Arena Sendai, the match between Fujikoshi and Seiwa Gakuen was held and with the two goals coming from both IIZUKA Takumi and KIKUCHI Naoto, Seiwa Gakuen earned their first victory at the national tournament with a score of 4-0. However, with Sapporo Otani winning their match against Chuogakuin 5-3 at Kamei Arena Sendai, it was the Hokkaido side advancing through with a mere one-point advantage over the Seiwa side.

In Group D, two teams marked two victories on this day to secure their spot into the final-round. Teikyo-Nagaoka High School (Hokushinetsu1/Niigata) defeated Asahikawa-Jitsugyo High School (Hokkaido2) and Takamatsu Commercial High School (Shikoku/Kagawa) to top the group with three wins. Last year’s third place finisher, Fugador Sumida Falcons (Kanto1/Tokyo) who lost their first match against the Teikyo side, also cruised through the two matches to earn a spot into the final-round as the runners-up.

Day three of the tournament will be held on Saturday 4 August, as the quarterfinals and semi-finals will take place, setting up the stage for the final, scheduled to be held on Sunday 5 August.

Players' Comments

TAKEUCHI Mizuki (Sakuyo High School)
We couldn’t win the last match, but it wasn’t a loss, so we will reset our minds ahead of the final-round. In order to win the title, we knew we must take each match seriously. That is why we managed to play hard today, even when we already had clinched to the final-round. I personally made some mistakes today, but the overall performance of the team was a positive one. We will give our best so that we can play at the Xebio Arena Sendai again.

KAWABE Hiroki (Seiwa Gakuen High School Futsal Club)
I am glad we managed to earn a win. Especially because it was something our older age teams couldn’t managed to get. However, our goal was to win the national title, so it is very disappointing be eliminated in the group stage. We couldn’t quite play our game in the first two matches, so we told ourselves to play with no hesitation in our last match. In the past two years, we have served as the ball boy and tournament assistant staffs, so it is an honour to be on the playing side of this tournament. We have many players that are still in first and second grade, so I hope they can earn better results in the following years.

SHISHIDO Ryo (Fujikoshi Technical High School)
We are a football team, and we only play futsal during the winter times. Futsal and football are both fun in different ways, and there are many aspects in futsal that we can utilise in football, such as the quickness of transitions. We hope to utilise what we have learnt in this futsal tournament at the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament. A pure futsal team is good at switching players and we couldn’t keep up with their speed to transfer our marksmen. It made me think that if we can manage to do the same thing, futsal would be much more fun for us. Transferring the marksmen is an important factor in football as well, so we hope to improve our quality in that aspect.

SATO Yutaro (Takamatsu Commercial High School)
With 70 players in our team, there are many players who wish to be here, but couldn’t. We came here with a goal to advance to the final-round, but that goal was shut down after just two matches played. We told ourselves to fight the final match with a total team effort, including the first graders. With the Inter High School Sports Festival ahead of us in a week, I think we managed to build our enthusiasm. This is our fourth straight appearance in this tournament, but we felt that we need to be more creative to earn better results at this level. We cannot waste this experience, so we will reflect on what we did well and what we lacked, and implement those aspects ahead of the Inter High School Sports Festival.

JFA 5th U-18 Japan Futsal Championship

Tournament Dates: Thu. 2 - Sun. 5 August 2018
Tournament Venue: Xebio Arena Sendai/ Kamei Arena Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture
Tournament Information