Pick-up Match

Cerezo Osaka U-18   0-1 (0-0, 0-1)   Riseisha High School

The Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League WEST had its Matchday 12 on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August as Cerezo Osaka U-18 (Osaka) took on Riseisha High School (Osaka) in the Osaka Derby.

Riseisha took the initiative early on. As Riseisha coach HIRANO Naoki said, "It's no doubt league-leading Cerezo are strong. We looked forward to seeing how well our current team can play against them," Riseisha boldly went on an offensive surge from the start.

In the 3rd minute, NISHIMURA Mitsuaki broke through the left side and fed a pass into the box, but it did not meet SUGAHARA Taku. In the 12th minute, Riseisha gained a free kick through MAKINO Kanta's penetration, but KAWABATA Hayato's shot went off wide.

The opposition Cerezo Osaka looked for chances with passes toward space behind the defensive line and side attacks, but those efforts did not turn to a goal-scoring opportunity before the first half ended scoreless. "Our attacking was too monotonous," said Cerezo coach OKUMA Yuji.

The second half saw the flow of the match unchanged and Riseisha continued to dominate. The high school side tried to break through the defence with crisp passing moves and outplayed the opponents. Second balls were often picked up at a high position and led to consecutive attacking efforts.

In the 50th minute, Nishimura ran through the right flank and slotted a pass into the box, but it did not reach Sugahara. Although Riseisha continued to create some openings with side attacks, they were not able to convert them into a goal. "We used sides a bit too much, and we didn’t have enough guys in the middle, " said TANAKA Shunta.

Their moment of pleasure came in the 65th minute. When Makino slid a low corner kick, Tanaka rushed in to fire a first-time shot to break a deadlock. Being on the backfoot, Cerezo Osaka got back in business with a substitution. MATSUOKA Daichi picked up the ball on the right flank and dribbled through for a shot in added time, but Riseisha goalkeeper YAMAGAJOU Tatsuki saved the shot. Riseisha grabbed a 1-0 Osaka Derby win, keeping their unbeaten run starting on Matchday 8.

Coach and Players' Comments

OKUMA Yuji, Coach (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
Our team haven't been very good recently. It seems players are tired mentally and physically, and they have been steps slow. Partially because of that, we cannot win the ball at a high position and always end up hurrying back to our end. We didn't have so many chances to go forward on offence as well.

I was expecting before the match we would struggle to some extent, so we wanted to hold up. But we ended up conceding a goal from a restart just like the last match. It's our current weakness that we can't be focused at the right time.

MATSUBARA Shumo (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
I'm really disappointed we ended up losing two straight matches for the first time this year. Our team condition wasn’t good, and we weren't able to go up on offence. And there were a lot of situations where we gave away the ball through our own sloppy mistakes.

We were holding up despite allowing the opponents to attack in the second half, but we conceded a goal from a single set-piece. We lost the match not because the opponents broke through our defence. That gave me extra frustration. We hadn't had any matches where we lost with a big margin. We may be dwelling on the crushing defeat in the last Kyoto U-18 match.

HIRANO Naoki, Coach (Riseisha High School)
At the early stage of the league, we had a lot of injured players, and the only thing we were thinking about was to defend against opposing attacks. But after July, we can get the best squad and can afford to think about how we can bring out our best, halting opponents' strengths.

We were able to connect the ball from our end today as well against Cerezo. They put high pressure that is at the top level among the high school clubs. We still have more to improve, but I think it turned out to be a match where we were able to bring out our best.

TANAKA Shunta (Riseisha High School)
If we had lost the match today, we would have allowed the leaders to extend the lead on points. In this match, we also had a chance to survive in the title race with the win. Compared to the last match against Kobe where we took the initiative from start to end, we had some stretches when we allowed the opponents to attack, but we all were able to defend with patience.

During the first half of the season, we respected opponents too much so that couldn't put up a good result. But recently we realised we could get it done and play matches with a determination, "We can't lose to same generation teams."

Other Matches

Higashi Fukuoka High School   3-4 (2-0, 1-4)   Nagoya Grampus U18
Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth   0-2 (0-1, 0-1)   Oita Trinita U-18
Vissel Kobe U-18   2-0 (2-0, 0-0)   Kyoto Tachibana High School
Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18   4-2 (3-1, 1-1)   Gamba Osaka Youth

Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka) outplayed Nagoya Grampus U18 (Aichi) with three early goals, but Nagoya eventually grabbed a 4-3 comeback win after scoring a string of goals in the closing 10 minutes.

The contest between Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth (Hiroshima) and Oita Trinita U-18 (Oita) saw the former win with a goal in each half. Vissel Kobe U-18 (Hyogo) welcomed Kyoto Tachibana High School (Kyoto) at home as the Kobe outfit eased to a 2-0 win with goals from YASUI Takuya and NAKASAKA Yuya.

Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18 (Kyoto) scored four goals over Gamba Osaka Youth (Osaka) just as the last match against Cerezo Osaka and claimed multiple wins in a row for the second time this season.