Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup Dubai 2014 – 3rd Game
Wed. 6 November 2014    Kickoff 16:15    12min x 3 periods
Dubai International Marine Club(UAE/Dubai)

Japan Beach Soccer National Team   3-1(1st 2-0, 2nd 0-1, 3rd 1-0)   USA Beach Soccer National Team

Scores
3min    TAKIGUCHI Takashi (Japan)
7min    MOREIRA Ozu (Japan)
21min   Goal against (USA)
33min   GOTO Takasuke (Japan)

Starters
GK:   TERUKINA Shingo
FP:   TOMA Masahito, MOREIRA Ozu, TAKIGUCHI Takashi, AKAGUMA Takuya

Substitutes
GK:  SUGITA Tetsuji
FP:  MAKINO Shinji, GOTO Takasuke, MATSUO Naoya, OBA Takaaki

Non-registered members
FP:  ODA Hirofumi, HARAGUCHI Shotaro

Match Report

On the 3rd day of the Intercontinental Cup 2014, Japan played against United States of America (USA) in the 3rd match of the group stage. Both teams had previously been beaten by Russia and Brazil so both of them wanted to win this match.

“We weren’t beaten by Brazil yesterday, we were beaten by No. 8, the one player who scored all 5 goals”, said Mr. MENDES, coach of Japan, to the players in the meeting before the match. He encouraged them by saying “If you can show your real ability, you could have played as much as they did”.

The match kicked off at 16:15, 75 minutes earlier than two previous matches. The sun stayed high enough for the players to be disturbed by the heat and strong sunlight.
The game changed after only on 3 minutes. TAKIGUCHI Takashi got the first goal by using his chest to change the direction of the previous shot struck by GK TERUKINA Shingo. The player hadn’t had a chance to play in the previous two matches against Russia and Brazil. Afterwards, MOREIRA Ozu got the second goal by striking a long range free-kick and the first period finished with Japan’s 2-0 lead.

However, USA got a goal back in the second period and the third period started with the score at 2-1. In the final period, the game did not move for a while; both teams made some scoring chances but no goals were scored. In the last 3 minutes, TOMA Masahito calmly tried to chip the goalkeeper in a 1-on-1 chance, but the ball came back off the goalpost and then GOTO Takasuke hit the loose ball and scored Japan’s 3rd goal. Japan got their first win in the group stage and moved to the 3rd place in the group A.

Tomorrow, Japan will play against the hosts of this Intercontinental Cup 2014, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the 4th place in group A.

Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Head Coach
I am glad that we won today. For this match, the most important was not putting pressure on the players to win but letting them play as they want especially for young players. It was not an easy match, but they controlled the match very well making it 2-0 in the first period. I am satisfied with the players who hadn’t had much chance to play in the previous matches; they played well today. Of course our aim at first was to win this Intercontinental Cup, but we lost against Russia and Brazil and we can’t go to semi-final. What we can do now is aiming to get the 5th place of this competition. I appreciate the players for winning this match with great performances, switching their mind to our new aim. I want the players to play against UAE tomorrow with sense of enjoying the beach soccer, that’s the nature of beach soccer.

SUGITA Tetsuji(Shonan Spread1545)
While we couldn’t win in the previous matches against Russia and Brazil, we could switch our mind to be positive and start today’s match against USA with a strong mind to win. Personally, it was my first experience to play in an international competition. I was only on the pitch for 1 minute, but while I was on the sideline I kept thinking about what I could do for the team because it is very important for the players on the pitch to be supported by the people on the bench. For the last 2 games, we want to win them. I want to do my best to contribute to the team through playing on the pitch.

OBA Takaaki(Dorsole Kitakyushu)
I think we could play very well against USA today, keeping our level of play and correcting the defensive issues that we had found in the two previous matches against Russia and Brazil. Personally I couldn’t score even though I had many scoring chances and the score stayed at 3-1. We wouldn’t be able to win if we score from the chances we create, so I will play with full of energy tomorrow to contribute to the team, correcting what I should have done today.

Schedule