The Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football Premier League 2022 WEST kicked-off on Saturday 2 April. At Ozu Athletic Park, the fixture between Ozu High School (Kumamoto) and Shizuoka Gakuen High School (Shizuoka) took place on Sunday 3.

Featured Match

Ozu High School 0-4 (0-2, 0-2) Shizuoka Gakuen High School

As Shizuoka Gakuen’s coach KAWAGUCHI Osamu mentioned, “Facing another high school side, this was a match we couldn’t afford to lose,” the closely contended match showed great action from the early minutes.

The first opportunity was created by the visiting side, when NISHII Hiroto (#8) delivered a pass to TAKAHASHI Ryuta (#10) before making a run into the penalty area in the seventh minute. “I was anticipating making an overlapping run from the midfield,” said Nishii, who received the returning pass from Takahashi and struck a shot, in which he reflected, “I heard Ryuta telling me to take a shot and with it being our first opportunity, I just focused on hitting the target.” The shot taken by the midfielder found the back of the net to give Shizuoka Gakuen the lead.

Ozu responded in the 15th minute, when SO Ryuki (#27) delivered a long ball into the attacking third. Despite the effort made by YAMAKAWA Shu (#18) to sneak a shot through the legs of the opposing goalkeeper, GYOTOKU Ei (#4) was there to clear the ball. Another close opportunity was created in the 24th minute, when they converted a deflection of a header struck by KOBAYASHI Shunei (#9), but the goal was disallowed with a foul committed leading up to the play. The home side continued to threaten the opposing goal but fell short from finding the back of the net, as TABARA Rui (#10) later reflected, “We had lots of chances, but couldn’t quite capitalise on them.” Conversely, Shizuoka Gakuen managed to convert their final opportunity in the first half, when TERAURA Tsurugi (#11) connected with a cross sent by Takahashi to extend their lead just before halftime.

In efforts to change the dynamics of the match, Ozu introduced IWASAKI Hiroto (#7) and changed their formation in the second half. Although they were able to possess the ball in the opposing end for an extended period of time, the Shizuoka side showcased great composure to keep the Ozu offence at bay. The patience of the visiting side got paid off in the 67th minute, when Gyotoku launched a long feed from his own territory, as the defender later reflected, “When the opponents were pressing forward, I was anticipating to exploit the space behind the opposing defence line.” While the Ozu defence struggled to clear this ball, Nishii got to the end of it, dribbled past the goalkeeper and slotted the ball into the net.

With momentum on tehri side, Shizuoka Gakuen went onto add one more goal to their tally, as MORISHITA Sota (#3) scored a volley off a corner kick in the 79th minute to hand the newly promoted side a 4-0 victory to start off the season. “The players showed great quality to score four goals, which exceeded my expectations,” said coach Kawaguchi after the match, but continued to mention, “However, we are not at the level of quality we are striving for, both in terms of offence and defence. Ozu were collecting the second balls than us, so that is an aspect we need to improve on.”

Coaches and Players' Comments

HIRAOKA Kazunori, Coach (Ozu High School)
Giving up the opening goal and conceding from our own mistakes demotivate the team. If we had scored first, this result could have been the other way around. However, this is a league competition, so we can make up for this loss by winning our next match 5-0. I have been telling the players that this league is not going to be easy, so we will try to stay patient and avoid getting relegated from this league.

FW #9 KOBAYASHI Shunei (Ozu High School)
Although we were getting overpowered, we still had our chances, and the fact that we conceded the second goal really hurt us. An equaliser would have given the team momentum and the result would have been much different. I don’t think we played that badly, but we needed to do a better job blocking shots in our own end. We were able to play with a lot of patience last year, but this match reminded us that we are not at that level this year, so we will work to improve our game in the coming matches.

KAWAGUCHI Osamu, Coach (Shizuoka Gakuen High School)
If we had played the way we did last year, we wouldn’t have won as many second balls against Ozu today. Once we start playing against J-Youth clubs, we wouldn’t be able to possess the ball as much, so that is an aspect we need to improve as the season goes on. In that sense, this match allowed us to realise where we are at in this league. The Premier League will give us the opportunity to learn what we lack as a team and drastically improve ourselves, which is why this league is the greatest league in Japan.

MF #10 TAKAHASHI Ryuta (Shizuoka Gakuen High School)
Ozu High School is one of the better high school teams in the nation, but we entered the match thinking we cannot afford to lose against a high school side. We looked nervous until we scored the opening goal, but overall, I feel like we were able to showcase a solid performance today. Although there were stints where we were overpowered by our opponents, we were able to keep our composure and utilise our techniques to keep the clean sheet intact. We knew our opponents had the advantage in terms of height, so we focused on keeping the ball on the ground and use our techniques to execute each play.

Results of other matches

Shimizu S-Pulse Youth 2-3 (1-2, 1-1) Higashi Fukuoka High School
Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC Youth 1-3 (1-1, 0-2) Jubilo Iwata U-18
Sagan Tosu U-18 3-0 (1-0, 2-0) Riseisha High School
Nagoya Grampus U-18 2-1 (1-1, 1-0) Cerezo Osaka U-18
Gamba Osaka Youth 0-4 (0-1, 0-3) Vissel Kobe U-18

Shimizu S-Pulse Youth (Shizuoka), who were moved to the Premier League WEST, played their first match against Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka). The closely contended match came down to the wire, as the Fukuoka side notched the game-winner during additional time of the second half to clinch the victory. Last season’s WEST champions, Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC Youth (Hiroshima), lost to Jubilo Iwata U-18 (Shizuoka) 1-3, after conceding two goals in the second half. Sagan Tosu U-18 (Saga) welcomed Riseisha High School (Osaka) to their home, where they won 3-0 to start off the season. The goal scored by UCHIDA Kosuke (#14) in the 78th minute proved to be the difference in the fixture between Nagoya Grampus U-18 (Aichi) and Cerezo Osaka U-18 (Osaka), as the Aichi side won 2-1. Led with the brace scored by TOMINAGA Niina (#9), Vissel Kobe U-18 (Hyogo) thrashed Gamba Osaka Youth (Osaka) 4-0 in a match played in Osaka. 

Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football Premier League 2022

League Duration: Sat. 2 April - Sun. 4 December 2022

League Information