The 36th Empress’s Cup held 4 games of round 2 in various locations on 7 December.

Pickup Match 1

Urawa Reds Ladies Youth (Kanto4/Saitama) 0-0 (PK 3-4) (1st 0-0, 2nd 0-0, Extra1st 0-0, Extra 2nd0-0) AS Harima Albion (Kansai3/Hyogo)

The first match at Yurtec Stadium Sendai in Miyagi was a seesaw battle between Urawa Reds Ladies Youth (Kanto4/Saitama) and AS Harima Albion (Kansai3/Hyogo). In the 1st half, Urawa pressured AS Harima Albion’s goal with skillful plays such as dribbling occasionally and a strong shot against the goal post, but they could not score due to AS Harima Albion’s stubborn defense. Uwara kept attacking in the 2nd half and they got series of scoring chances after 80th minutes. In the additional time, Urawa’s shot struck the goal post again. AS Harima protected their goal in a very difficult situation and the 2nd half finished at 0-0.

AS Harima kept its stubborn defense in the extra time. In the 1st minute, AS Harima’s defenders took some risks to block a shot by Urawa’s KOJIMA Seira, and kept a clean sheet until the end of extra time. In the penalty shootout, AS Harima showed their mental strength and moved on to the round 3 with 4-3 victory.

Match Detail

Pickup Match 2

Tokiwagi Gakuen High School (Tohoku1/Miyagi) 3-2 (1st 2-1, 2nd 1-1) Speranza FC Osaka Takatsuki (Kansai1/Osaka)

Tokiwagi Gakuen High School (Tohoku1/Miyagi) 3-2 (1st 2-1, 2nd 1-1, Speranza FC Osaka Takatsuki (Kansai1/Osaka)
Tokiwagi Gakuen High School (Tohoku1/Miyagi) took the lead from the beginning against Speranza FC Osaka Takatsuki (Kansai1/Osaka) with their physical strength. On 4 minutes, Tokiwagi Gakuen’s KAWASAKI Sakuya touched a penetrating pass just in front of the opponent’s goalkeeper and SUGIHARA Haruna quickly applied the finishing touch to the open goal. This spurred Tokiwagi Gakuen on further and increased the pace of the match. On 16 minutes, Tokiwagi Gakuen’s NISHIKAWA Ayaka got their 2nd goal by striking in a corner kick. Even though Speranza FC HONDA Saki scored by striking a side space on 37 minutes, Kashiwagi Gakuen kept their lead of the game.

Speranza FC started counterattack in the 2nd half. They approached Kashiwagi Gakuen’s goal by sending some offense substitute players. However, they couldn’t score even with a sharp shot which was knocked away by Kashiwagi Gakuen’s goalkeeper ONO Asuka. On 82 minutes, Kashiwagi Gakuen made a sharp counterattack and ICHISE Nana applied finishing touch to add another goal. Speranza FA kept working hard to equalise and HAZUKI Yuki got a goal to make it 2-3 but that was it. Kashiwagi Gakuen won this intensive match and goes on to round 3.
The 8 matches of round 3 will be held on 13-14 December at Fujieda Sogo Undo Soccer Stadium and Miki Sogo Bosai Koen Rikujo Kyogijo.

Match Detail

Other Results

SFIDA Setagaya FC (Kanto 3/Tokyo)　0-1（1st 0-0、2nd 0-0、extra1st 0-1、extra2nd 0-0）　Fujieda Junshin High School
KIBI International University Charme（Nadeshiko/Okayama）　2-2（PK:7-8）（1st1-1、2nd 1-1、extra 1st0-0、extra2nd 0-0）　 Angeviolet Hiroshima (Chugoku 1/Hiroshima)

Comments

ARAI Junna, (Urawa Reds Ladies Youth/ Saitama)
I tried to enjoy this Empress Cup. Even though we could make a good flow of the match because we had made a good game plan, we could not score at all. The opponent team was a physically strong team - enough to back us up. I think we could have won if we could work a bit more. We wanted to win the match to move on to the round 3 and play against INAC Kobe Leonessa, but we couldn’t. I won’t forget this feeling and will keep working hard to win in the next national championship.

FUJIMOTO Madoka（AS Harima Albion/ Hyogo）
I was just thinking about going home with victory today. We knew that they were better in skill, so we just tried to play mentally and physically hard to cover our disadvantage such as in 1 on 1 situations. I think all of us worked very well to protect our goal. We played in the extra time telling ourselves “We won’t lose if we can keep a clean sheet. So let’s just work hard to protect our goal”. In the round 3, we will play with our best to become one of the top 8 teams, which has been our aim.

NISHIKAWA Ayaka（Tokiwagi Gakuen High School/ Miyagi）
It is difficult for us to take the lead in the middle of the match against the top team of the Challenge League. Today I thought that the key would be how much we could pick up the opponent’s weak passes to the front line. We had great difficulty because we became tired in the 2nd half after working too hard earlier, and we had to defend their counterattacks because our passing work didn’t work well due to lack of length. I appreciate our defense players including goalkeepers and final line players worked very well to protect our goal. It is good to play with these members for long time and I want to utilise what we could do today in this match.

HONNAMI Kenji, Head Coach (Speranza FC Osaka Takatsuki)
All I told to players was “don’t step back against the momentum of Tokiwagi Gakuen as they most likely to play aggressively.” The loss of this game is proof of our team still not matured yet. I must admit we were not on full alert and probably the fact of winning the league title made us relaxed a bit. First step of attack and defence was not quick enough and the passing pace was not fast enough. I wanted to win the match and advance to the game against club of Nadeshiko league. I believe the players realized the level of themselves for playing this game.

The 36th Empress's Cup

Sat.29 November - Thu. 1 January 2015
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