2014 Slovakia Cup Group League
Thursday 1 May 2014 11:00Kick Off　80min(40min half）
Prievidza(Slovakia)

U-18 Japan National Team　0-1(1st Half 0-1、2nd Half 0-0)　U-18 Belgium Natinal Team

Scores
21min　Goal Against（PK)（U-18 Belgium Natinal Team）

Starters
GK：YOSHIMARU Kenshin
DF：ISHIDA Ryoma、MOTEGI Rikiya、MATSUBARA Ko、MIZUTANI Takuma
MF：OGAWA Hiroki、IDEGUCHI Yosuke、SUZUKI Tokuma、AIZU Yuki
FW：OSHIMA Koki、SUGIMORI Koki

Substitutes
GK：KAWASHIMA Daiki
DF：MISAO Kento
MF：SAKAI Daisuke、NAKANO Masaomi、MARUOKA Mitsuru
FW：WATANABE Ryoma、NAKASHIMA Kensei

34min　OSHIMA Koki　→　SAKAI Daisuke
HT　IDEGUCHI Yosuke　→　MARUOKA Mitsuru
HT　MATSUBARA Ko　→　MISAO Kento
53min　SUGIMORI Koki　→　WATANABE Ryoma
67min　OGAWA Hiroki　→　NAKANO Masaomi

Match Report

The Japan Under-18 national squad faced Belgium in their final group league game. Because Japan still had a chance to become the runner-ups depending on the result of the Norway-Russia game, they had aggressively fell on the opponents from the opening half.
Belgium, meanwhile, tried to attack on Japan, taking advantage of their individual speed and physical abilities as well.
As in their previous game, Team Japan possessed the ball longer, but they lacked accuracies on their passes and had hard time creating shot opportunities.
Then on 21st minute, Japan made a careless pass, which was robbed by Belgium, and allowed the opponents get in the box. A Japan defender committed a foul on a Belgium player to give a penalty kick. Belgium netted the PK to score the game’s first goal.
In the latter half with a 1-0 score, Japan reduced their passing mistakes and had more chances to take shots. While Sakai boldly attacked in the space between the defense and midfielders of the opponents in the right side, Nakano ran up laterally to the front and sent crosses from the left side, but the team lacked preciseness with their shots and could not net a goal.
In the injury time, Japan created an opportunity right in front of the opponents’ goal, as Maruoka launched a direct shot, but it was saved by the goalkeeper before the final whistle was blown.
The Japanese side took another defeat not scoring a goal, and finished the group league in the fourth place. They are now headed to the seventh-place match against the UAE Under-18 national team.

Comments from Players

YOSHIMARU Kenshin（Vissel Kobe）
Today’s game was the one we had to win, but it was disappointing that we could not do so. It is so frustrating that we have not posted a single win in this tournament. Personally, I was able to cover the spaces behind the defensive line, but had some moments that I would lose my focus in the 80 minutes. I would like to improve on that. As to tomorrow’s game, we would definitely like to win it before we are headed back to Japan.

NAKANO Masaomi（Tokyo Verdy Youth）
As we played more games, we got to be able to share on what we want to do both individually, as a group and as the team. We had had a loss and a draw and it was a must-win game for us, but we ended up losing it. We have not been able to score a goal in the three games so far, and that is because of our lack of determination speed. We still have some hesitations over our plays. When you have hesitations, it affects the qualities of your plays. If we can improve on that, we will be able to get closer to the goal more often. We want to prepare ourselves better so we can finish up with a win in the one last game we have here.

SUZUKI Tokuma（Maebashiikuei High School）
As we got to play our final group league game, we were told by our coach that we would be sticking with both the result and details of our plays. And I tried to absorb as much as I could so it would lead to raise my level through this game. It was actually a game that I got to understand that Keisuke Honda was insisting that they needed to develop their individual skill-sets after the Confederations Cup last year.
Japanese players have the traits to work together to score and defend their own goalmouth. We only have one more game to play, but we would like to finish our tournament with a win with all the members of our team. I hope that everyone keeps his or her support to us in the next game, too.

Schedule