Pick-up Match

Riseisha High School　3-5(1st 2-2, 2nd 1-3)　Gamba Osaka Youth

The matchday 4 contests of the Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League West were played on Saturday 2 May and Riseisha High School (Osaka) and Gamba Osaka Youth (Osaka) faced against each other.

Riseisha were highly motivated before the match, since they listed four players on the starting line-up who used to play for the junior youth team of Gamba Osaka. MAKINO Kanta of Riseisha, one of the former Gamba Junior Youth players, said “It is a different feeling from playing against other clubs.” The motivation was well displayed right after the kick-off. In the 2nd minute, Makino was taken down and awarded a free-kick, when he was penetrating inside from the left. Makino himself took advantage of the early opportunity and directly found the back of the net to give the opening goal for Riseisha. Then in the 14th minute, SUGAWARA Taku of Riseisha widened the lead to two after HAYASHI Daichi took the ball thrown in, attacked the right flank and sent a feed to unchecked Sugawara.

Despite the unfavourable start, Gamba Osaka gradually started controlling the tempo of the match for their come-back attack. The 36th minute had Gamba’s TAKEDA Taichi score to cut the deficit to one, and then in the 41st minute, after nicely connected up in the middle, the ball was put into the goal by MIYAMORI Yuki for the equaliser.

As Gamba’s head coach UMEZU Hironari said after the match “It was big for us to tie the match in the first half,” Gamba regained their focus in the second half and started dominating Riseisha who were showing signs of fatigue. In the 52nd minute, IWAMOTO Kazuki passed the ball to KURANO Ryotaro and Kurano calmly changed his direction to score the go-ahead goal with his right foot. Then the next 14 minutes had two more goals for Gamba and the lead became to three goals. Riseisha tried to fight back late, and in the 77th minute Sugawara scored a goal after receiving a pass from TANAKA Shunta. However their effort turned out to be a little too late and too short, as Gamba survived a thrilling contest for their second consecutive victory. Riseisha missed another opportunity for their first win in the Premier League.

Head Coach and Players' Comments

HIRANO Naoki, Head Coach (Riseisha High School)
Our defensive malfunction was obvious in this match. Of course we had some good plays, and if we can keep them going, the match will be much easier without allowing the opponents to make their plays. But our inconsistency is the problem. On the other hand, our offence lacked collective plays in the last matchday against Cerezo Osaka U-18, but in today’s match we were able to make adjustments. The good takeaway was that we could keep the ball for longer stretches. We haven’t had a single win yet, but it’s not like there are all negatives. We have had good responses, and we can utilise them at upcoming matches.

TANAKA Shunta (Riseisha High School)
Our focus in the first half was sticking to man-to-man defence. I was assigned to their defensive midfielder, and our defenders were on their forwards. Once we got the ball, we could immediately start our offence, and things went well in the first half. But in the second half, there were more of our plays where I felt like “we are getting tired,” and we lost some of our momentum. Easy mistakes let us down mentally, and we allowed goals. It was disappointing. We have had many matches where we got attacked at a few moments when we momentarily lost our focus. We will make sure to correct it and play better.

UMEZU Hironari, Head Coach (Gamba Osaka Youth)
It was really good that we could come out with a win. We lost two goals early, but even so how we started the match was not so bad. The first goal allowed was like an accident, and you can’t give it away like that to your opponents. That goal turned us on and we were able to attack in the second half just as we normally attack. The players who scored goals tend to get attention, but our defensive end such as goalkeeper WATANABE Kenta and defenders YOSHIOKA Yuki and MATSUOKA Shuhei showed great hustle, and it’s a good takeaway.

TAKEDA Taichi (Gamba Osaka Youth)
Early in the match we didn’t play so well, but we kept saying to each other “We still have a lot of time left. We can come back from here.” And it was big that we were able to make adjustments. My goal could change the course of the match for us, so I was happy. Two goals and two assists is a good result, but I wanted to make a hat-trick with one more goal. Last year, I wasn’t able to score even when I was on a pitch, but my coach has been patient with me so far this season. I really want to leave good results, so I will keep working hard and score goals.

Other results

Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC Youth　2-2(1st 1-2, 2nd 1-0)　Nagoya Grampus U18
Vissel Kobe U-18　2-1 (1st 0-0, 2nd 2-1）　Oita Trinita U-18
Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18　0-0(1st0-0, 2nd 0-0）　Higashi Fukuoka High School
Cerezo Osaka U-18　3-0(1st2-0, 2nd 1-0）　Kyoto Tachibana High School

The match between Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C. Youth (Hiroshima) and Nagoya Grampus U18 (Aichi) ended up in a draw as Nagoya, looking to end their losing streak, led at the end of the first half but Hiroshima’s Kawamoto Keita scored the equaliser in the 72nd. Vissel Kobe U-18 (Hyogo) had never won a match in this season and took on Oita Trinita U-18 (Oita) who were on their two-match winning streak. In spite of allowing the opener in the 61st minute, the Hyogo side succeeded in turning the scoring around for the first win of the season. Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18 (Kyoto), another winless club so far, looked for the much-sought win against Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka), but the match turned out to be a draw. Cerezo Osaka U-18 Osaka extended their winning streak to four since the opening of the season as the lone club to do so in the league by defeating Kyoto Tachibana High School (Kyoto) 3-0.