Japan Beach Soccer National Team - International Friendly 2nd Match vs. U.S. 
2015-6-21 (Sun.) - 16:00 Playing Time: 12min x 3 periods (Extra time 3min)
Ginowan City Tropical Beach, Okinawa

Japan Beach Soccer National Team   4-1 (1st 2-0, 2nd 1-0, 3rd 1-1)   U.S. Beach Soccer National Team

Scores
2'   HARAGUCHI Shotaro (Japan)
12'   OKUYAMA Masanori (Japan)
14'   OBA Takaaki (Japan)
30'   Goal against (U.S.)
35'   MOREIRA Ozu (Japan)

Match Report

Japan Beach Soccer National Team had the second international friendly match against United States National Beach Soccer Team. As it was held on Sunday, Tropical Beach, the match venue beach, had a number of people enjoying bathing and barbecuing, which also brought close to 450 people to the beach soccer match.

With up-tempo music and a DJ talking as well as former Japanese beach soccer international KAWAHARAZUKA Takeshi colour-commentating the match to fans at sight, the fun of beach soccer was well conveyed to the public. 

The kick-off was at 4 p.m. with 29 degrees of temperature, 83% of humidity and the look of the sky being about to bring rain. With the large crowd cheering for Japan, the squad started composed attacking early. In the 2nd minute, HARAGUCHI Shotaro showed a wild volley shoot after a cross from the right, which was cleared by the opposing goalkeeper, but Haraguchi again put it into the back of the net to open the scoring. The fans erupted for Japan’s early goal.

As the rain started falling, Japan started firing shots even from distance to extend the lead. American goalkeeper kept defending them remarkably, but moments before the end of the first period, OKUYAMA Masanori, making the national team match debut, scored his first ever goal for the country to widen the lead to two.

The second period started still in the rain. OBA Takaaki’s goal two minutes into the period further brought the pace of the match to Japan’s favour. Then MOREIRA Ozu cleared the opposing corner kick and the ball was moved up to the front. After Oba was awarded a free kick opportunity in the sequence, Oba tried to capitalise it for his second goal of the day, but it was denied by the goalkeeper’s leg. 

Japan’s goalkeeper GINOZA Tomoya showed his own fine save as well, and soon after that, Moreira had his own free kick attempt. Despite the audience chanting his name and waiting for his goal, Ozu’s kick ended up going inches off target. GOTO Takasuke’s bicycle kick in the middle was also well defended by the USA’s defence.

As another free kick try by Haraguchi after being taken down in the left flank was stopped by the goalkeeper, Japan failed again to extend the lead. Just before the end of the period, the USA’s goal keeper fired a long distance shot from the re-start play to ignite their attack, but Japan kept them scoreless before finishing the second period.

By the time the last period began, the rain had already stopped. The United States down three goals had their goalkeeper actively join the offence and directly aimed their shots to score.

On the other hand, Japan’s Moreira kept threatening the opponents with his free kick. The low ball he kicked bounced right in front of the goalkeeper, which did not allow him to go after it. But unfortunately the ball did not go into the net and only hit the right woodwork.

While the United States started trying to minimize the time for each attack by feeding long balls to the front, Japan kept denying them and conversely went for one more goal to seal the win with surges behind the opponents defenders and bicycle kicks. 

It was in the 30th minute that the match saw another goal action. U.S. goalkeeper Chris Toth, who had repeatedly fired shots, finally had one touch the back of the net when his shot off juggling skill display found the left corner of the goal. With 6 minutes remaining, the scoring turned to 3-1 for Japan. 

Japan kept simply feeding Okuyama who was left up front, but he couldn’t reach his finish. After a bicycle kick attempt by a U.S. player, Japan’s captain Moreira showed how that acrobatic finish should be done from the left side. His beautiful loudly-applauded shot brought Japan’s advantage back to three goals. That 4-1 lead was kept until the end with focused defensive efforts by Japan, who showed a necessary improvement after the first match and wrapped up the two-match series perfectly. 

For the first match, 48 and 45 shots were fired by Japan and the United States respectively as the second match witnessed Japan’s 31 and the U.S.’s 36, which created the total of 13 goals. This abundance of shots attempted and goals is unique to beach soccer. 

Head Coach and Players' Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Head Coach
Compared to yesterday, we could score when we were supposed to score and we could grab the pace of the match in our favour. In defence, we could do well what we wanted to do. In the World Cup, we are set to play against a very good team like Portugal. Our mental preparation will be important, so until the match I will keep talking with each player on variety of things. 

OBA Takaaki (Dorsole Kitakyushu)
Yesterday we came back from behind and won a difficult match, and I think that allowed us to advance to the next level. Today’s goal was just something I pictured. The pass I got was good, too. We could hear loud cheers, and without doubt they helped us to get this second straight win. For the World Cup, many people are supporting us as well, so we will stay thankful and keep working hard to get good results.

JFA-TV

Schedule

International Friendly Match

Japan Beach Soccer National Team  vs.  U.S. Beach Soccer National Team
Sat. 20 June 16:00    v  U.S. Beach Soccer National Team
Sun. 21 June 16:00   v  U.S. Beach Soccer National Team
Ginowan-city Tropicalbeach/Okinawa
*Admission Free

More information

Future Schedule