On Friday 12 October, the JFA 13th Japan Beach Soccer Tournament opened its action at Ginowan Tropical Beach, Okinawa. Day one featured the first two fixtures of the first round and despite the rainy weather, intense matches were on display, as teams fought for the top two spots of their group to advance to the final round.

Group A saw both Veertien Mie BS (Tokai/Mie) and Ryukyu Erythrina (Host City/Okinawa) mark two wins each to secure their spot into the final round. After finishing third last year, Veertien came out strong in their first match, as they scored 17 goals against Novantuno BS (Hokkaido). The team registered a total of 23 goals in their first two matches, which was the most goals scored among all teams. In contrast Erythrina took a rather steady route as their team was led by their goalkeeper TERUKINA Shingo. The two undefeated teams will face each other in day two to determine the group leader.

Group B featured a match between the 10th Japan Beach Soccer Tournament champions Dorsole Kitakyushu (Kyushu1/Fukuoka) and Tokyo Lequios BS (Kanto3/Tokyo), who has won the tournament title more than any team. It was the Kyushu side who prevailed in this match as their ace AKAGUMA Takuya marked a hat-trick to earn his side the victory. Dorsole went onto win their second fixture against Cabella Niigata Praia (Hokushinetsu/Niigata) to put themselves in the group lead. However, Tokyo Lequios and Ninja Miyagi BS (Tohoku/Miyagi) are still in contention with their three points, as the two teams advancing to the next round will be determined in day two.

The defending champions Tokyo Verdy BS (Kanto1/Tokyo) showcased their dominance in Group C. Led by Llorenc Gomez Leon’s four goals, Verdy cruised past Phoenix Tamano (Chugoku2/Okayama) after scoring a total of 12 goals as a team. Their second match was against LEON Fukuoka (Kyushu3/Fukuoka) who gave the champs a tough time with their tight defence, but the Tokyo side registered three goals in the third period to record back-to-back wins, locking up their seat into the final round. On day two, LEON Fukuoka and Phoenix Tamano will face head-to-head to fight for the final seat.

Loewe Yokohama (Kanto2/Kanagawa) who made it to the final four last year also advanced through their group. They faced last year’s runners-up Aveldage Kumamoto BS (Kyushu2/Kumamoto) in their first match, which turned into a see-saw match. After the two sides exchanged multiple goals, their number 10 OKUYAMA Masanori went onto a goal spree. Despite being down by two goals in the third period, Loewe prevailed at the end thanks to Okuyama’s three goals. With momentum on their side, Loewe defeated DORSAL M.FC/ASHIYA (Kansai/Hyogo) 7-0 to punch their ticket into the final round.

Day two of the tournament will take place on Saturday 13 October, where the remaining fixture of the first round and the quarterfinals will be played.

Players' Comments

FUJIWARA Hiroto (Kochi University Football Club)
Kochi University Football Club carries well over 100 members each year and many players seek for their opportunity to play in an official match and enter a national tournament by participating in beach soccer and futsal events. We entered this national tournament with the intentions to both have fun and to earn good results, but unfortunately, we have suffered back-to-back losses. However, I feel that we have managed to put up an equal fight. We are young, and our strengths lies on our endurance. We managed to execute our game plan and successfully induced mistakes from our opponents, but we also kept on making mistakes to waste our opportunities. Despite of the results, we now know that we can compete at this level, so we hope to pass down the baton to the younger generations of our school and stay involved even after we graduate. For now, we will give our best to win our final match tomorrow.

SHIBUYA Yuki (Ninja Miyagi BS)
We have lost many of our core players and this year’s team featured many new players. Even though nearly half of the players have never played beach soccer up until a half year ago, we managed to win a match, and this experience will surely give us great confidence moving forward. Tokyo Lequios who we faced today, and Dorsole Kitakyushu who we will face tomorrow, are two of the top teams in this country. We cannot fathom how far ahead they are, but we must implement what we learn through these matches into our daily trainings so that we can improve ourselves. We hope to put up an exciting match tomorrow.

HARADA Masaki (Phoenix Tamano)
In our first match against Verdy, we entered the match to limit their goals as much as possible, and we managed to finish the first period with a score of 1-2. However, we ended up conceding a total of 12 goals in the match which was very regretful. In our second match, we managed to score the first two goals in a very good pace, but couldn’t ride that momentum, as we struggled mightily in the second period. But at the end, we were able to pick up our rhythm to keep our hopes alive. We hope to win our third match tomorrow to advance to the final round.

OKUYAMA Masanori (Loewe Yokohama)
In our first match against Aveldage Kumamoto BS, the entire team showcased how strongly they wanted to win the match. We suffered a devastating loss to Dorsole Kitakyushu at the Japan Regional Beach Soccer League Championship, that really hindered our confidence, so this win means a lot for us. We are glad that we managed to lock up our spot into the final round on day one. There will be more matches to come and the level of competition will get even higher from the quarterfinals, so we must be able to preserve our energy to make a deep run in these tournaments. As a pivot of the team, I will try to give my team momentum by scoring as many goals as possible.

JFA 13th Japan Beach Soccer Tournament

Tournament Dates: Fri. 12 - Sun. 14 October 2018
Tournament Venue: Ginowan Tropical Beach, Okinawa
Tournament Information