The PUMA CUP 2015, the 20th All Japan Futsal Championship, started the final round on 13 March. In addition to the 6 qualified teams from the 1st round, Nagoya Oceans, which was top of F League Playoff, and Shriker Osaka, who finished in 2nd place of the same Playoff, played in the quarter finals and 4 winning teams would then move on to the semi final.

The 1st quarter final match was between Pescadola Machida and Fuchu-Athletic FC and was a very intensive match. Fuchu took the lead in the first half. They attacked the opponent’s area and got the first goal which was made by Sorocaba on 18 minutes. However Machida started to strengthen its attack in the 2nd half. Machida equalized the match through SHINOZAKI Ryuki’s shot on 25 minutes and then took the lead 2 minutes later by NAKAI Kensuke. Fuchu remained strong and persisted with its powerful plays and equalized by YAMADA Rafael Yugo on 39 minutes. The match went into extra time. In the 2nd half of the extra time, on 47 minutes, Machida got its 3rd goal with a skillful shot by MORIYA Yuta but after only 13 seconds Fuchu’s TAMURA Kento made an equalizer.  The match was played with pride but went to penalty shoot out. At the 6th shot, both teams had saved 1 goal, Machida got the goal whereas Fuchu’s OKAYAMA Yosuke’s shot was blocked by the goal post. Machida made it through after such an intensive match to the semi final.

The 2nd quarterfinal match was between Fugador Sumida and Bardral Urayasu, and Urayasu took the lead of the match with 2 goals in the 1st half. MIKI Kazuyuki of Urayasu got an additional goal on 26 minutes and that was the decisive goal to make the match score 3-0. 
The 3rd match was between Deucao Kobe and Shriker Osaka, both teams are from Kansai, and Kobe which has been in a good mood could successfully get the opening goal by NISHITANI Ryosuke on 8 minutes. They added 2 more goals in the 2nd half and made the score 3-0, but Osaka started to counter attack after everybody thought Kobe would win the match. Osaka attacked with powerful play and got the first goal on 31 minutes and then a second goal on 37 minutes by KATO Minami. Osaka kept its intensive attack but Kobe also kept its consistent defense to stop Osaka. Eventually, Kobe beat Osaka to move on to the quarter final.

The final match of quarter final stage between Vasagey Oita and Nagoya Oceans was also very intensive one. Both teams got their 1st goals after only 1 minute from the kick-off and they showed a very intensive battle. On 4 minutes, Nagoya got its 2nd goal by YOSHIKAWA Tomoki and then the game became a seesaw battle until the 2nd half. On 26 minutes, Oita’s NIBUYA Kazuhiro equalized through a counterattack and the match became even heated as the teams tried to get another goal. On 36 minutes, Nagoya’s MORIOKA Kaoru made a strong shot after breaking through the defense in the right wing, and Oita’s goalkeeper blocked the shot but the ball hit the team’s defender and that deflected it into the goal. Oita substituted its goalkeeper to OSODO Nobuya and tried to attack the opponent’s goal with its powered play but they could not catch up to Nagoya. 

Comments

Okayama Kosuke（Head Coach, Pescadola-Machida）
In the middle of 1st half, we just gave the lead to the opponent. We went into a kind of vicious circle by not taking any risks both in offense and defense in the 1st half, so we just talked about it in the break time to get ready for the 2nd half. Eventually the players did very well and played with a strong passion. It’s been positive since our players can share how they can score; breaking the opponents’ defense well and indeed they could score in that way. I was confident even in the penalty shoot out because we had training particularly for that. For the semi final, we want to keep our level of play, understanding the characteristics of the opponent team.

TANIMOTO Shunsuke（Head Coach, Fuchu-Athletic）
In the 1st half, we were better in the decisive moments like making shots, but it changed in the 2nd half. I think part of the reason was we couldn’t make most of substitutes; we just focused on using offensive players too much since we were behind. Another factor I think was that we made 5 fouls in the extra time. Machida could control their defense to control number of fouls well. We were confident in penalty shootout, but we didn’t have the fate by being hated by the crossbar.

YONEKAWA Masao（Head Coach, Bardral-Urayasu）
It is nice to win the match today and I’m happy to play with this squad as much as possible. We could see the characteristics of the opponent very clearly so we just knew what to do very well. In this situation, we had a degree of keeping our level of play both in defense and offense and the players could concentrate on the match very well. I think because of this high level of concentration which the players could keep, we could make a good result today. Tomorrow, we definitely want to beat Nagoya and also want to play attractive futsal for the audience. Of course, we are ready to win the match.

JFA-TV

PUMA CUP 2015 The 20th All Japan Futsal Championship

Fri. 6 March - Sun. 15 March 2015
1st Round：Shizuoka/Ecopa Arena、Osaka/Maishima Arena、Hyogo/Kobe Central Gymnasium
Final Round：Tokyo/Japan Yoyogi first National Gymnasium
Live distribution of quarter-finals, semi-finals, final on JFA-TV(subject to change)

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