The All-Japan Women’s Youth (U-15) Futsal Championship had its final day on Monday 12 January. The four teams who survived out of the first round battled against each other in the semi-finals and the final, where Jumonji Junior High School (Kanto / Tokyo) won themselves the first ever championship.

Both of two semi-final matches which started at the same time saw dramatic closures. Jumonji got out of the first round as the top 2nd-place team of the group rounds and faced against the defending champions FC Vitoria (Kansai / Osaka). After giving away two goals in the first six minutes, Jumonji scored one goal immediately and then equalised the match in the 7th minute. But as their head coach Otaki Osamu pointed out, saying “our problem is to allow goals right after scoring ours”, they allowed FC Victoria to have another lead right after. With Jumonji conceding one more goal, the match went into the half time.

With two goals down, Jumonji again erased the gap with Kobayashi Izuho’s goals in the 13th and 14th minutes in the second half. Then Kurata scored another in the 16th to grab their first lead. One more goal after that widened Jumonji’s lead to two. Then the match came back to even one more time after FC Victoria scored two goals. As many thought it would go into the extra time, Kurata from her side’s counter-attack took advantage of the one-on-one opportunity against the goalkeeper to score the impressive match-winning goal with only one second remaining on the clock.

The other semi-final was between the last year’s runners-up Club Fields Linda (Hokkaido) and FC Effronte (Chugoku / Okayama), the inaugural champions of the tournament. The match was highly competitive in the first half and went into the second half without seeing any goal scored. Then in the 17th minute, Nakasono Yui scored the first goal for FC Effronte. But Linda tied the match one minute later, and the score remained 1-1 until the last minute of the match. With four seconds to go, Linda’s Otani Ruan, with Effronte’s defenders around her, struck a pass from the right flank into the goal to let her side advance to the final match.

The final between two teams who just had the sensational semi-final endings turned out to be another breathtaking match. Jumonji got the first lead only 26 seconds after the start with Kurata’s goal, but in the 2nd minute Otani immediately scored an equaliser for Linda. Both teams exchanged a few more goals, and the first half ended with Jumonji leading 3-2.

A few minutes into the second half, Linda caught up with Jumonji again, and Jumonji also again took the lead right after. In the 16th minute, Linda’s Otani put in another equaliser and the match went back to even again. When these two teams played against each other in the first round, Linda won the close contest. This time it was Jumonji who enjoyed the last laugh. In the 18th, Kurata in the middle struck a strong shot, which she later described as “something she just fired with nothing on her mind”, and that gave the lead Jumonji would keep for good with their focused defence. Linda’s fierce come-efforts did not see any more goal and Jumonji won the first ever championship.

Comments

OTAKI Osamu, Head Coach（Jumonji Junior High School）
We had had a good momentum going since the second half of our second first round match, where we clinched the final round spot. So we were able to keep riding on it with good mind-set. Both the semi-final and final were tough matches, but we all fought hard including our bench players and players in the stands. They will move on to high school football, but they say futsal is fun, too, so I want them to take advantage of this experience and get even better either in football or futsal. I thank our players for showing great matches.

KOBAYASHI Izuho（Jumonji Junior High School）
At one point down the road I thought we would not be able to make it, but we got out of the group round as the second-place team, and we were able to win the championship from there. So I am very happy. Our teammates who didn’t get to play supported us from the stands, and they gave us great energy. Futsal is different from football in many aspects, but the fact that we all have to work together as a team is the same in both. Being able to win the national championship with my teammates is a great experience, and I will never forget the importance of working altogether as a team. Quick transition between offence and defence, playing hard both in offence and defence and talking loud to my teammates from the back are things I think I can keep doing in football as well.

KURATA Akari（Jumonji Junior High School）
I could score goals at crucial moments both in the semi-final and the final. In football, I missed an important one-on-one situation, and in the first round I couldn’t score at a very good opportunity, either, so I am very happy with goals in the semi-final and final. The match-winning goal (of the final) is something I just fired hard with my left foot, because I thought it wouldn’t be good if I tried to aim too nicely. In this tournament, we always had close matches, and I felt uneasy at times, but in the end, our team could come together and win it collectively. Every time we scored, our bench and our stands got so excited and loud, and our momentum got stronger and stronger.

GOTO Masami General Manager（Club Fields Linda）
We defeated (Jumonji Junior High School) in the first round, but I thought they were a better team, and we kept telling ourselves not to be passive. Our players kept fighting back after allowing the first goal, but it wasn’t enough just a bit. But our players showed resiliency in close contests and never gave it up until getting a win. I want them to be confident. Through this tournament, we found both what we could do well and what we were missing. It turned out to be a good learning experience. We will keep cherishing the sport and getting our players’ improvement out of it.

JFA-TV

Semi-Finals Highlights

Final Highlights

All Japan Women's Youth (U-15)  Futsal Tournament

Sun. 11 January - Mon. 12 January 2015
Toyota City, Aichi/Skyhall Toyota

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