AFC U-19 Championship 2018 Qualifiers
Second Match vs U-18 Singapore National Team
6 November 2017 (Mon.) Kick-off 12:00 (Local time) Playing Time 90min.(45min.×2）
Football Centre MFF (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)

U-18 Japan National Team 7-0（5-0, 2-0）U-18 Singapore National Team

Scores
3'　  ITO Hiroki（U-18 Japan National Team）
23'　ITO Hiroki（U-18 Japan National Team）
26'　NAKAMURA Yuta（U-18 Japan National Team）
32'　GOKE Yuta（U-18 Japan National Team）
42'　TANAKA Riku（U-18 Japan National Team）
78'　TAGAWA Kyosuke（U-18 Japan National Team）
82'　KAWAMURA Takumu（U-18 Japan National Team）

Starting Line-ups
GK：WAKAHARA Tomoya
DF：ISHIHARA Hirokazu, HASHIOKA Daiki, NAKAMURA Yuta, SUGIYAMA Danto
MF：HORI Kenta, FUJIMOTO Kanya, ITO Hiroki, TANAKA Riku
FW：GOKE Yuta, TAGAWA Kyosuke

Reserves
GK：OSAKO Keisuke, SARUTA Haruki
DF：KAWAI Ayumu, TANIGUCHI Hiroto, OGIWARA Takuya
MF：SUGIURA Fumiya, SAITO Mitsuki, KAWAMURA Takumu
FW：ANDO Mizuki, HARA Taichi, ABE Hiroki

Subsitutions
64'　HORI Kenta → KAWAMURA Takumu
72'　GOKE Yuta → ABE Hiroki
82'　TANAKA Riku → SAITO Mitsuki

Match Report

U-18 Japan National Team faced Singapore in their second match of Group I in the AFC U-19 Championship 2018 Qualifiers. Due to the snowfall earlier in the morning, the game started with pitch on a snow-covered pitch. Considering the current poor conditions, Japan decided to play simple and attack by sending balls to open space in Singapore’s half. In the 3rd minute, HORI Kenta crossed the ball to ITO Hiroki, who scored the opening goal with a header to give his side an early lead. Then, the Japanese squad added another goal, after Hori made a quality delivery from a corner to the front of the goal and Ito headed in for his second. Immediately after, it was NAKAMURA Yuta who capitalised this time on the corner in the 26th minute and headed home the third for Japan.

After 32 minutes, GOKE Yuta was illegally taken down inside the box, when he attempted to get past the opposing defenders, and earned a penalty. The young Samurai striker took the spot kick himself and successfully converted it for the fourth goal for his team. The young Japanese internationals scored another after they broke through the Singaporean defence on the left with an excellent exchange of passes in the 42nd minute and found TANAKA Riku, who calmly netted the fifth before Japan took a five-goal lead at halftime.

In the second half, Singapore started to intensify their defence even with illegal challenges at times, and Japan struggled to score additional goals. However, the Japanese squad were relentless on their pursuit in scoring and attacked from both flanks and earned a penalty in the 78th minute. Forward TAGAWA Kyosuke calm fired from the spot to extent the lead to 6-0.

The final goal for Japan came in the 82nd minute, when they fashioned a scoring chance with a brilliant pass work on the right flank and crossed the ball to Tagawa waiting in the middle. The Japanese forward cushioned it well for onrushing KAWAMURA Takumu to fire in the seventh, before the match ended with U-18 Japan posting a convincing 7-0 win over Singapore.

U-18 Japan National Team will play their third match against U-18 Thai National Team on 8 November.

Players' Comments

DF #22 NAKAMURA Yuta (Kashima Antlers Youth)
It was my first experience to play the match on a snow-covered pitch. From the warm-up session before the match, I felt that footing was poor and it was difficult to control the ball well, and I decided to play simple during the game. This idea seemed to have worked, but there were a number of occasions where the cleared ball went straight back to the opponents. If we selected a pass or exploited the space behind their defenders rather simply clearing the ball, then we would have created several more scoring chances. On the positive side, we did communicate well and knew what each player was going to do on the pitch as well. To finish the qualifiers on the high note, we will make a good preparation and win our final match against Thailand.

MF #7 ITO Hiroki (Jubilo Iwata U-18)
I am simply happy that we got two straight wins. On the snowy pitch, we played simple football and tried to capitalise on our set pieces. I believe those were the main reasons why we managed to secure a win today. On a one-day rest, we will play against Thailand. We will focus on winning the match and getting through the qualifiers by displaying our strength both as a team and individuals. We would like to express our gratitude to all the people who came here to support us and all others who supported us back in Japan. Thank you very much. We will do our best and compete as a team as well.

FW #9 TAGAWA Kyosuke (Sagan Tosu)
It was not an easy game due to the rough weather. Even under these difficult conditions, I think that we have shown what we have been working on in training, such as responding to second balls in midfield and displaying strength on the ball. However, I know that there are still plenty of things that we need to improve. We will have to work even harder to prepare for the coming world competition. We should gain some confidence after playing and winning the match under these poor conditions. We will do our best in the next match as well.

Schedule

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

【2018 AFC U-19 Championship】
Ten group winners and five best second-placed teams among all the groups in the qualifiers and hosts (a total of 16 teams) will participate in the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship that is schedule to begin from 18 October and end in 4 November next year.

AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2018 Qualifiers

Tournament Period：31 October 2017(Tue.)～8 November 2017(Wed.)

Tournament Information