The two semi-finals of the 36th Empress's Cup All-Japan Women's Soccer Championship Tournament were held at the Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka in Tokyo on Sunday 28 December.

The result of the first match of the semi-finals

NIPPON TV Beleza (Nadeshiko/Tokyo) 2-0 (1st 1-0, 2nd 1-0) Vegalta Sendai Ladies (Nadeshiko/Miyagi)

Sendai took the initiative in the first match of the semi-finals. The players showed their ambition to go up front from the beginning and stayed in Beleza’s area. After seven minutes, HAMADA Haruka, who ran towards the right side of the penalty area and sent in a sharp cross. In the 24th minute, a free kick from UETSUJI Yumi hit Beleza’s left goalpost.

Beleza, who had survived a tough time without conceding a goal, gradually picked up the pace. After 30 minutes, they kept possession with short passes in front of Sendai’s goal and HASEGAWA Yui struck the opener with her right foot. The third goal of HASEGAWA Yui in this tournament let the team regain some calm. In the second half, the players pressed the opponent swiftly up front, not letting Sendai hold the ball. Beleza continued their attack rhythmically with little touches of the ball and in the 79th minute, they stretched their lead through the opponent’s own goal. Sendai’s defender headed a long ball from SAKAGUCHI Mizuho backwards, which ended up in their own goal due to miscommunication with the goalkeeper. In the second half, Beleza only let Sendai get two shots and won the game, getting through to the final for the first time after five tournaments.

The details can be found here.

The result of the second match of the semi-finals

Urawa Red Ladies (Nadeshiko/Saitama) 3-1 (1st 0-0, 2nd 3-1) JEF United Chiba Ladies (Nadeshiko/Chiba)

Chiba had big opportunities from the beginning in the second match of the semi-finals against Urawa, who won the Nadeshiko League this year. After five minutes, SUGASAWA Yuika headed the ball from a right cross, and just one minute later SUGASAWA again dribbled into the box area, getting through the opponent’s defender to shoot. However, both of those attempts failed, ending up slightly left of the goal.

On the other hand, although Urawa tried to make a breakthrough by spreading to the sides, they could not get any shots away. The 18 year-old forward, SEIKE Kiko, who came off the bench in the second half, gave a superb performance in that situation. In the 69th minute, SEIKE received the ball to the right of the opponent’s area and dribbled up long distance to the penalty area in one shot. Then she struck a shot to the left side of the goal. Four minutes later, SEIKE reacted to a long shot from the goalkeeper IKEDA Sakiko and just touched the ball just in front of Chiba’s goalkeeper, building a three-goal lead,
Chiba on the backfoot stayed ambitious for goals. Although Anzai Yuka in the right wing tried to score by dribbling up and FUKAZAWA Risa had her chance from the corner kick just before the final whistle, they could not find the back of the net. Urawa won the game 3-1, getting through to the final.
The details can be found here.

The details can be found here.

The final to decide the best in Japan will kick off at 14:15 at the Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka in Tokyo on Thursday 1 January. It will be a re-match between Urawa and Beleza after the final of the 31st Tournament in 2009.

Comments

TERATANI Mayumi, the head coach of NIPPON TV Beleza
We couldn’t take the initiative against the opponent, who pressed with the ball up front, using their height and speed. I found it our issue to be fixed. Having said that, the players stayed very patient when they couldn’t sustain possession or make their own rhythm. In the second half, the players started to move the ball better and scored a goal in a good timing. I’d like to point out they didn’t win the match without a struggle. Hasegawa Yui hasn't scored a single goal in the League apart from the time in the World Championships, despite the fact she was in every single match. I told her off, asking why she hadn’t scored a goal towards the end of the League. That may have been one of the reasons why she scored in three consecutive matches in the Empress's Cup.

CHIBA Yasunobu, the head coach of Vegalta Sendai Ladies
As Beleza have got high skills and an organised attack, we prepared a compact form, taking care of the vital areas and pushing the opponent towards the sides. It went well in the first half, but we made some easy mistakes and it didn’t work well in the second half. Since we had cold spell in Sendai, we only had two practice sessions on the ground this week. It was difficult to adjust our condition. I guess the players got tired by following the ball. Although the players regret their loss despite their full effort, I don’t think it was that bad at all.

SEIKE Kiko (Urawa Red Ladies)
As I didn’t expect to come on as substitute from the top of the second half, I was surprised about but I wanted to run into behind the other side’s defence. All I wanted to do was response to a everybody’s pass sent behind the other side’s defence line, everybody tried to send those passes when I came on. For the first goal, because the other side gets offensive after our opening goal, I could dribble well by taking advantage of the space behind their back line. About the second goal, it was exactly what goalkeeper Ikeda Sakiko said during the half time, “Just run, I will send a pass to you when I can do that”. That led to the goal. This is my first time playing official game on New Year’s day and I really look forward to it.

SAKURAMOTO Naoko (JEF United Chiba Ladies)
I wanted to play like we usually do, putting pressure in JEF’s style. We could aggressively intercept the ball in the front in the first half and made a scoring chance but didn’t have enough shooting ability. We increasingly face the dangerous scenes of getting the space behind the back line after the other side brought in pacey Seike. It was a hard battle for they relied on long ball when we tried to put pressure on. After conceding the goal, we could pull back one goal by taking a risk but the other side’s lead had been a burden till the end of the game. Meanwhile, we had things we could keep on doing through the year and I want to continue doing that in the next year.

The 36th Empress's Cup

Sat.29 November - Thu. 1 January 2015
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