The Prince Takamado Trophy 26th All-Japan Youth (U-15) Football Championship held the final match on Saturday 27 December at Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka, and FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa (Kanto 2) edged Vissel Kobe U-15 (Kansai 2) for their second title after the first one six years ago. 

Final

Vissel Kobe U-15 (Kansai 2) 1-3 (1st 1-1, 2nd 0-0, ET 1st 0-0, 2nd 0-2) FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa (Kanto 2)

The final match to determine the nation’s best team of the U-15 generation was a showdown between Kobe’s defence, who had never allowed a single goal in this tournament, and FC Tokyo’s offence, scoring tournament-best 10 goals so far. As both teams tried to take momentum early in the match, FC Tokyo created multiple opportunities off a corner-kick and also initiated their attack from right flank. Also Kobe, after dealing with FC Tokyo’s offence with their well-focused defence, had their own crucial moment to score in the 21st minute. Maekawa Tomoyuki went up in the right flank and sent a cross into the middle, which reached Ueda Hiroshi in the left. After Ueda fed into the middle again, Imaoka Yota headed it to the back of the net to give his club the first goal of the match.

FC Tokyo had never allowed their opponents to score first in this tournament before the final, but in this rare occasion they did not panic and kept their attacking rhythm. In the 32nd minute, they were awarded a penalty-kick. Shinada Manato took advantage of it to equalise the match. The seesaw match went into the second half and gradually started seeing FC Tokyo pushing up more often to Kobe’s end. Late in the match, Katayama Kyosei, who subbed in during the match, created another opportunity, which was denied by Kobe’s rugged defence before the match went into the extra time.

As both teams kept attacking hard for the go-ahead goal, the battle of the wills did not see the break of balance until the 92nd minute of the extra time’s second half. Then FC Tokyo’s Hasegawa Daiki took the ball up in the right flank and kicked a cross to the middle where Yoshida Kazuhiro put it into the goal. Kobe, with their back on the wall, sent tall defenders Mizuta Kazuma and KWON Soon Sung onto the pitch to tie the match once again with their aerial presence. However, FC Tokyo conversely found Kobe’s weakened defence and had Yoshida break through the middle for 1-on-1 against the goalkeeper and eventually FC Tokyo’s third goal to seal the match. The exciting final contest finished as 3-1 in favour of FC Tokyo, who seized the national title of the U-15 generation.

Kobe’s Imaoka, who scored in his last three matches in a row and the total of five goals in the tournament, was recognised with the scoring title while the Fair Play Award was awarded to FC Tokyo. FC Tokyo’s second victory in their history ended the tournament that started a series of heated contests on Saturday 20 December.

Match detai (Japanese version only)

Head Coach and Players Comments

OKUHARA Takashi, Head Coach (FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa)
We have been forced to play tough matches since the first match. In every match, different players stepped up with great performances and our players played very well. Our players are not mentally stable enough yet, but the teamwork and communication that they had built since they were in the first grade made up for the deficiency. Including that, we showed, both in a good way and bad way, what we had done for the past three years and how we had built up little things. And as a compilation of all the work we have done, we could win this title and I’m happy about that.

SHINADA Manato (FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa)
Every match was very tough, but I was very happy at the moment that we won, because we had been working hard to get this win. Especially thinking about the fact that this was the last match to play with this roster, we were so determined. The best thing is to be able to win with these guys. In this final, Kobe played very well and they kept pushing us back for some stretches, and it was our first time in this tournament to allow the first goal of the match to the opponents. But we all played hard together to come back. Before the extra time we made a huddle. There we thought back to all the things we had done for the past three years and our coach gave us extra courage to keep going. That led us to this win.

YOSHIDA Kazuhiro (FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa)
We have wanted to win the national title throughout these three years, and we were determined. So I am very happy that we could win. To be honest, when the match finished, I couldn’t feel it very well. But all the cheers from our fans made me realise that we had won. The go-ahead goal I scored was all thanks to the hard work by my teammates during tough stretches. All I had to do was to lay it in. I scored two goals in the final, but I hadn’t scored any goals before that. So I thought not scoring again in this final wouldn’t help my team at all. That’s how I felt when I scored those goals.

IMAOKA Yota (Vissel Kobe U-15)
This year, we have been able to show our strong defence, but we also have been told that our offence is our weakness because we haven’t scored many goals. But in this tournament we scored in every match we played and I personally could win the scoring title. In that sense, that gives us extra confidence, but we just wanted to win this match.
We scored a goal first, but we allowed goals later even though we were confident in our defence. So that shock up our concentration to some extent and I think we were nervous in this final match atmosphere overall. We played very patiently, but in the last moment, we allowed them to go ahead.

Prince Takamado Trophy All Japan Youth (U-15) Football Tournament

Saturday, December 20, 2014 - Saturday December 27, 2014
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