The 24th All Japan High School Women's Football Championship had the four quarter-finals matches at the two fields of Miki Sogo Bosai Park in Hyogo. And now only four teams are standing for the next round.

Pick-up Match 1

Hooh High School (Kyushu 2/Kagoshima)　2-3 (0-2, 2-1)　Fujieda Junshin High School (Tokai 1/Shizuoka)

Against Hooh High School who were attempting to create their rhythm with their defence, it was Fujieda Junshin Highs School who succeeded in it. They moved the ball effective using the width of the field at backline, and sent long balls at good timings. In the 5th minute, KONO Fuka rushing in from the right flank caught the ball from the back and fired from distance with no hesitation. She did not have an easy angle, but found the left corner of the goal to open the scoring for Fujieda Junshin. 

Fujieda Junshin’s players up front changed their positioning flexibly to cope with each situation, which made it difficult for Hooh’s defence to focus. In the 24th minute, Fujieda Junshin added the second goal from a counter-attack. A loose ball came out from a scramble after an incoming cross ball, and CHIBA Reina picked it up and struck it hard to the net.

Hooh, trailing with two goals down, started coming back in the second half. The defensive change made on the halfway in the first half started working better. They started putting more intense pressure on the ball up and early. Four minutes into the second half, quick ball movement was followed with a cross from the right, which was put home by INOWAKI Akane to cut the deficit to one. 10 minutes later, it was Inowaki again this time from a feed from the left. She put her side back on level terms.

Fujieda Junshin’s composure, however, did not get shaken. Two minutes after the match was tied, the opening goal scorer Kono took it up on the left flank to feed it to IWASHITA Kurumi in the middle, who calmly hit it to find the back of the net at the right corner. For the rest of the time, the match did not see much more goal-scoring actions, and Fujieda Junshin advanced to the final-four contests for the second straight year with the close win.

Match details (Japanese version only)

Pick-up Match 2

Kamimura Gakuen High School（Kyushu 1/Kagoshima)　1-1 (1-0, 0-1, PSO 3-1)　Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana High School (Tokai 2/Shizuoka)

Kamimura Gakuen have scored goals in the past two matches through set-pieces. In today’s match, they converted a corner-kick opportunity. Four minutes after the kick-off, WATANABE Rena headed her team’s second corner-kick of the day into the goal to grab the early lead. Kamimura Gakuen players were quick-footed and helping out each other throughout the first half to shoot 12 times in the half alone against Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana High School. 

In the second half, Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana started getting their normal self back. They were not allowed to send enough players up front due to Kamimura’s overwhelming attacks in the first half, but the second half saw more situations where Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana controlled the ball movement up from their own end. After the multiple missed attempts of acute through balls and shots, one of which hit the crossbar, their effort finally came through in the additional time. ISHIDA Nanami headed home a left corner-kick to push the match into the penalty shootout. 

In the shootout, two out of the first three failed to score for Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana while Kamimura had one misfire in that span. Then Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana’s fourth kicker was denied by Kamimura Gakuen’s goalkeeper NAKAHARA Saaya, which determined the fate for those two sides with Kamimura gaining the spot in the semi-finals.

The tournament’s fourth day, Thursday 7 January, have two semi-finals to determine this year’s finalists. Daisho Gakuen High School (Kansai 1/Osaka) take on Fujieda Junshin, while Shutoku High School (Kanto 2/Tokyo) face Kamimura Gakuen both at Noevir Stadium Kobe. 

Match details (Japanese version only)

Other Matches

Daisho Gakuen High School　(Kansai 1/Osaka)   6-0 (2-0, 4-0)　Takasaki University of Health and Welfare High School (Kanto 5/Gunma)
Sakuyo High School (Chugoku 1/Okayama)   1-3 (1-1, 0-2)　Shutoku High School (Kanto 2/Tokyo)

Coach and Players' Comments

KUROSAKI Yuka (Fujieda Junshin High School)
It was a tough match. If we had added a few more goals, it wouldn’t have been a close match. The way we started off the match was not good and that was another reason for our struggle. It would have been better if we had been able to correct our mistakes after allowing the first goal. But it took a little too much for us to regain ourselves. If next match goes like this again, we want to correct it earlier. Our past matches have been not so good in details, so we want to play for good details as well as good results. 

SHIMATA Masateru (Hooh High School)
We still lack experiences. Especially it showed in situations like the allowing the goal early. (Fujieda Junshin) feed long balls as well, so I tried to start the match rather slowly to see how they come out early in the match and let my players get used to it. But we allowed the goal before we really got it going. I think the opponents’ shot was well, too. In the first half, maybe we were overwhelmed by the opponents a little too much, but we scored two goals, too, with a limited number of chances. This tournament is still a passing block for my players. For their future careers, I want to lay a good foundation for them. 

NAKAHARA Saaya (Kamimura Gakuen High School)
After scoring the first goal early, we wanted the second one. As our opponents were trying hard to score their own, the match could have been tied any moment. I knew the match would not be easy, and the penalty shootout would be possible. I am not particularly good at defending penalties, but we lost in the shootout last year. So I thought like now is the time for me to pay it back. As we played more matches, our team became a stronger unit and got better overall. We will take advantage of this unity in next match, too.

HANDA Etsuko (Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana High School)
I told my players that we would want to play this match as our first match. Because if we had played with the excitement of our win against Tokiwagi Gakuen too much, we would have let this one slip away. We wanted to show our football somewhere down the stretch as we kept playing patiently against the opponents working hard. But the goal we allowed right after the beginning started making us nervous, and we rushed too much after we got the balls and we tried to move up too carelessly. We got it tied in the end, and I thought we still had a chance. But we may not be mentally strong enough to win matches like this.

The 24th All Japan High School Women's Football Championship

Sun. 3 January 2016 - Sun. 10 January 2016
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