Pick-up Match

Tokai University Shizuoka Shoyo Junior High School Girls' Football Club  1-1 (1st 0-0, 2nd 1-1, PK 5-3)  FC Miyagi

The 20th All Japan Youth (U-15) Women’s Championship began in Sakai, Osaka, on Saturday 25 July with the 32 teams from regional qualifiers battling for the national championship.

In the first match, Tokai University Shizuoka Shoyo Junior High School Girls’ Football Club (Tokai/Shizuoka), making their debut for this tournament after placed fourth in the Tokai qualifiers, faced FC Miyagi (Tohoku 2/Miyagi), appearing for the fifth time in the tournament. It was Tokai’s junior high school side that created the first crucial moment.

MOCHIZUKI Mao proudly says of their dribbling skills “We have worked on it since we were in the first grade. No other team has this,” and it was the skill of hers that initiated the offence in the 3rd minute. Then KOIKE Mari worked in the post to feed HAGISAKA Nami, who struck her shot only to have it denied by the opposing goalkeeper. 

After that, Shizuoka Shoyo Junior High School repeatedly failed to break through the opposing defence and conversely started getting pushed back by FC Miyagi’s attacks from the sides led by SAITO Hibiki and SASAKI Ryoka. Their defence, however, tenaciously dealt with them before finishing the first half scoreless.

The scoring saw the first action after 7 minutes in the second half. FC Miyagi’s TAKAHASHI Kaho ran past Shizuoka Shoyo’s defenders and got around the goalkeeper in one-one-one to give the first goal for her club. FC Miyagi also created another opportunity in the 9th minute from a counter-attack and OIKAWA Riko threatened Shizuoka Shoyo right in front of the goal, but this time the goalkeeper denied with all her body.

With more chances after that, FC Miyagi were still not able to extend the lead. Coach ISHIGAKI Hiroshi later said with regret “If we had got through those one-on-ones, we could have sealed our win.” When the time-up was on everyone’s mind, HIROSAWA Maho took it through the left flank and fed HASHIGUCHI Miho, who volleyed in the equaliser at two minutes into the additional time. The 60-minute match ended right after that and went into the penalty shootouts.

While Shizuoka Shoyo Junior High School had all five kickers converted their opportunity, the shot by the FC Miyagi’s fourth kicker went off target, which gave Shizuoka Shoyo the first win of the tournament in their first try.

Coach and Players' Comments

HIRATSUKA Satoshi, Coach (Tokai University Shizuoka Shoyo Junior High School Girls' Football Club)
In the first half, while we couldn’t create our attacking chances, we were also defending well against their quick vertical attacks. We were thinking the match was in our control, but that one shot put us out of sync in the second half. Late in the match I thought we would have no chance to win any more. Our girls worked so hard.

This is still 4th year of our club history. When this team got started, we used to lose our ball very easily. But we put our work into our dribbling, and the team improved overall. Last year, it was just one win away from playing in this tournament. So this win today made us so happy. 

MOCHIZUKI Mao (Tokai University Shizuoka Shoyo Junior High School Girls' Football Club)
Before the match we said to each other “Let’s have fun.” But once the match started, we found ourselves being so nervous. Now that the match is over, we can say it was very fun and we were happy to play in front of our supporters with them cheering for us.

It turned out to be a tough match, but the reason for this win is that we never gave it up until the end and we kept believing in what we had done in practice until the match. Our coach said “We have worked so hard. If you give it up now, what was that work for?” That turned us on. 

ISHIGAKI Hiroshi, Coach (FC Miyagi)
We haven’t recruited players. Our team is just a collection of girls who gather because they want to play football. And our girls get better by spending three years for it. So that makes their feeling for the team stronger.

There was this story of defender KOGURE. Her family decided to move away in April, but she begged to their parents to let her stay in Miyagi until this tournament finishes. And she got to stay with the team. We have worked hard for her leaving to the Kanto region next month. So we wanted to win at least once.

