The Vermont Cup 25th All Japan U-12 Futsal Tournament got underway on Friday 14 August. While approximately 3500 teams participated in this year’s prefectural qualifiers, the 48 teams surviving through each prefecture arrived at Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium in Tokyo.

In the opening ceremony, NAKAO Haru of Diablossa Takada FC U-12 (Nara) representing all the participating players swore his determination to display the best possible performance.

After the ceremony, an exhibition match was held where football analyst Marinho, former Japanese internationals FUKUNISHI Takashi, MIURA Atsuhiro, NAKATA Koji, and active F.Leaguers KOMIYAMA Yusuke and KIMURA Naoki (both Bardral Urayasu) NISHITANI Ryosuke (Fugador Sumida), KANAYAMA Yuki (Pescadola Machida), MINAMOTO Akira (Fuchu Athletic FC) and ONO Daisuke (Shonan Bellmare) teamed up into two squads to play against some of the participants.

The quickness and technique by the elite players were well on display and left a good experience to the youngsters who were also getting the feel of Komazawa’s court, the stage for the national championship.

The league matches started right after the exhibition at Komazawa and Ota General Gymnasium where the total of 48 matches in 12 4-team leagues are to be played. Each team played the first two matches on 14 August. 

10 teams finished the first day with two straight wins. Those were Malva Chiba fc U-12 (Chiba) of Group A, FC Sausarle (Kagoshima) of Group B, Consadole Sapporo U-12 (Hokkaido 1) of Group C, Tomozo Soccer Club (Tochigi) of Group E, Niiza Katayama FC Syonendan (Saitama) of Group G, Aomori FC U12 (Aomori) of Group H, FC Valentia (Wakayama) of Group I, Malva Ibaraki fc U-12 (Ibaraki) and Solnino (Saga) of Group J and Pivo (Shizuoka) of Group K.

The fact that only Group J saw multiple teams finish the first day without a loss surely tells the competitiveness of this tournament.

One of the most outstanding teams among all was Malva Chiba fc U-12 of Group A. After routing Football Club Amigo (Tottori) 8-1 in the first match, they defeated Niida Red Stars (Akita) 5-1 in the second match. Their style is possessing the ball and building up from deep in their own end, while the players’ individual skills were also well exhibited.

Coach ASANO Tomohisa says confidently of his team’s makeup “We say it every year, but our goal is to win the championship.” Their brother team of Malva Ibaraki fc U-12 also recorded two consecutive wins, which makes us look forward to a battle between two brother teams. 

Speaking of some of the notable players on the first day, field player FUJITA Ren showed his explosiveness. He recorded a double hat trick in the first match against Catiolla FC U-12 (Oita) and also added another goal in the next match against Diablossa Takada. He greatly helped his team win two in a row and will play the last match in the league against Consadole Sapporo U-12 to advance to the final round.

Niiza Katayama FC Syonendan, who have only six players on their roster, have KUMADA Ryuki, who had a hat trick against Tsu Rapid FC (Mie) and also piled up four more goals in the next match against Copamundial (Miyagi). His aggressive defence up front contributed to his team as well.

FC Valentia’s YOSHIKAWA Gaku, on the other hand, scored his own hat trick in both of the matches he played. SAWAMOTO Takuma and SAKAI Toui of Pivo scored eight goals each in two matches and led their squad who finished last tournament at the quarter final. It’s certainly worth paying attention to their individual performance in the tournament.

Saturday August 15, the second day of the tournament, will have each team play the last match in the first round to determine the sixteen teams to advance to the final round. Including the battle to land the wildcard spot, it will be exciting to see who get out of the current round victoriously. The heated contests will continue on to Sunday 16 to have elite eight teams, as well. Every match is a must-see.

Staff and Players' Comments

HASEGAWA Yuichi, Coach (Niida Red Stars)
Malva Chiba fc U-12 that we played against in the second match were very good. We heard before the match that we would have to be very patient and we had a game plan accordingly, but they were very good at playing in variety of ways.

They did a lot more than we knew they would. But in the end, we had many stretches when we could adjust to it. Kids of this generation can grow a lot in every match they play. We want to advance to the final round in order to grow even further.

AOKI Yutaka (FC Persimmon) 
The match venue was Komazawa Gymnasium and very close to where we practice. So we had many people come out to support us. That helped us finish the first day with one win and one draw. Our kids say they will be the national champions and that’s the only goal we have.

We usually play football, but for this tournament we have used a futsal court about twice a month and practiced. Our kids are performing very well, so if a good result comes with it, they will be able to go to the next level.