“JFA Premier Cup 2014 supported by NIKE” will kick off its matches on Saturday 3rd May.

JFA Premier Cup 2013 event, being 17th in its history, had 12 teams from 9 regions all over Japan participated in the contests. In the first round the teams were split into three groups of four teams and the top teams of each group and one second-ranked team with the best record advanced to the final round, semi-final matches. Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-15 (Kyoto), two-time champion in 2010 and 2011, never lost a match in the group A and represented the group in the final round after they edged Aomori Yamada High School (Aomori), which also recorded no loss, by the point differential. In the group B, two teams with two wins, Avispa Fukuoka U-15 (Fukuoka) and Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Junior Youth (Hiroshima) got spots in the next round. Omiya Ardija Junior Youth (Saitama) moved forward to the final round out of the group C.

In one of the semi-final matches, Omiya outscored Hiroshima 3-2 in a hard-fought battle and made the final appearance two years in a row. The other match had Fukuoka held Fukuoka scoreless and won 3-0.
The final match between Omiya and Kyoto turned out to be another very close match. Omiya controlled the tempo early as they kept the ball and played in the Kyoto’s half most of the time. Although they had many opportunities, none of them finished with a goal before the first half ended scoreless. In the second half, the match saw Kyoto start gaining the momentum. Kyoto’s substitution also worked for their favour. At the 45th minute of that two-30-minute-halves match, Nakata Ryo of Kyoto scored the first goal of the day. After that Kyoto started defending hard the one-goal lead. Omiya also kept attacking, and finally a few minutes before the end of the regulation, Tanigawa Motoki struck the match-tying goal for Omiya, and the match went into the extra time in a dramatic fashion.

Omiya kept showing its potential and one minute before the end of the second half, Hyon Ju Ryang scored the goal for Omiya’s come-back win. In 2012 they disappointingly ended up losing in the final, but in 2013 Omiya returned to the stage and won their first championship in its history.

Omiya moved on to the world event “Manchester United Premier Cup World Finals 2013” held in Manchester, England in August as Japan’s finalist. They were in the same qualifying group with some of the elite clubs in the world including Onehunga Sports (New Zealand), SC Internacional (Brazil), Borussia Dortmund (Germany) and Arsenal (England). Although the record was convincing with two wins, one loss and one draw, they failed to advance to the final round by the goal differential. After another match to determine the final standings, Omiya turned out to be 10th out of 20 clubs. Throughout the all matches, they kept dominating the ball, and surely impressed many.

Now, who will win the ticket to the world finals this year…?