The JFA Premier Cup 2015 started on 3 May. The winner of this Premier Cup will be the Japan’s strongest U-15 team and 12 teams who had come through regional elimination rounds had their first 2 matches of the first round.

After the first-day matches, both Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-15 (Kansai/Kyoto) and Ehime FC U-15 (Shikoku/Ehime) are top of Group A with the same amount of points. On the last day, Kyoto played against Sanfrecce Bingo Junior Youth FC (Chugoku/Hiroshima), and Ehime played against Nagaoka Junior Youth FC (Kitashinetsu/Nigata). “We are here, after beating Vissel Kobe U-15 and Gamba Osaka Junior Youth in the regional round, I know how much they wanted to come here to win this Premier Cup. So for all the teams in Kansai area, we just want to do our best to be the winner”, says EGAWA Genki of Kyoto Sanga. Can they go on to the next round beating Ehime? Ehime is also expected to go through this round for the first time. Watch the exciting first round of Group A until the end to see who will qualify to the next round.

In Group B where many teams drew their first match, Consadole Sapporo U-15 (Hokkaido) beat Aomori Yamada Junior High School (Tohoku/Aomori) with 1-0 in their first match. Then in their second match against Albirex Niigata (Kitashinetsu/Niigata), they were behind until the end of the match but YAMAHO Riku equalised 3 minutes before the match ended. Consadole finished their first day with advantages to go through to the next round.

Group C has some strong teams in it and 3 teams still have chance to go through this round. Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Junior Youth (Chugoku/Hiroshima) beat FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa (Kanto/Tokyo) 4-0 in their first match, but they had difficulty in the second match against Nagoya Grampus U15 (Tokai/Aichi). They allowed Nagoya’s SUGAWARA Yukinari the first goal after only on 1 minute, and had 3 goals scored against them in the 1st half. Sanfrecce Hiroshima equaised in the 2nd half and that made both Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Nagoya Grampus stay on top of the Group C. FC Tokyo who has got only 1 point less than these top teams, still has the opportunity to win the Group C round. The third matches of this group are expected to heat up the competition.

Third matches of each group and the semi final will be planned on 4 May. The 3 top teams from these first round groups and the second team who has the most points will move on to the semi final. Watch out to find which of the teams will become Japan’s U-15 champion.

Head Coach and Players' Comments

SATO Yugo (Consadole SapporoU-15)
Since we are from Hokkaido where we have lot of snow, we can practice only in limited space. It was April when we finally could start training on a full sized pitch. We needed some time to get used to the conditions since it is much warmer in Osaka, but we could eventually adjust ourselves well. Last year, we couldn’t go through the 1st round and that was a bitter experience for us. We shared this feeling to the other teammates who couldn’t come with us to play for this Premier Cup last time to become more united as a team and to keep our level of play even in the national level throughout the year. We really want to experience victory this year.

UMEDA Takashi, Head Coach (Oita TrinitaU-15)
We lost the first match against Nagoya, but it was a good experience for us since the players challenged them very positively, more than I expected. This year we have very active players and that makes them to be even more aggressive on the pitch. I see that they have good abilities so we work on brushing up their sense of making good decisions to play strongly against any type of team. This is the opportunity for us to see how much we can do in the national level, and indeed we could see both positives and issues to improve.

HIRAYAMA Yuya(Sanfrecce Bingo Junior Youth FC)
Compared to our first match, we could move much better in the second match, and I felt that we can grow up quicker in national level matches. We were beaten by a strong team but I’m still happy to enjoy football feeling our passing accuracy has improved more even in the difficult match. We know that winning this Premier Cup is nearly impossible, and our aim is to grow up throughout this opportunity by playing positively and to go through the 1st round. We have another match tomorrow and we will do our best to meet our aims.

MIKI Takashi, Head Coach(Nagoya GrampusU15)
It must be hard for the players since they have played 2 matches which totals 120 minutes, but they did very well. I always tell the players that they should show their level of play in real matches. We are the team of players who want to be professional, so this is the good opportunity for us to play paying good attention to what we had learned in our daily training. Especially for the players, it is such a good experience to be watched by many people as they play as a regional representative team.

JFA-TV

The JFA Premier Cup 2015

Date: Sunday 3 May to Tuesday 5 May 2015
Location: J-GREEN SAKAI (in Sakai, Osaka)
Semi-finals will be broadcast live on JFA-TV from 14:00 on Monday 4 May

Details of the result can be found here.

Details of the result can be found here.