Semi- Final　vs　U-15 Russia National Team
2016-4-29 (Fri.) - 17:00　Playing Time: 70min. (35min.×2)
Tolmin (Slovenia)

U-15 Japan National Team　2-2 (0-2, 2-0, PSO 5-4)　U-15 Russia National Team

Scores
26'　Goal against (U-15 Russia National Team)
34'　Goal against (U-15 Russia National Team)
45'　MESHINO Soma (U-15 Japan National Team)
52'　NISHIO Ryuya (U-15 Japan National Team)

Line-ups
GK: TAKAYAMA Shioki
DF: IWAI Ryuji, NISHIO Ryuya, KUMADA Shuto, YAMASAKI Taichi
MF: SEHATA Gijo, MESHINO Soma, MATSUMOTO Nagi, YAMAMOTO Rihito
FW: YAMAZAKI Ryosuke, KURIHARA Ibrahim Junior

Substitutes
GK: SUZUKI Zion
DF: KANO Kanato, INOUE Miki, ISHIDA Ryotaro, ENDO Kaito
MF: YAMADA Fuki, ODA Yutaro
FW: NISHIKAWA Jun, BROWNE Noah Kenshin

HT　YAMAZAKI Ryosuke → NISHIKAWA Jun
66'　YAMAMOTO Rihito→ ODA Yutaro

Match Report

On Friday 29 April, the U-15 Japan National Team had the semi-final match of the 13th Delle Nazioni Tournament against U-15 Russia National Team. The result was 2-2 (PSO 5-4) in favour of Japan, which put the squad onto the final match.
　
The Japan’s young squad travelled a long distance the night before from Austria to Italy, but showed aggressive plays form the beginning of the match without showing any signs of fatigue from the past matches and travelling.

In the 5th minute, midfielder SEHATA Gijo went up the left flank to send a cross ball, which forward YAMAZAKI Ryosuke met. The attempt hit the goal post. One minute later, Yamazaki headed a perfectly-timed cross from defender KUMADA Shuto, but the opposing goalkeeper denied it. While Japan struggled to break down the opponents’ defensive style, their counter-attacks started push back Japan.

Then in the 26th minute, a through ball reached an opposing player and he went by Japan’s goalkeeper for the opening goal. In the 34th minute, Japan’s shot clearance was picked up by Russia, which led to another goal for the opponents. The first half finished with Japan trailing by two goals.

In the half time, the instruction by coach MORIYAMA Yoshiro was “not to be afraid and keep running aggressively throughout the 35 minutes.” Japan in the second half started to create their momentum by showing effective transitions between offence and defence against the opponents sitting back and kept attacking aggressively without giving away any chances to the opponents.

In the 44th minute, forward KURIHARA Ibrahim Junior received the ball on the right flank for his shot, but it was cleared by a defender. In the next minute, beautiful ball movement was followed by a shot by forward NISHIKAWA Jun. The rebounding ball off the cross bar was put home by midfielder MESHINO Soma to cut the deficit to one goal.

As the opponents started appearing tired against Japan’s continuous attack, in the 52nd minute, Kumada’s corner-kick was headed high in the air by defender NISHIO Ryuya to find the back of the net to finally equalise the scoring. Japan’s offence did not slow down after that and again had Nishio head Kumada’s corner-kick one minute into the additional time. That attempt, however, went above the cross bar before the match tied at 2-2 went into the penalty shootout.

All five kickers were able to convert their shots for Japan, while Japan’s goalkeeper TAKAYAMA Shioki impressively denied the Russia’s fifth to give his side a dramatic win.

As a result, Japan advanced to the final with four straight wins in the tournament. The final is held on Sunday 1 May with Japan taking on Slovenia.

Players' Comments

TAKAYAMA Shioki (Shonan Bellmare U-15 Hiratsuka)
It was a very difficult match, but nobody on our team gave up, we made it a tie and won it after the penalty shootout. It was very good. I allowed two goals in the first half and put my team in trouble. In the penalty shootout, I kept believing in my teammates and wanted to stop at least one shot. So I was happy to help my team win. The credit should go to every one of us. Individually, I allowed two goals in the first half, because I couldn’t give good directions to the defence line. In the second half, I couldn’t control it well. Finally, next is the final. We want to take this momentum over, play with everyone’s effort together, and we want to show what we are capable of. This teams have a lot of energy and fighting spirits in ourselves and very good atmosphere. We will stick to hold the opponents scoreless and finish the final match in the best way possible.

IWAI Ryuji (Yokohama F・Marinos Junior Youth)
In the first half, we kept attacking, but couldn’t convert good chances. We let ourselves play with the opponents pace. In the second half, we tried to attack and defend collectively, outrun the opponents and created many chances. We want to improve this team to be able to always show what we showed in this second half. In the final, every one of us will try to perform well and we together want to show how we fight.

YAMAMOTO Rihito (Tokyo Verdy Junior Youth)
We all lacked concentration in the first half and we made it very difficult for us by allowing two goals. In the end we all including our bench came together and won after the penalty shootout, which was good. Many times I was able to read chances and sprint to take advantage of those chances, which has been my assignment, but still my focus wasn’t toward goal enough and I didn’t make enough shot attempts. Also I wasn’t throwing my body enough to defend. The final match will be the last match for us to play with this squad, so I want to win the match and championship no matter what.

Schedule

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