Pick Up Match

Aomori Yamada High School　2-3（1st 2-0、2nd 0-3）　JFA Academy Fukushima

In bad weather, Aomori Yamada High School (Aomori), which is currently sitting in sixth place in the league, and the JFA Academy Fukushima (Fukushima), which is ranked at the bottom, played a thrilling encounter.

Aomori Yamada High School took control at the start of the game. Their players confused the opponent's defences by rhythmical passes and using the central and wide areas of the pitch well to attack. After 12 minutes, Yamashita Yuto coordinated with Ogasawara Manabu to go up the right side and feed the opener struck by Noguchi Yuki. After the first goal, Aomori Yamada continued to press forward with measured passes, even as the Fukushima Academy kept aiming at the space behind Aomori Yamada’s defences with long passes. In the 42th minute, Aomori Yamada built a two-goal lead, after Matsuki Shunnosuke found the back of the net, reacting to a pass from Yamashita.

As they went back to the changing room after the first half, the players of Aomori Yamada High School fired up the team by saying 'Come on, it's only just begun!' However, in the second half the JFA Academy Fukushima were the ones on the attack. Nakata Yasuhito, the head coach, advised the players that they were ‘aiming too much behind the opponent’s defensive line’ and that they should ‘use shorter passes where possible’. So did the players attack using long and short passes rhythmically. After 56 minutes, Nobe Yuta ran up through the right side and had a successful shot on goal, closing the gap to one goal. Aomori Yamada tried fiercely to stretch their lead again, throwing more players into attacks. But these tactics only served to break the balance between attack and defence and gifted opportunities for the JFA Academy Fukushima to counter attack. Ogasawara later commented: ‘It was because too many players were up front.’ Then in 70th minute, Academy Fukushima counterattacked from the left wing, throwing a low cross, which levelled the game through an own goal. In the 85th minute, Kinjo Justin Toshiki reacted to a loose ball from a corner kick and tapped it in calmly, turning the game around. The score remained 3-2 until the end of the match. The JFA Academy Fukushima won their first victory, while Aomori Yamada High School, who never lost a home game last season, came away without a single point.

Comments

KURODA Go, Head Coach（Aomori Yamada High School）
It was a painful defeat. The players didn’t play well after they conceded the first goal. It was same as the third section match against Ichiritsu Funabashi High School, in which we also let the opponents turn the game around after a two-goal lead. Although it’s an issue for the team, each individual has to change to get a good result. If one player doesn’t play his role, the team has its weakness there. We scored two goals, attacking through the opponents’ defence, and lost two without the opponents' being able to do the same. When can we stop wasting our chance to score goals and sustain our lead? We need to focus on our issues once again.

OGASAWARA Gaku（Aomori Yamada High School）
We’ve played five matches so far, and lost the lead or been equalised in the second half before. Although I said ‘we can’t be sure yet!’ when we went back to the changing area with a two-goal lead, there must have been some complacency. We weren’t calm enough in the second half, as we attacked too forcefully, which ended up with the opponent’s counterattacks. It’s really regrettable that as a captain I couldn’t encourage and rebuild the team after conceding a goal. There’ll be more matches to come, though. I’ll let things sink in as much as I need today, and refresh to practice more from tomorrow.

NAKATA Yasuhito, Head Coach（JFA Academy Fukushima）
The atmosphere of the team wasn’t too bad at all, even though it was two down after the first half. I advised that some players felt nervous and threw too long passes even though our defence wasn’t being pressed, which was the main problem. Those players fixed the problem in the second half. Each player put effort in for the team. The forward Hamada Chikara distracted the opponent’s defences and created some space. We could do what we were supposed to do. There’ll be three more matches in the second half of this season. I’ll play each game, as though it is the knockout stage.

KINJO Justin Toshiki（JFA Academy Fukushima）
I’m really chuffed we got our first victory in this season. After we all agreed that ‘there’s no need to be panicked’ during the half time, we played our usual game in the second half, which brought us success. We always get on a roll after one goal and I’m pleased we got several goals in the latter half. I feel lucky, as it was my first match as captain. This victory will give us a lot of motivation to sustain our positive energy. As I'm a defender, I'd like to work towards that one game in the season when we don't concede any goals.

Other Results

Shimizu S-pulse Youth　3-4（1st 3-1、2nd  0-3）　Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa
Kashima Antlers Youth　2-2（1st 1-1、2nd  1-1）　Consadole Sapporo U-18
Tokyo Verdy Youth　1-3（1st 0-1、2nd  1-2）　Kashiwa Reysol U-18
Ichiritsu Funabashi High School　0-1（1st 0-0、2nd  0-1）　Mitsubishi Yowa SC Youth

Shimizu S-pulse Youth (Shizuoka), who have won all the matches so far and are sitting in first place, met Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa (Chiba). Although Shimizu S-pulse Youth led in the first half 3-1, in the 77th minute Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa levelled the game. After six minutes of injury time Gibo Hideyuki scored to give Shimizu S-pulse Youth their first defeat in this season. Kashima Antlers Youth (Ibaraki) and Consadole Sapporo U-18 (Hokkaido) also had dramatic end-of-game comebacks in their matches. Kashima was one down at 2-1 after three minute in the injury time and then Shikama Yuki scored the equalizer, earning one point. This means Consadole Sapporo, who are currently sitting at the bottom, could not steal the victory. Tokyo Verdy Youth(Tokyo) lost their match 3-1 to Kashiwa Reysol U-18 (Chiba). The players of Tokyo Verdy conceded a goal one minute after the game started and could not recover their composure. Mitsubishi Yowa SC Youth (Tokyo) defended their one-goal lead, scored by Hirayama Shun, until the last whistle and won the match 1-0 against Ichiritsu Funabashi High School (Chiba).