The 2nd National Senior (Over 40) Football Tournament had the day 2 on Sunday 2 November at J-GREEN Sakai in Osaka, where the four finalists to advance were determined.

Every team played the rest of the two matches of the group round, and the only best team of each group cemented the spot in the knock-out round.

The Group A had Okinawa Senior Selection (Kyushu / Okinawa) advance out of the group. In the morning, Okinawa defeated Lazos Koga FC (Kanto 3 / Ibaraki) 2-0, and they kept the momentum to record an easy 5-0 victory over Muroran Senior 40 Soccer Club (Hokkaido / Hokkaido) in their last group match. Koga also tried to keep up with Okinawa by edging Hiroshima Shijukara Soccer Club (Chugoku 1 / Hiroshima) 1-0, but Okinawa held on to the lead by one point.

In the Group B, Mie Masters (Tokai 2 / Mie), leading the way, came out for the last match of the group against Nicols FC Seniors (Hometown / Osaka). Although allowing Nicols to take one-goal lead in the first half, Mie tied the match early in the second and also took advantage of the penalty kick opportunity to get a lead less than 10 minutes later. While Mie closed out the match with a win and grabbed the spot in the final four, Matsumoto Yamaga FC Masters (Hokushinetsu / Nagano) got their first win of the tournament in their last match.

Winning the second match by a late go-ahead goal, T-Dreams of the Group C (Kanto 2 / Tokyo) were tied with Aichi Selection Masters Ov40 (Tokai 1 / Aichi) with four points each before the start of the last match. To get one more win with the biggest scoring margin possible, T-Dreams started the last match against FC Primeiro Fukushima Legends (Tohoku / Fukushima) with three goals in the first half. However, they failed to pile up more goals in the second half, and winning that match was not enough to pass Aichi Selection and move on to the knock-out stage. Aichi Selection go up to the next round two years in a row.

The last match of the Group D had two group leaders go head to head. Kyoto Senior 40 (Kansai / Kyoto) and Tatebayashi Senior 40 SC (Kanto 1 / Gunma) were tied with two wins and no losses as well as the same goal differential. The match with the spot in the final round at stake saw the only goal action of the match in the middle of the second half. Tatebayashi, with a smaller total of goals scored by far, which would mean no advancement in case of a draw in the last match, scored a match-awaited goal against Kyoto. Kyoto also kept trying to equalize the match, but failed to do so before the end. Tatebayashi represents the Group D in the final four.

The day 3, the last event day, is Monday 3 November, a national holiday in Japan, will have two semi-finals and the final match to determine the best team of this generation in the country.

Click here for details of the matches.

Comments

HARATAKE Hiroshi, Player and Head Coach（FC Primeiro Fukushima Legends／Fukushima)
Many of our core players are school teachers, so it’s hard for us to bring our best lineup to games. This tournament is set in the first week of November, but this time of a year we have qualifiers for the National High School Tournament and many of us, being our age, have other duties at school besides teaching. So in this tournament, I am already 55 years old, but I register myself as a player as well. If we could have brought our best lineup, I think we could have played a little better. Our goal is not just playing in a national tournament, but winning there. I am in charge of a kids club team at school, so we sometimes had chances to play against junior high school teams to get ready for this tournament. I believe us winning here can inspire our kids, too.

OHSHIRO Susumu（Okinawa Senior Selection／Okinawa)
We are a selection team, so we practice about once a week. In August, when our Kyusyu qualifiers came up close, we started practicing twice a week. It was tough to win the Kyushu qualifiers. Between our senior league matches, we spent one hour together for extra practice. We have 17 senior teams in our prefecture, and we start our games at 9 am in mornings. We keep playing until the hottest hours in afternoons, so I think we are used to run more than other teams. The best part of it is to spend such a good time with our teammates. Spending time together in the evening is also fun. We can keep talking about what we love. With just one ball to share, we all can get along. In this national tournament, we got to know people from all over the country. Our opponents in the first match were a team from Hokkaido. Now that we are here, we want to win two more matches.

Shinohara, Head Coach（Tatebayashi Senior 40SC／Gunma)
Somehow we managed to win this last match. This time we are like ALL GUNMA team because we welcomed seven players from other teams to this Tatebayashi Senior 40SC to play this tournament. The number of players in Gunma is getting bigger and our senior league has two divisions. It’s so competitive that every year we have a different champion. Our opponents this time were all very skilled, so we tried to outrun. It was impossible for us to be better than them in terms of our skills. Many teams in Gunma prefecture have been trying to play “Outrunning Football” since five or six years ago. We want to keep this momentum in the next two matches as well. 

SONEHARA Yoshiji (Matsumoto Yamaga FC Masters / Nagano)
Last year, we took part in the tournament with the name of Alfoot Azumino Senior. Because we add players who used to play on other teams, we change our team name every year. Not just in the senior league, some other players play in the prefecture league or Hokushinetsu league. We couldn’t watch the J1 promotion game of Matsumoto Yamaga on TV last night. But our players got information via e-mails and SNS. Yamaga’s J1 promotion could bring the motivation to the region, players and fans. In Nagano Prefecture, football is so active that we have each independent category of over 35, 40, 45 and 50 years old. The number of teams has also increased in stages. We aimed at the championship just as last year. We are going to aim at the same objective for the next year as well.

JFA-TV

The 2nd All Japan Seniors (over 40) Football Tournament

Sat. 1 November - Mon.Holiday 3 November 2014
J-GREEN Sakai/Osaka

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