On Wednesday 4 January, JOC Junior Olympic Cup the 20th All Japan Youth (U-18) Women’s Football Tournament held four matches of its second round at J-GREEN Sakai in Osaka Prefecture.

Pick-up Match 1

Angeviolet Hiroshima（Chugoku／Hiroshima）0-10（0-3, 0-7）JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies U-18（Kanto3／Chiba）

The contest between Hiroshima and JEF displayed a clash of offensive styles early on. In the 8th minute, JFE took the ball and moved up very quickly to have OSAWA Hiro fire the first shot of the match, but it was stopped by Hiroshima’s defence. The match opener was scored through the first corner-kick attempt of the match. In the 12th minute JEF’s MOTOZONO Kana put home a left corner-kick to give her side the first lead. JEF kept attacking after that. In the 25th minute, SATO Mizuka headed in a cross by FUJISHIRO Maho, and in the 33rd Ozawa composedly extended JEF’s lead even further to three goals.

Hiroshima, who came back from behind to defeat Club Fields Linda (Hokkaido) in the first round, seemed to have regrouped themselves for the second half led by captain WATARIYA Yoshino. But they allowed two more goals by JEF’s KAI Marin in the 45th and 49th minutes, which put them into an even bigger hole. Although they tenaciously went for a goal with supports by the group of fans visiting from their hometown Hiroshima, JEF’s defence was too hard to break through. JEF, on the other hand, piled up seven goals total in the second half alone including a hat trick by Sato and finished the match with the 10-0 rout to move on to the semi-final.

Match Summary (Japanese version only)

Pick-up Match 2

Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Youth （Kanto4／Saitama）0-0（PK4-2）Nippon TV Menina（Kanto1／Tokyo）
 
The matchup of last year’s runners-up Nippon TV against third-placed Urawa, both from the Kanto region, was a very close contest where the ending could not be expected until the last minute. Nippon TV showed their attacks first. They repeatedly tried to utilise set-piece opportunities only to see Urawa’s goalkeeper SUZUKI Sawako deny them. MITANI Wakana’s shot in the 18th minute was also rejected by Suzuki. Urawa, on the other hand, attempted to create their rhythm with their defence. As the backline of TAKAHASHI Hana and KUBO Mariko stood tall and defended steadily, the rest of the team picked up the deflection for their own attacks. The first half finished with the scoring unchanged yet.

Both teams entered after the halftime break with a high level of concentration, while the stadium was filled with a similar tense air of expectation as in the first half. In the 11th minute, Urawa put the ball into the net off a corner-kick, but the play was judged off-side and the goal was not counted. As NAGANO Fuka commented after the game on the play “we were starting to let opponents keep the ball longer and we were getting fatigued, but that play actually reenergised us”, Urawa’s offence was accelerated again after the sequence. But it was not enough to break the deadlock and the match entered the penalty shootout with the scoreless draw.
 
While both teams successfully converted their first spot kicks, Nippon TV had their second kicker hit the goal post for a miss. Both sides netting their third kicks, and Urawa’s Takahashi calmly slotted the fourth. Then, it was their goalkeeper Suzuki who stopped Nippon TV’s fourth try and ended the match with a 4-2 win.

Match Summary (Japanese version only)

Coaches' and Players' Comments

FUJII Nana (JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies U-18)
It would have been better if we had been able to make our transition between offence and defence faster and improve the quality of our offence as we possessed the ball. We tried to pay attention to showing what we usually practise with poise, while reflecting on what we were being able to do and not and making decisions by ourselves for following plays. I hope we can get better as we play each game in this tournament. We want to keep advancing with an image of us playing in the final.

SATO Mizuka (JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies U-18)
I was able to score when I was supposed to score. In the first match, I couldn’t meet cross balls very well, but today I could take good positions and score a goal with my header. It’s been a year since we got eliminated without doing anything in the last tournament, and we have worked hard for this one. We have eight third graders but only three are getting to play in this tournament. So I know we have to play on behalf of those players. Especially when things are tough, I want to stay vocal and keep talking to my teammates as a third grader.
 
TERATANI Mayumi (Nippon TV Menina)
When I sent my players onto the pitch, I said to them “no matter whether we win or lose, let’s play our brand of football not to leave any regrets”. We were able to execute our game plan well in the first half, and during the halftime I said “the way we are playing now will leave us no regrets. So let’s finish this with a win.” Last year we lost after a penalty shootout, so we have practised (penalty kicks). We had some chances to win the match before going into the shootout, but we weren’t able to convert them. I think they defended superbly as well.
 
NAGANO Fuka (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Youth)
We expected the second round to be the focal point and a very tough one for us. We thought the key would be how we could outrun our opponents, so we kept running even though we had some tough stretches. Urawa finished second in the Saitama prefectural qualifiers and also ended up being the fourth representatives with another loss in the Kanto regional qualifiers. We struggled, but that made today’s win more meaningful and made me cry with joy. In the semi-final, set-pieces will be a key, I think, so I want to keep paying attention to details.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

JOC Junior Olympic Cup The 20th All Japan Youth Women's Football Tournament

3 Jaunuary 2017 (Tue.) ～ 7 January 2017 (Sat.)
J-GREEN Sakai（Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture）
Tournament Information