The 12th Sec. of the Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football Premier League 2019 WEST took place on Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September, where Avispa Fukuoka U-18 (Fukuoka) clashed with the league leader, Gamba Osaka Youth (Osaka).

Pick-up Match

Avispa Fukuoka U-18 1-8 (0-3, 1-5) Gamba Osaka Youth

Despite winning 7-2 in the first half of the season, Gamba suffered a 2-4 loss to the Fukuoka side at the Japan Club Youth Football Championship 2019 in July. With this being their third encounter of the season, Gamba’s coach SHIMADA Takahiro mentioned, “after losing to them in the summer, everyone was pumped up about this match.”

Although Gamba struggled to adjust against the aggressive approach taken by Avispa in the early minutes of the match, their defenders NISHIMURA Sho (#4) and TAKAHASHI Naoya (#5) led the team in the build-up plays to regain their composure and gradually picked up their pace.

The opening goal was scored by Gamba in the 13th minute, when FUKUI Kazuki (#13) responded to a long feed delivered by Nishimura before SUGANO Ryusei (#32) posted up to allow OTANI Yuto (#18) to send the ball into the left hand corner of the goal. Regarding the goal, Otani later reflected, “it was a designed play we had been working on since our first year, but we haven’t been able to execute it in a real match, so I was glad we were finally able to score from that play.”

With momentum on their side, the Osaka side scored two more goals within the first half, as KUBO Yudai (#17) converted a penalty kick in the 16th minute, followed by Otani’s second goal scored in the 19th minute.

In efforts to get back in the game, Avispa changed their system to start the second half, as they applied aggressive pressure from their front line. However, Gamba did well to take advantage of the high pressure, as their defender OKUDA Hayato (#2) later mentioned, “we kept our plays simple to keep the ball moving and tried to exploit the space behind our opponent’s defence line.” As a result, Gamba continued to take full control of the match, as Fukui marked back-to-back goals in the 55th and 63rd minute to further extend their lead. Despite allowing Avispa to score back a goal in the 67th minute, Gamba utilised their substitutions effectively to apply more pressure upfront and added three more goals including Okuda and SAKAMOTO Isa’s (#30) first goal at the Premier League, as Gamba took the match with a final score of 8-1.

Coaches and Players' Comments

INOUE Takahiro, Coach (Avispa Fukuoka U-18)
We knew we were facing a tough opponent, so we wanted to focus on our defence before initiating our attacks. However, we struggled to defend against our opponent and allowed them to penetrate the spaces behind us. We normally play a very attack-minded style of football, where we apply aggressive pressure from the front line, but it was unfortunate to see that our approach didn’t work out today. However, despite today’s loss, we will not change our approach in our next match. I am confident that our team will remain strong.

FW #8 MATSUDA Tomoki (Avispa Fukuoka U-18)
Although we managed to take the initiative in the early minutes of the match, we failed to convert our opportunities and allowed the opponents to take control. Our style is to apply aggressive pressure from the attacking third, but today, we weren’t on the same page with each other and conceded multiple goals. We had to forget the fact that we had won against them at the Club Youth Football Championship and focus on paying back the 2-7 loss we suffered at the first half of the season. Instead of waiting for our coach to give directions, we must think on our own to take action. We must force more turnovers and show more dominance in our next match.

SHIMADA Takahiro, Coach (Gamba Osaka Youth)
We weren’t able to win our battles in fifty-fifty situations at the Club Youth Football Championship, but today our players played very tenaciously to win those battles. Our defence line showcased great composure to build-up our attacks and we made great runs to penetrate the space behind our opponent’s defence line. We saw many occasions where our marks were not tight enough. We also conceded a goal from a set-piece, which was an aspect we had prepared ourselves for this match. There are still lots of room for improvements and we must all work hard to reach higher standards.

FW #18 OTANI Yuto (Gamba Osaka Youth)
The bitter experience we suffered at the Club Youth Football Championship has motivated us to earn this victory. We had many of our players attending the U-23 match today, so we told each other to fight hard to win the match with the remaining members. We knew that the third goal would have a huge impact on the momentum of the match, so we were glad that we managed to score that third goal within the first half. We wanted to gain advantage in goal difference, so we continued to attack hard in the second half. Although it was great to see us score many goals, we wanted to keep a clean sheet, so that goal we conceded was a regretful goal for us.

Results of other matches

Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth 0-1 (0-0, 0-1) Nagoya Grampus U-18
Cerezo Osaka U-18 0-1 (0-0, 0-1) Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18
Vissel Kobe U-18 1-2 (1-2, 0-0) Ozu High School
Ehime FC U-18 1-2 (0-1, 1-1) Higashi Fukuoka High School

Nagoya Grampus U-18 (Aichi) scored the game winner just before the final whistle to claim the victory over Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth (Hiroshima). Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18 (Kyoto) held onto their one goal lead to win over Cerezo Osaka U-18 (Osaka). Despite conceding the opening goal, Ozu High School (Kumamoto) managed to come from behind to win the match against Vissel Kobe U-18 (Hyogo). Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka) managed to score a goal in each of the halves to win over Ehime FC U-18 (Ehime) 2-1.

Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football Premier League 2019

League Duration: Sat. 6 April - Sun. 8 December 2019

League Information