Continental Beach Soccer Tournament 2016 Semi-final vs Iran Beach Soccer National Team
2016-8-24 (Wed.) - 14:00 Playing Time: 12min.×3
Ordos Sports Center (Ordos/China)

Japan Beach Soccer National Team　1-5（1st 1-1, 2nd 0-3, 3rd 0-1）Iran Beach Soccer National Team

Scores
7'　goal against（Iran National Beach Soccer Team）
9'　AKAGUMA Takuya（Japan Beach Soccer National Team）
20'　goal against（Iran National Beach Soccer Team）
22'　goal against（Iran National Beach Soccer Team）
23'　goal against（Iran National Beach Soccer Team）
34'　goal against（Iran National Beach Soccer Team）

Line-ups
GK: TERUKINA Shingo
FP: MOREIRA Ozu, TABATA Teruki, HARAGUCHI Shotaro, GOTO Takasuke

Substitutes
GK: KAWAI Yusuke
FP: MATSUO Naoya, NAKAHARA Yuki, SATO Eisuke, AKAGUMA Takuya

Match Report

The Japan Beach Soccer National Team, who are participating in the Continental Beach Soccer Tournament 2016, played the semi-final against the Iran National Beach Soccer Team at 14:00 on 24 August.

Japan went close to the Iranian goal from the beginning. In the 2nd minute, TABATA Teruki fired a lob shot, which went over the goalkeeper, but unfortunately hit the goalpost. Japan took another shot from a corner kick, only for it to go wide. Then Japan fouled in the opponents’ area, giving away a free kick, something they were concerned about even before the match. The opponents scored a strong goal into the left-hand corner directly from the free kick, striking the opener in the 7th minute.

However, in the 9th minute, AKAGUMA Takuya earned a penalty kick, receiving a foul in the opponents’ penalty area. Akaguma struck a superb goal, levelling the game 1-1. 

In the second period, both teams switched rapidly between attack and defence, creating many goal-scoring opportunities. In the 18 minute, although MATSUO Naoya got through to face the goalkeeper one-on-one, he could not score due to a fine save. 

In the 20th minute, the opponents slotted forcibly into the net from a corner, followed by another goal with superb individual skill in the 22nd. Then, after 23 minutes, Japan conceded another from a long-distance shot, allowing the opponents build a three-goal lead. The opponents took control of the match after that, and Japan had to defend resiliently for a while. 

The opponents retained dominance in the third period. As Japan had to focus their efforts on defence, they could not push forward to take shots. In the 34 minutes, the opponents added more insurance. Japan lost the game 5-1.

Japan will meet Vietnam in the third-place match at 14:00 on Thursday 25 August.

Coach and Players' Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Coach
It’s really frustrating that we lost the semi-final. It’s hard to explain why we let the opponents build a four-goal lead. Despite the players’ good performance, we couldn’t make good use of our scoring opportunities and find the net against the opponents’ excellent goalkeeper. I believe the players learned the lessons from today’s game, especially for those who newly joined our team and experienced their first international game against strong team. We must shift our focus to tomorrow’s third-place match against Vietnam. We’d like to finish our China tour with an excellent performance and win the last match.

GK #1 TERUKINA Shingo (Sol Mar Praia)
We played the second match of this tournament against Iran, whom we often meet in crucial games. Our recent record against them is fifty-fifty, so we were determined to win. In the meeting prior to the game, we got ourselves into a strong mind-set that we wouldn’t get beaten. We faced Iran with confidence.

In the first period, we spent most of the time trying to take the early initiative. Both in the second and the third periods, we conceded consecutively from our mistakes and ended up with the score of 5-1.

The difference in the quality (of play) was exposed – Iran capitalised on their chances, while we failed to do so. Personally, I need to work on ‘saving,’ thus disallowing the opponents’ attempts and driving the team forward. I would like to review today’s match and, hopefully, we would feel like a tough lesson learned and prepare ourselves better for the Asian Beach Games next month.

FP #11 GOTO Takasuke (Fusion)
In today’s match, we had to defend a lot and it drained us. We could not attack enough due to a lack of energy. I thought Iran was better in every aspect, including individual skill and experience, not to mention the actual result. Including a promising shot that was saved by the goalkeeper, I experienced the high level of play never to be seen inside Japan. Playing against foreign teams was an excellent experience.

Having said that, we did have goal-scoring opportunities. We could have scored by improving attacking combinations or ‘keeping our chin up.’ I want the Japan national team to get stronger by playing this kind of competitive match. I’d like to stay focused for tomorrow’s game and aim to win by improving on our problem areas from the match against Iran.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.