The International U-23 Women’s Tournament La Manga
Mon. 2 March 2015   Kick off 17:54　Playing Time 90min (45min×2)
La Manga Pitch A (Spain/La Manga)

Japan U-23 Women’s National Team　1-0 (1st 0-0, 2nd 1-0) Norway U-23 Women’s National Team

Scores
70min  SHIRAKI Akari (Japan)

Starters
GK： YAMASHITA Ayaka
DF： KYOKAWA Mai、SAITO Natsumi、MURAMATSU Tomoko、MIYAKE Shiori
MF： SUGITA Ami、SHIBATA Hanae、MASUYA Rika、KATO Chika
FW： TANAKA Mina、SHIRAKI Akari

Substitutes
GK： TAKENAKA Rei
DF： NAKAMURA Yushika、TANAKA Mariko
MF： TAKAGI Hikari、INOUE Ayaka、IRIE Miki
FW： HAMADA Haruka

61min TANAKA Mina → HAMADA Haruka
87min MASUYA Rika → IRIE Miki

Match Report

Japan players got the match off. In the 1st minute, right after receiving the ball from the right flank, Norway player turned around and fired a shot, which hit off and went over the bar. Japan allowed opponents to play in Japan’s end from the start of the match. Japan gradually gained dominant possession for a longer spell and went on aggressive attacks toward the opposing goalmouth to score an opening goal. In the 26th minute, when Shibata Hanae received a throw-in and passed it to Shiraki Akari, Shiraki unleashed a blast from the edge of the box, but it just went over the right corner of the goal. In the 32nd minute, after a one-two pass with Sugita Ami, Masuya Rika dribbled into the box and cut the ball back, but Kato Chika, who rushed in, failed to meet it. Japan created many chances but ended the first half 0-0.

Japan’s attacking momentum kept going in the second half. In the 48th minute, after intercepting the ball in their end, Japan connected the ball through several players and went deep into the opposing end. Masuya on the right flank fed the ball into the box after receiving Shibata’s pass, but Tanaka Mina nearly failed to reach the ball. In the 70th minute, Shiraki intercepted a pass from the opposing goalkeeper to a defender, dribbled forward and fired it from an acute angle. The shot found the back of the net to give Japan side a long-waited opening goal. Japan created some more opportunities but were unable to convert them into a goal to end the match 1-0.

Comments

TAKAKURA Asako, Head Coach
In this third match after two losses in a row, we tried to play with compact defence and pressing speed, intensity on the ball and creative challenges in penalty box. Just like the previous two matches, we were pushed back by Norway’s vertically quick, intense attacking many times, but we were able to play the match with high concentration during 90 minutes. Our offence also had a lot of good patterns with various players involved in each play. But it is our assignment that our shots and final passes were not accurate enough and that resulted in missing goal-scoring opportunities and getting a goal from Shiraki only. We made the match tougher by ourselves. But this win will be our confidence, and I want my players to remember the assignments we got in the losses. And I hope they will keep up their efforts in their daily training after getting back to their own team.

SHIRAKI Akari（Tokiwagi Gakuen High School）
Today we had lots of time attacking and kept the possession. But we weren’t able to score a goal and the match turned out to be tough. Even in such a situation, we focused on our play and kept working on pressing from the front so that I could score a goal just like the last match. It’s good that I scored a goal, but I had a lot more situations where I could’ve scored. I will keep up my work and make efforts to show good performances in Japan.

MURAMATSU Tomoko（Nippon Television Beleza）
Today we played the match keeping a win in mind and enjoying football. In the previous two matches, the opponents kicked the ball behind our back-line after our mistake and that resulted goals against. So we tried to put pressure from up front, prevent them from kicking the long ball and take care of space behind our back-line. Even though we made a mistake, we communicated and covered it together. I think those efforts led us to a win. It’s really great that we won the final match of the tournament today, but we lost two. With this experience, I will try hard to get to a higher level.

SAITO Natsumi（INAC Kobe Leonessa）
We got together to play this third match, keeping mindset that “We definitely win to finish it up.” We won the match 1-0 as a result, but there were many things that we achieved and we need to improve. I felt that we still lack minimum physical intensity and preparation and prediction against opposing speed and intensity. Japan are inferior in body size, so it’s hard to win on the world stage unless we improve quality of our strengths such as preparation and prediction of play, passing accuracy and team collectivity. In today’s match, we were able to break through the opponents with dribbles and simple passes with only a few touches but lacked finishing touch in front of the opposing goal. On the other hand, our defensive line did great on line control so that we could win the match with a clean sheet. The tournament ended with today’s match. But I will take back what I found to improve and try to get better.

Schedule

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