Pick up Match

Y.S.C.C Yokohama (Kanagawa) 3-1 (1st 0-0, 2nd 3-1) SRC Hiroshima (Hiroshima)

Y.S.C.C Yokohama representing Kanagawa Prefecture defeated SRC Hiroshima from Hiroshima Prefecture 3-1 on the day 2 of the 1st round in the 94th Emperor’s Cup on 6 July at Yamato Sports Centre.

The match saw its first critical moment immediately after the kick-off when a header by Matsuda Kosuke of Y.S.C.C Yokohama from right in front of SRC Hiroshima’s goal almost found the back of the net.
Playing against a J3 club, Y.S.C.C Yokohama, was a match against an upper-division club for SRC Hiroshima, formerly organised with school teachers in Hiroshima. Hiroshima’s head coach, Moriwaki Seiji, motivated the team before the match saying “Don’t chicken out and just keep playing.” The players answered their coach by showing their solid defence.
Even in the offensive end, SRC Hiroshima threatened Y.S.C.C Yokohama’s goal, led by the left full-back Hidaka Naoto breaking through the defence by his signature dribbling together with the game captain Hasegawa Hirokazu.

In the second half with the match remained scoreless, SRC Hiroshima started slowing down partly due to the heat of 28.8 degrees. Then at the 57th minute, Y.S.C.C Yokohama scored the first goal of the match. Yamamoto Masaya took the ball deep on the left side, sent a cross to Matsuda at the near post, who fired a shot. Initially it did not go in, but the rebound was put into the goal by Yoshida Akio.
Although Hidaka later said the first goal allowed “didn’t press our panic button,” the second one from a corner-kick six minutes later really “hurt us.” “We were creating our own chances. If we had been able to take those chances, the match would have been different.” said disappointed Hidaka.
SRC Hiroshima at the 77th minute had Ueda Junji score a goal to cut down the deficit to one, but a minute later allowed Iike Shogo of Y.S.C.C Yokohama to score the heart-breaking third goal and put Yokohama’s lead back to two.

SRC Hiroshima kept fighting back, but with the fatigue factor also hurting the team’s come-back effort, they never saw another goal scored before the match finished 3-1. Y.S.C.C Yokohama then advanced to the second round.
Head coach Arima Kenji of Y.S.C.C Yokohama looked ahead their second-round match against Kawasaki Frontale and said “There would be no better opponents to see how good we really are now.” He seemed all motivated with a challenger mentality.
Meanwhile SRC Hiroshima’s head coach, Moriwaki, recognized what his team did well in terms of their tactics and appreciated his players for outstanding efforts.
Y.S.C.C Yokohama’s second-round match against J1’s Kawasaki Frontale will be on 12 July at Todoroki Athletics Stadium.

Match Report

Comments

ARIMA Kenji, Head Coach, Y.S.C.C. Yokohama
It’s a knock-out round and we were too tight early. We tried to play pretty a little too much, and we couldn’t gain our momentum before the end of the first half. In the second half, we tried to check every opponent’s possession and play compact, and at least that helped to score goals. (Speaking of the second round) This is a tournament where we are supposed to do one task ahead at a time. There would be no better opponents than Kawasaki Frontale to see how good we really are now. We will challenge them to see how well we can play against them.

YOSHIDA Akio, Y.S.C.C. Yokohama
In J3, we usually don’t play teams which are very defensive, but this match when they started playing defensive, I thought this match would stay that way. All we were careful of was easy mistakes, so we tried to get used to playing in this kind of match. In the second half, we knew they would slow down. We discussed that it would be a very physically challenging match. So it helped us that we scored right when we needed to. We played a practice match (against Kawasaki Frontale) before this season started, so how we played then and how much we have improved since then, we would like to show.

FUJIKAWA Yuji（Y.S.C.C Yokohama）
After I counted myself, I found out that it was the first official match for me to play in twenty months. I did my best, but it was so far from how I want it to be. I just wanted to come out and play more than anything, so I always tried to be ready. I am happy that I could come back in this Emperor’s Cup. Throughout the last year, I was a school teacher and had a class to take care of. I was away from football, so I am just thankful to be back playing football again.

MORIWAKI Seiji, Head Coach, SRC Hiroshima
We played OK in the first half, but our energy didn’t last until the last minute. I think our players played very hard. I thought we didn’t have to think too much about playing against an upper-division club. They are not good words to use, but we didn’t need to chicken out. We just needed to play our football against a good team. This is the first national tournament for this team, and we never play in front of this size of crowd. It has been a valuable experience.

HASEGAWA Hirokazu, SRC Hiroshima
A loss is a loss. We had our opportunities to win this match, so that makes it more disappointing. This was the first national tournament for this club. Our opponents were a J3 club. Right after the kick-off, we had a bad moment, but after that we got on our rhythm. We felt that we could match up well against them. We usually have three practices a week, but this week we had only two. In spite of that, we could play as hard as we did, so that was good. Individually I could let my teammates feel how great it is to play in an Emperor’s Cup, so I am happy in that sense.

HIDAKA Naoto, SRC Hiroshima
I wasn’t nervous too much, because I played in an Emperor’s Cup when I was a junior in university. Losing the first goal didn’t press our panic button, but the second one really hurt us. But I think we played well against them. We were creating our own chances. If we had been able to take those chances, (the outcome of) the match would have been different. It was a match we should have won. Tomorrow I have work from 7:30 in the morning. I do sales in the construction industry.

Ohter Results

Special Cooperation Company

Official Sponsor