Pick-up Match

Shimizu S-pulse Youth 0-0 (0-0, 0-0) Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School

The 10th Sec. of the Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football Premier League EAST took place on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 August, where Shimizu S-pulse Youth (Shizuoka) and Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School (Chiba) faced each other.

Following a month of break period, the Premier League resumed its action with the same fixture played in the opening match on Saturday 7 April. In their previous encounter, the Kashiwa side earned a 1-0 victory over Shimizu. With revenge on their mind, it was the Shimizu side who showed an aggressive approach to start off the match. As their midfielder SANO Rikuto mentioned after the match, “We entered the match with high intensity so that we don’t get overwhelmed by the Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa’s pace,” Hiroshima showed great attacks to threaten the opposing goal. In the ninth minute, AOSHIMA Taichi (#17) penetrated the left side before cutting back the ball to SAITO Sena (#10) who struck shot the directly but failed to capture the opening goal. Hiroshima continued to attack the left flank, but came short from converting their opportunities, as the Kashiwa defenders showed great efforts to keep the score line intact.

Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa’s Coach ENOMOTO Masahiro later reflected, “We gave our opponents too much respect and played too passively in the first half.” Facing the Shimizu side who has won the JAPAN Club Youth (U-18) Football Championship during the break, Kashiwa utilised their first substitute early, as KITAJIMA Naoki (#8) was brought into the match in the 29th minute. With the team getting a pep-talk from Coach HONDA Yuichiro during halftime, Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa came out the second half with great intensity to grab the initiative of the match, as their late substitutes, SATORI Kaito (#20) and HAYASHI Rikiya (#45) showcased great mobility to win the second balls to add layers to their offence.

Although the second half saw fewer attacking efforts made by Shimizu, the team displayed their much-improved defence led by their centre halves, KURITA Shion (#3) and KENMOTSU Takumu (#5). The efforts made by the two full backs, MOCHIZUKI Yushin (#11) and SAZUKA Yosuke (#14) shined as well. Their goalkeeper UMEDA Togo (#16) praised his defence line, “Compared to the team before the league break, our defence line has gotten much more stable, leaving me with very few works to do.”

Despite the two team’s strong intention to earn the full three points, the match ended in a scoreless draw. While Shimizu’s Coach HIRAOKA Hiroaki showed his disappointment, “If we heighten the quality of each of our plays, we could have scored a goal,” he also shared his aspiration for the future fixtures, “There are really tough matches scheduled ahead, so we must focus to avoid relegation.” The team will now face the fifth place Urawa Red Diamonds Youth (Saitama) who they lead by just one point.

Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa’s KUMASAWA Kazuki mentioned after the match, “We really wanted to win this match to stay in contention for the title. After failing to take the Inter High School Sports Festival tile, we really want to win the titles of the Premier League and the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament.” They will now face their arch-rivals, Ichiritsu Funabashi High School (Chiba) in the next Sec.

Coaches’ and Players’ Comments

HIRAOKA Hiroaki, Coach (Shimizu S-pulse Youth)
For the past month or so, we were missing many of our players with their duties with the national team and their participation at the SBS Cup, so this was a very difficult match for us. However, our players showed great improvements in their defence since the Club Youth Football Championship. It was evident that they were playing with great confidence. We must now work to heighten the quality of our offence, but for now, we will stay focused to earn as many points possible to avoid relegation.

MF #6 SANO Rikuto (Shimizu S-pulse Youth)
In our opening match of the season, we were overwhelmed by Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa and failed to display our style of football, but today we were able to show great persistency in our defence and manage to show just how much we have improved over the summer. We lacked layers in our offence as most of our opportunities were created through individual efforts made by our attacking players. We will take each match at a time to avoid relegation and strive for higher rankings.

ENOMOTO Masahiro, Coach (Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School)
In order to stay in the title race, we really wanted to earn the full three points today. With the team not participating in the Inter High School Sports Festival, the players were hungry to play in a match, so I wasn’t worried about their motivation, but its seems like we gave our opponents too much respect and played too passively in the first half. The substitute players made great efforts to change the dynamics of the match and gave the team great momentum.

MF #10 KUMASAWA Kazuki (Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School)
With our opponents winning the Club Youth Football Championship, we knew we were going to face a vary strong team, so we wanted to showcase our best football and win the match. However, our timing was a bit off in the first half and couldn’t find our rhythm. The substituted players brought us great momentum in the second half to create many opportunities, but we failed to convert our chances, so we must work as a team to heighten our quality in the final third.

Results of other matches

Kashima Antlers Youth 1-0 (0-0, 1-0) Urawa Red Diamonds Youth
Toyama Daiichi High School 1-3 (0-0, 1-3) Ichiritsu Funabashi High School
Jubilo Iwata U-18 1-0 (1-0, 0-0) Kashiwa Reysol U-18
Aomori Yamada High School 1-1 (0-0, 1-1) FC Tokyo U-18

Kashima Antlers Youth (Ibaraki) welcomed Urawa Red Diamonds Youth (Saitama) at their home and earned a 1-0 victory to keep their top spot of the league. Ichiritsu Funabashi High School (Chiba) won their match against the last place Toyama Daiichi High School (Toyama) with their late goals to take the match 3-1. Jubilo Iwata U-18 (Shizuoka) managed to sustain their one goal they have scored in the first half to take down the match 1-0 against Kashiwa Reysol U-18 (Chiba). Second place Aomori Yamada High School (Aomori) played their home game against FC Tokyo U-18 (Tokyo) and shared a point apiece as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Tournament Period：Sat. 7 April 2018 ～ Sun. 9 December 2018

Tournament Information