The Japan Beach Soccer National team had their first match of the International Friendly against Tahiti Beach Soccer National Team on 17 September. Tahiti is one of the strongest countries and was the runner-up in last year’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

The special venue built in Akashi Okura Beach, Akashi city, Hyogo for this International Friendly was filled with 700 audiences. Under the sunny weather, Japanese squad players livened up the atmosphere by throwing balls with their autographs on them in to the audience before their warm up exercises. Just before the kick off, the Tahiti squad players performed the Haka, which is a traditional dance performed before battles, then the audience were even more excited.

The match was formed by 3 periods and each period was 12 minutes long. From the beginning, Japan’s captain MOREIRA Ozu took a shot from distance and boosted the audience, but it was Tahiti which scored the opening goal; in the 6th minute Tahiti’s tall player Charles Tearii LABASTE’s, who is #10, headed shot successfully found the net. However, Japan immediately scored back.

In the 7th minute Moreira’s strong free kick was bounced once by Tahiti’s goalkeeper but Japan got a corner kick; MATSUO Naoya’s corner was finished with AKAGUMA Takuya’s header and Japan equalised. 2 minutes after, Moreira scored their second goal by one of his advantageous free-kick shots which bounced irregularly in front of the goalkeeper. Another 2 minutes later, NAKAHARA Yuki responded well to the pass to the front of the goal from Moreira and he successfully scored. The 1st period finished with Japan’s lead 3-1.

During the break time before the 2nd period, a gorgeous Tahitian dance was performed on the pitch. Tahiti scored first again in this period; in the 16th minute Heinui Marama AMAU took a successfully shot. Japan adjusted themselves well and continued to play with a good level of concentration. In the 19th minute Japan’s star player GOTO Takasuke scored and restored Japan’s 2 goal lead. 2 minutes later, Japan’s goalkeeper TERUKINA Shingo smashed a strong pass to the front and Akaguma made a finishing touch to change the direction to the goal. Japan made the score 5-2. Japan brought on ISO Hiroaki, it was his first play in the national team. Japan continued to defend and ended the 2nd period without conceding any further goals.

While players from both teams seemed tired, Tahiti tried very hard to score due to being behind by 3 goals. The team’s Coach and player Daniel Teva ZAVERONI’s strong shot was blocked by one hand of the Japan’s goalkeeper Terukina. 5 minutes before the end, Tahiti started to be nervous and their captain Naea BENNETT was shown a yellow card in the 32nd minute. On the other hand, Japan wouldn’t let Tahiti move forward with their consistent defence. All members including another goalkeeper KAWAI Yusuke played in this match; literally with all of their play successfully kept a clean sheet in the 3rd period and Japan won the match 5-2.

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Japan’s second International Friendly against Tahiti Beach Soccer National Team will kick off on 18 September.

Coaches' and Players' Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Coach of the Japan Beach Soccer National Team
We were worried about weather prior to the match but we are happy that a lot of people came to support us under this lovely weather today. I appreciate Tahiti for their high-level play; this lead us to maximise what we had prepared for this match. By playing against this strong team, we have found what to change. I expect Tahiti will face us with even stronger aggressive spirit than they did today, so we want to prepare very well. We want to win again tomorrow to be more confident and to win the title of the Asian Beach Games.

FP #10  MOREIRA Ozu (Fusion)
We could continue to defence and attack with a good level of concentration throughout the match. Most important was our strong spirit; I think our strong belief that we would never lose the match actually made us win today, even though Tahiti is a strong team. I also think we could win because we could score each chance we had. The match venue is the ideal one for the audience in terms of good view and access, for us there was the best sand of Japan. Today we could score well but we still had more chances so we want to be more aggressive to take more shots having good competition with Tahiti tomorrow.

GK #1  TERUKINA Shingo (Sol Mar Praia)
We had kept targeted to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and Tahiti is placed in the higher ranking, hence it was good that we could beat Tahiti after these 3 periods of matches. In the World Cup we have matches every day. It will be meaningless if we were beaten by a normal team on the second day after beating a strong team on the first day. We have another match tomorrow. It will be literally meaningless if we lost the match tomorrow being satisfied with the result of today, so we will do our best to win the match again tomorrow.

Daniel Teva ZAVERONI, Player-Coach of the Tahiti Beach Soccer National Team
I was amazed by Japanese players’ power. It is regrettable that we were not in a good condition. We are in the middle of the process to raise our level of concentration and the whole level of the team, and to improve our techniques. I think Japan has improved their tactics very much. It was a shame that we could not show our normal strengths today, but Japan was still strong. I would like to say “congratulations” to Japan. It will be our turn that we will show off our strengths.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

Schedule

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

International Friendly Match

Japan Beach Soccer National Team vs Tahiti Beach Soccer National Team
[2nd Match] 2016-9-18(Sun.) Kick-off 13:00 ／Entrance 11:30
Hyogo Prefecture／Akashi Okura Beach [Free]

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