The 27th Valentin Granatkin Memorial International Football Tournament 1st Round 1st Match
Sat. 3 January 2015  14:15 Kick Off  Playing Time　90minutes(45minutes halves)
Peterburgsky SCC(Saint Petersburg／Russia)

U-18 Japan National Team　0-1（1st 0-1、2nd 0-0） U-18 Azerbaijan National Team

Scores
7min　Goal Against（U-18 Azerbaijan National Team）

Starters
GK：KOJIMA Ryosuke
DF：FUJITANI So、SYOUJI Honoya、NAKAYAMA Yuta、URATA Itsuki
MF： MIYOSHI Koji、SAKAI Daisuke、SASAKI Takumi、NAGANUMA Yoichi
FW：SUGIMORI Koki、KISHIMOTO Takeru

Substitutes
GK：ABE Koto
DF：ITAKURA Kou、NODA Hiroki
MF：KUBOTA Kazune、MORISHIMA Tsukasa
FW：OGAWA Koki、KOBAYASHI Hayate

57min　SUGIMORI Koki　→　OGAWA Koki
69min　MIYOSHI Koji　→　KOBAYASHI Hayate
73min　NAGANUMA Yoichi　→　KUBOTA Kazune
76min　FUJITANI So　→　NODA Hiroki

Match Report

Both teams went on an offensive surge and got into the opposing box mainly from set pieces in the early stage of the match. In the 7th minute, Japan seized a corner kick chance but gave away the ball from an error that eventually led to a goal on the counter-attack. Japan kept their attacking momentum to look for an equaliser. Despite their efforts, however, Japan failed to create shooting opportunities before the first half ended with Azerbaijan’s lead.

In the second half, Japan went forward from the beginning and created several goal-scoring chances in front of the opposing goal. With repeated side attacking efforts, Japan kept creating shooting opportunities but were unable to convert them into goals against opposing tenacious defence.
The score remained at 0-1 until the end, and Japan dropped the important tournament opener.

Comments

UCHIYAMA Atsushi, Head Coach
The outcome is disappointing, but it must have been a valuable experience for the players. It's always true that if you can't score, you can't win a match. Also if you allow the first goal to the opponents, they will be very defensive in front of their goal and try to defend it. It will be the same in the qualifiers in Asia, but we want to be able to play like scoring against such opponents and taking back the initiative of the match.

SASAKI Takumi (Vegalta Sendai Youth)
This was the first match for the U-18 National Team, so there was some nervousness and we always tried to pay attention to our tactics on my mind. The lost goal was from our own mistake and that led to the loss. So we want to make adjustments on that. I personally tried to take care of balancing as a defensive midfielder. I am happy to be selected as the best player of this match, and that gives me confidence to keep moving on. I will be aggressive and keep challenging.

KISHIMOTO Takeru (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
I am very pleased to be selected on this team this time. We couldn't leave a very good result in the Czech trip last year, so we wanted to win the tournament this time. That's our mind-set before today's match. Also today as I played I kept thinking about how I can go behind their defenders. As a team we lost, but I personally could play hard. What was wrong was that we couldn't score when we could have, and in the second half we couldn't go behind their defenders that much. In the next match, I will try more on that. And I want to get better even a little during this trip.

NAKAYAMA Yuta (Kashiwa Reysol U-18)
We ended up losing the important match like an opener. The match turned out to be disappointing as we failed to score against opponents who focused on defence after the goal early in the match. Personally, I also have something to work on and to improve like risk management. Anyway, we have the next, and we will refresh our mind and get well-prepared to be mentally and physically in good condition. Thank you all for your support and good luck wishes.

Schedule

*The schedule may be subject to change according to the team condition, the weather, etc. without notice.

The 27th Valentin Granatkin Memorial International Football Tournament Group Rosters

   Group A: Russia, Lithuania, Moldova
   Group B: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia
   Group C: Bulgaria, Slovenia, Kazakhstan
   Group D: Slovakia, Saint Petersburg, Greece
   Group E: Moscow, Korea Republic, Finland
   Group F: Japan, U-17 Russia National Team, Azerbaijan