The 27th Valentin Granatkin Memorial International Football Tournament 2nd Round 2nd Match　vs U-18 Finland National Team
Thu.8 January 2015　Kickoff 14:15　Playing Time 90minutes(45minutes halves)
Peterburgsky SCC(Saint Petersburg/Russia)

U-18 Japan National Team   0-0(1st 0-0, 2nd 0-0)   U-18 Finland National Team

Starters
GK：ABE Koto
DF：NODA Hiroki 、SYOUJI Honoya、NAKAYAMA Yuta、URATA Itsuki
MF：KOBAYASHI Hayate、SASAKI Takumi、MORISHIMA Tsukasa、KUBOTA Kazune
FW：SUGIMORI Koki、KISHIMOTO Takeru

Substitutes
GK：KOJIMA Ryosuke
DF：ITAKURA Kou、FUJITANI So
MF：MIYOSHI Koji、NAGANUMA Yoichi、SAKAI Daisuke
FW：OGAWA Koki

Substitutes
52min　NODA Hiroki → FUJITANI So
52min　SUGIMORI Koki → OGAWA Koki
52min　MORISHIMA Tsukasa → SAKAI Daisuke
56min　KOBAYASHI Hayate → MIYOSHI Koji
84min　SASAKI Takumi → NAGANUMA Yoichi

Best Player Award:  KISHIMOTO Takeru
Yellow Card/Red Card:59min:SASAKI Takumi, 76min:URATA Itsuki

Match Report

The U-18 Japan National Team had their second match of their Group J stage against the U-18 Finland national football team.
Japan, who kept clean sheet at the match against Slovakia with 2-0 on the previous day, took control of the game from the beginning moving the ball in the opponent’s area.
KOBAYASHI and NODA had a good combination on the right wing, and KUBOTA and URATA worked well on the left wing to break through Finland’s defense. Even though they made chances by moving the ball forward to the front, Japan couldn’t score. The two forward players KISHIMOTO and SUGIMORI stole the ball at the higher spot and broke through the defense to strike a shot but they weren’t successful again. The 1st half finished at 0-0.

In the 2nd half, Japan kept attacking Finland’s goal but they gradually started making mistakes due to tiredness and gave chances for Finland to make shots by giving possession away through careless passing mistakes. Japan couldn’t move the ball around like the 1st half particularly in receiving the ball even after stealing it and in their movement making good positioning. Japan substituted a player to vitalise the mood and made a chance, sending the ball across from left wing to the front of the goal, but it was blocked by Finland’s persistent defense. The match score didn’t move and it finished with 0-0.
Japan finished the second stage with a result of 1 win and 1 draw. The schedule of Japan’s next match on 11 January will be fixed depending on the result of the match between Finland and Slovakia which will be held on the following day.

Players Comments

KISHIMOTO Takeru (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
Today we couldn’t make enough single passes from midfield to our forwards and had too many side attacks. Next time we want to move the ball forward through the middle more than to side wings. Personally, I didn’t make many shots today so I have to visualise more about how I can contribute to scoring. To win the next match, I want to do everything I can do even off of the pitch tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

KUBOTA Kazune (Osaka Toin High School)
We have made too many mistakes so that we had to spare more time for defense. We couldn’t attack the opponents as we expected. We did have some chances but couldn’t score. We just want to correct some issues found today to improve so we can win the next match.

SASAKI Takumi (Vegalta Senday Youth)
I certainly regret not beating Finland and the score 0-0 today. We could guarantee going through this second stage as the top team if we won this match, but we were just stuck in their pressing defense and could not score at all. We have to play with good sense of distance between each other and to reduce our mistakes. Personally, I want to move more to make better positioning and not to bump into opponent players in the next match. We have 2 days to the next one so we want to prepare ourselves very well.

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