SASAKI Ryoka (FC Miyagi)
In the first half, we altogether could pump each other up and we played good football. But in the end what we are still missing showed. We lost, but all the way until here we put our hearts together and worked hard together. So it was good. All the teammates have worked hard for Yukako (KOGURE) who is leaving after this tournament. Now it’s just full of disappointment but being able to play with Yukako will be a great memory of us. We put a lot of emotions into that one ball and played hard.

Other Matches

AS Elfen Sattama Mari (Kanto 1/Saitama)  3-2 (1-0, 2-2)  Aosaki S.C. Hanako Clover's（Chugoku 2/Hiroshima)
JFA Academy Fukushima (Tokai 1/Shizuoka)  4-0 (2-0, 2-0)  Thespakusatsu Gunma U-15 Ladies (Kanto 9/Gunma)
Dream Sprea FC Miyazaki (Kyushu 2/Miyazaki)   1-5 (1-3, 0-3)  FC VICTORIES (Kansai 1/Hyogo)
Club FIELDS LINDA (Hokkaido 1/Hokkaido)  0-3 (0-1, 0-2)  FC Belta (Kanto 10/Tokyo)
Jumonji Junior High School (Kanto 4/Tokyo)  3-1 (2-0, 1-1)  Ehime FC Ladies MIKAN (Shikoku 1/Ehime)
AC Tatebayashi Felis (Kanto 8/Gunma)  1-3 (0-0, 1-3)  Kamimura Gakuen Junior High School Women's Football Club (Kyushu 3/Kagoshima)
Fujieda Junshin SC Junior Youth Blue (Tokai 3/Shizuoka)  2-1 (0-1, 2-0)  Maruoka Ruck Ladies (Hokushinetsu 1/Fukui)
JEF Chiba Ladies Rame (Kanto 3/Chiba)  0-2 (0-1, 0-1)  Cerezo Osaka Sakai Girls (Kansai 2/Osaka)
Muroran Iceb Birds (Hokkaido 2/Hokkaido)  1-4 (1-3, 0-1)  FC.Fervor.MIMOSA (Tokai 5/Aichi)
Okayama Yunogo Belle U-15 (Chugoku 1/Okayama)  0-0 (0-0, 0-0, PK5-6)  Omiya FC Angels 05 (Kanto 7/Saitama)
Urawa Reds Ladies Junior Youth (Kanto 5/Saitama)  2-0 (0-0, 2-0)  Vegalta Sendai Ladies Junior Youth (Tohoku 1/Miyagi)
Albirex Niigata Ladies U-15 (Hokushinetsu2/Nigata)  2-1 (0-0, 2-1)  Ome FC (Kanto 6/Tokyo)
Trefle FC Fille (Shikoku 2/Ehime)  0-5 (0-4, 0-1)  Oita Trinita Ladies (Kyushu 1/Oita)
FC BLOOM (Tohoku 3/Fukushima)  0-4 (0-3, 0-1)  Kusu Club Ladies (Tokai 2/Mie)
Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Junior High School Football Club (Kyushu 4/Fukuoka)  0-1 (0-0, 0-1)  Sfida Setagaya FC Youth (Kanto 2/Tokyo)

AS Elfen Saitama Mari, who passed through the tough Kanto qualifiers atop, finished the first half with one-goal lead, but Aosaki FC came back with their two goals. Just before the end of the match, the Saitama club edged off Aosaki with another goal added to 3-2 win.

Kamimura Gakuen Junior High School, who won the tournament three times in the past, cruised through the match against AC Tatebayashi Felis to 3-1 win. Kamimura will take on Fujieda Jyunshin Football Club Junior Youth Blue, a former champions in 2013, in the second round match on Sunday 26 July.

One of last year’s finalists Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Junior Youth could not break through the solid defence of Vegalta Sendai Ladies Junior Youth in the first half, but scored two goals in the second half to advance to the second round. Albirex Niigata Ladies U-15 also won the first match to pay back for their disappointing semi-final exit from the last year’s tournament. 

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

The 20th All Japan Youth (U-15) Women's Championship

Sat. 25 july - Fri. 31 July 2015
J-GREEN Sakai (Osaka)
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