The 12th All Japan Women's futsal tournament had its second day on Saturday 7 November in Kushiro, Sapporo. All the 24 matches of the first round have been completed as the four teams survived out of them to advance to the final round. 

In Group A, SWH Ladies Futsal Club (Kansai1/Hyogo), who already clinched the spot in the final tournament on the first day, took on the challenge by Frontier FC (Tokai2/Shizuoka). As SWH Ladies gave playing opportunities to some of the less-used players on the squad, they gave away the opening goal in the 6th minute.

HASEGAWA Eri, however, scored the equaliser soon after, and in the second half their core players also made appearances. The match ended as 1-1 draw with SWH failing to break down Frontier’s defence any more to add up more goals. As a result, SWH advanced with the record of two wins and one draw.

Before the day started, three teams in Group B still kept their chance to go on to the next round, and none prevailed until the last minute. Member of The Gang (Tokai1/Mie) faced Bardral Urayasu Las Bonitas (Kanto1/Chiba), where Member of The Gang’s goleiro SATO Mayo, former Japan international, showed superb performance early. She kept saving the goal until late in the match, but Urayasu finally had their field player EGAWA Ryo scored the lone goal of the match to give their side a hard-fought win.

Unfortunately for Urayasu, the other match in the group played on the next pitch between FC Kouyama Ladies (Host/Hokkaido) and Sakura no Seibo Gakuin High School (Tohoku2/Fukushima) saw FC Kouyama come out victoriously, which put FC Kouyama on top with three straight wins and onto the next round, as well as ending Urayasu’s final round appearance streak since the 8th tournament. 

The teams in Group C had two matches each to play on this day. Leograsta (Kansai2/Osaka) and Veex Tokyo Ladies (Kanto3/Tokyo), who went head to head for a draw on the previous day, both won all the two contests they played and were tied at seven points as a result. Since the outcome between these two clubs was draw, the better goal difference helped Veex Tokyo Ladies move on to the following round.

Last year’s runners-up Maruoka Ruck Ladies (Hokushinetsu/Fukui) were led by field player TAKAO Akari, high school second grader. She scored all two goals the team scored in the first win of the day against Shoot Anilla (Kanto2/Kanagawa) and tallied up two more, the match opening and winning goals, in their 7-1 win against C.R.F Ideal Ladies (Chugoku/Okayama). 

In the semi-finals to be played on Sunday 8 November, SWH Ladies Futsal Club take on FC Kouyama Ladies while Veex Tokyo Ladies match up against Maruoka Ruck Ladies. The final is scheduled at 2 p.m. on the same day. As none of the semi-finalists has won this tournament title before, all three matches will certainly be must-see to find out who gets the first crown in their history.

Players' Comments

MURANAKA Ayaka (FC Kouyama Ladies/Hokkaido)
I am very happy to score the match-winning goal that sealed our third straight win. We could have gone up to the final round, but I fired that shot telling myself that I would put them away myself.

Yesterday, our ace TAKUMA Miki got injured. She and I have been playing together since we were in junior high school. We are back playing together again even after we became adults. She can’t play in this tournament any more due to her injury, but I swore to myself that we would win three straight for her as well, so I did my best. 

KICHIBAYASHI Chikage (Veex Tokyo Ladies/Tokyo)
First of all, I am very happy that we reached the semi-final. There have been no easy matches even since the prefecture tournament. We overcame each adversity and reached this final round.

I think our team have gotten better through that, and we want to keep this momentum going. It turned out to mean a lot that we got a better goal differential in the first match than our opponents (Leograsta. Veex and Leograsta had the same points.) This is the first time for Veex to advance to a final round like this since the team were established.

Our coach MAJIKINA Oscar has won this tournament many times in the past, and there are many players on this Veex squad who want to play for him. So it’s the first time for this team, but we want to see it as getting back the championship title. 

JFA-TV  (Japanese version only)

The 12th All Japan Women's futsal tournament

2015-11-6 (Fri.) - 8 (Sun.)
Hokkaido/Situgennokaze Arena Kushiro
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