On Sunday 14 October the final day of the JFA 13th Japan Beach Soccer Tournament took place as the semi-finals and the final were played.

The semi-final matches took place in the morning as the two Tokyo sides, Tokyo Lequios BS (Kanto3/Tokyo) and Tokyo Verdy BS (Kanto1/Tokyo) clashed. In this match, it was Tokyo V who took the initiative early on. Led by MOREIRA Ozu’s third minute goal, Tokyo V scored three goals by the sixth minute mark. Lequios on the other hand, tried to rally back with their offence led by GOTO Takasuke, but Tokyo V further extended their lead as time progressed and advanced to the final with a 9-2 victory.

In the other side of the bracket, Dorsole Kitakyushu (Kyushu1/Fukuoka) and Loewe Yokohama (Kanto2/Kanagawa) squared off against each other. OKAMOTO Isao gave Dorsole an early lead as he shook the net on the very first play of the match. The Kyushu side would go on to add to their tally as the 26th minute goal scored by AKAGUMA Takuya gave them a three-goal lead. Loewe responded as OGAWA Daisuke and HIRAMA Naomichi captured the goal to make it a one-goal game. However, despite their efforts, Loewe fell short from levelling the match and Dorsole advanced to the final for the first time in three years.

The final between Tokyo V and Dorsole took place in the afternoon as INADA Yu shared his aspiration before the match, “We worked all year to beat Verdy.” It was Dorsole who opened the scoring as MATSUOKA Tsukasa converted freekick delivered by MIYAMOTO Hikaru in the fourth minute. For Tokyo V, it was the first time they allowed their opponents to score the opening goal during this tournament. The defending champions were forced to stay patient for a while, but in the 11th minute, Moreira’s volley shot levelled the match before the end of the first period.

In the second period, Dorsole was gifted with the go-ahead goal in an unexpected fashion. The goal came in the 18th minute when Akaguma applied pressure deep in the Tokyo V territory and Moreira’s pass that was intended to the goalkeeper ended up in the back of the net. Moreira would net the ball into the opponent’s goal just a minute later, when his lobbing shot struck the crossbar and crossed the goal line to equalise the match once again.

The final period did not lack action to say the least. Dorsole’s captain Inada captured the goal in the 29th minute, followed by Moreira’s equaliser just a minute later, that gave him a hat-trick for the match. Akaguma converted a penalty kick in the following minute to put the Kyushu side ahead at 4-3.

The see-saw game continued, but as the clock winded down, the defending champions who has not lost a single official match since launching the team a year ago, was on the verge of suffering their first loss. However, the Spanish International, Llorenc Gomez Leon who joined the Tokyo side just for this tournament, came to the rescue. From the 33rd minute, he managed to score three goals in three minutes as his hat-trick gave the champs their first lead of the match.

Dorsole came within a goal with Okamoto’s 35th minute volley shot, but Tokyo V prevailed at the end with a final score of 6-5. With the win, Tokyo V was crowned as national champions in back-to-back years.

Players' Comments

MORISHIGE Mizuki (Tokyo Lequios BS)
Personally, this was my first national tournament, and it gave me a wonderful learning experience. From our experience facing Verdy at the Kanto League, we knew we wouldn’t be able to play our passing football if we concede the goal first. Despite our efforts to contain our opponents from scoring the goal, we conceded three goals in the first period and that has really affected the entire match. We managed to come from behind in the match against Veertien Mie at the quarterfinals, so we still had our hopes even when we were trailing by a good margin. However, our opponents had the upper hand in this match. We still have another tournament this year, so we hope to feed off of this experience and improve ourselves ahead of it.

AKAGUMA Takuya (Dorsole Kitakyushu)
We were close to taking the title, but the result is what it is. They were better than us, including their foreign players. We entered the match with the intention to outrun our opponents and I think we managed to do so. There are a lot of things that are going through my mind right now, but I’ll just have to accept the results and move on. Matching up with Moreira Ozu was fun. Playing against him provides me with a great opportunity to measure myself against the world standard. It was great that we were able to face them at this stage and there were many occasions that made me feel that they had the better of us. With many young players featuring the team, we weren’t expecting to make it this far this year. If hope to build on this running style football and add more skills to it. I personally would like to become a player that can make the team win in a match like today.

NAKAHARA Yuki (Tokyo Verdy BS)
We were confident enough that we could come from behind despite giving up the lead, so we were able to stay composed and pursue our game plan. Every match we faced were tough. It shows how much the overall level of Japanese beach soccer has improved over the years. We knew every team had worked all year to beat us, so the matches were expected to be tough. But we trained as hard as our opponents, so we were confident that we could repeat as champions. We will continue to work hard as we seek to defend our title next year. When we launched the team last year, our goal was aimed towards the world competitions, so we will keep training towards our goal. In order to heighten the overall level of Japanese beach soccer, the national champions must be a good representative, so we will continue to do strive higher, as we have been doing all along.

Llorenc Gomez Leon (Tokyo Verdy BS)
I have been playing all around the world, and I was given just a short period of time in Japan, but I was able to devote myself in the training sessions to become a part of the team. The level of beach soccer in Japan was much higher than I expected, and I was very surprised by it. I thought I could play more freely, but the pressure applied in these matches were very quick, even when comparing it with the teams in Europe. I especially had difficulties playing against LEON Fukuoka in the second match of the group stage, as the team showed great intensity in their plays against us. I am very happy to win this title, not only because I scored the goals, but because I was able to contribute to the team as a single team member. Even though I have arrived in Japan just to play this tournament, the team has trained all year for it, so I am glad that the team was able to showcase and earn what they have been working for.

JFA 13th Japan Beach Soccer Tournament

Tournament Dates: Fri. 12 - Sun. 14 October 2018
Tournament Venue: Ginowan Tropical Beach, Okinawa
Tournament Information