Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League 2014 Championship, where both EAST and WEST Premier League champions meet, is held on Sunday December
14 and Kashiwa Reysol U-18 and Cerezo Osaka fight for the best U-18 team in the country.

Kashiwa, the team in the first year of its promotion to the Premier League, showed safe games from the beginning and won a League East with ten-point lead from Shimizu S-Pulse in the second place. As 20 of 22 players on registration list are from Kashiwa Reysol U-15, the team has mastered club's setting goal "taking a initiative over a ball and game." It proved a capability to make a goal from any situation as shown in the fact that the team kept playing possession soccer to score the most goals in this season of League East. Adding that, following a head coach, Shimotaira Takahiro, instructed as "We never lose any points as long as we keep possessing a ball and also never lose a game as long as we do not lose any points", the team conceded the fewest goals by moving a ball in the high position.

Many players of Kashiwa have not only brilliant skills, but also plenty of fighting spirits. The team's captain Nakayama Yuta is competitive to hate losing as shown that he was so mortified he cried after losing a game. There is another advantage for the team that each player enjoys physical capability to do hard work, and e.g. Ainu Yuki who is good at dribbling has much stamina as saying "my strong point is momentum". As the champion of the League East, after the league's victory, decisively said "This victory is just a passing point and the real competition will be the next game", it aims for the top place in the country with all its efforts.

The Premier League West champion C. Osaka kept aggressive playing style in both offensive and defensive lines, successfully coming from behind to win a victory in the final Sec. The team members have been working on developing their physical strength through various exercises like a ball training after running menus which needs physical demands on their bodies. As a head coach Okuma Yuji's instruction "Keep trying to intercept a ball even if the opponent try to avoid us", the team practiced putting pressure in the high line as a whole. Even if failing to intercept, they tried to pursue the opponent and take a ball repeatedly. Though Okuma assumed the post of a head coach of the top team in the middle of this season, the team accumulated wining points steadily through their usual football in spite of an absence of a head coach.

The West champion, which sent 5 players including Maekawa Taiga and Sakamoto Masaki to its top team, is the only team which didn't lose games consecutively in the West League. Never losing the game with the same opponent repeatedly is a manifestation of its mental strength. It met Kashiwa, the next opponent, in the game in last July of the adidas CUP 2013, the 37th Japan Club Youth Football (U-18) and it suffered a major defeat at 2-6. Attractions are focused on what plays are expected to be shown by members who were at lower grades last year.

The game to determine the best U-18 team will kick off at 13:00 in the Saitama Stadium 2002. Let's visit there to watch the game.

Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League 2014 Championship 

Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League 2014 Championship
Kick off at 13:00 on Sunday, December 14, 2014 (schedule) Saitama/Saitama Stadium 2002
Kasiwa Reysol U-18 (the Premier League EAST champion) vs Cerezo Osaka U-18 (the Premier League WEST champion)
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