The first round’s third fixtures and the round of 16, competed with 16 best teams, took place in the 40th Japan U-12 Football Championship on Tuesday 27 December at Kagoshima Fureai Sports Land in the city of Kagoshima.

In one of the remaining first round matches of Group I, Tripletta SC (Chiba) faced Taisha SSC (Shimane). In the second half with a 1-1 tie, the match went into a see-saw contest. With sending sharp vertical passes, Taisha first went ahead. After breaking through the middle, KANAYAMA Kairi put his team ahead with his goal. Not going defensively, the Shimane side kept attacking aggressively, creating more chances by sending the ball into the open space. Tripletta did not give up and kept chasing the ball, either. Efforts including UTSUNOMIYA Kanata’s header off a corner-kick surely scared Taisha. After sending most of the players into the opponents’ end, Tripletta finally had YOKOI Yuma equalise the match minutes before the end. The exciting close contest finished with a 2-2 draw.

On this day, Group I also saw FC Re:star (Gifu) cruised past the opponents with their characteristic scoring ability, while Ventforet Kofu (Yamanashi) in the Group G grabbed a victory, showing the great balance of offence and defence.

In the afternoon, eight matches of the round of 16 were held simultaneously to determine the eight teams to move on to the quarter-finals. In the match between Sagan Tosu U-12 (Saga) and Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo U-12 (Hokkaido), Tosu took the initiative early on. However, with his quick judgements, Sapporo’s goalkeeper OTSUKA Yusuke repeatedly denied the Tosu offence including SAKAI Yasuhito’s strong shot and Hata Yasuyuki’s header off an early cross. Then Sapporo started to going deep into Tosu’s end. In the 14th minute, YOSHIDA Yujiro scored the opening goal and IHARA Shunsuke added a goal in the 37th minute through a counter-attack. Tosu kept trying to fight back, but Sapporo’s defensive efforts were as good until the Hokkaido side came out victoriously with a clean sheet onto a quarter final.

Against Gamba Osaka Junior (Osaka), Niiza Katayama Fortissimo SS (Saitama) conceded a goal early. They kept the possession fairly well, but could not go past Gamba’s hard-fought defence and erase the one-goal deficit. Even so, Niiza Katayama kept sending the balls up and they finally evened the score when OHTOU Taiki headed in the deflection off the cross bar in the 40th minute. With the momentum gained several minutes before, Niiza Katayama edged Gamba Osaka 3-2 in the penalty shootout. The contest between Ventforet Kofu U-12 (Yamanashi) and Buddy・FC (Fukuoka) went into the penalty shootout as well and they did not see the winners until Kofu finally ended the battle with the score of 12-11.

Players' Comments

KUWABARA Seira (Toyo FC / Oita)
I am happy that we won at the end of the first round. It has been a good experience to play against good teams in this tournament. The good thing about this year’s team is we can move very quickly when we attack vertically. I think we could show that in this first round. My speed is my strength. And as a captain, I kept telling my teammates to stay focused in defence.

WATANABE Haruki (J-Field Okayama Junior / Okayama)
I felt differences (between us and the opponents) in terms of speed, size and the level of goals. Our goal was to get out of the Okayama prefectural qualifiers. But there were many teams in this tournament which are trying to advance deep into the national tournament. There I felt the difference. The good thing about this team is that we can set the good mood of the team by everybody encouraging each other, but we couldn’t do it very well this time. I want to communicate this experience and the difference of the goals to the younger teammates in order for this team to make regular appearances in the national tournament.

HIBI Kosei (FC Re:star / Gifu)
Our strong point is to take advantage of the physicality of our players upfront to score goals. Our scoring patterns are feeding the ball from the centre back to the top, breaking down the flanks first, and finding the contested balls and putting them back into the net. Our scoring ability is one of our strength, but the foundation of this team is to lay out solid defence to make our offence effective. We always try to start from good defence to attack effectively.

KISHITA Saho (Calciatore Jr. / Kagoshima)
It’s disappointing that we couldn’t win. Our team have scorers and good defenders. That’s why we could advance until this national tournament. But (in the first round) we played against J.League teams and they moved the ball so well. I think I personally could show my dribbling, and I want to be one of the best dribblers in the world by taking advantage of this experience.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

Tournament Day 2: Goals from First Round

Tournament Day 2: Goals from Round of 16

40th Japan U-12 Football Championship

Tournament Period：
Sunday 25 December - Thursday 29 December

Tournament Venue：
1st round/Round 16   Kagoshima Fureai Sports Land (Kagoshima)
Quarter-Final   Kagoshima Kamoike Auxiliary Field (Kagoshima)
Semi-Final/Final   Kagoshima Kamoike Auxiliary Field (Kagoshima)

Tournament Information