The 13th National Senior (O-50) Football Tournament has started on Saturday 28 June in Nakasatsunaimura, Kasai County, Hokkaido. The first day had the 1st Sec matches of its first round (Group Stage).

“This is the biggest tournament for this age group. We all were hyped up.” said Hazama Kyoji of Tottori Prefecture Senior SC50 (Tottori). Since it is the tournament to determine the best team in the nation for players over 50 years old, there seemed players who were a little nervous. However, once matches began, they all played hard. As Maeda Shoji of Hyogo Prefecture Senior 50 Select (Hyogo) says “We made up the roster in March. Since then we have played about 16 practice matches against younger teams like O-40 Select Team.”, all teams have had their own preparations for this special tournament.

The Group A saw Hitsujigaoka Old Kickers 2002／OV50, a hometown club, tied the match in the second half against Alfoot Azumino Junior (Nagano) for a draw and a point. Tottori Prefecture Senior SC 50 (Tottori), which never advanced out of the first round in their past three appearances, had a good start beating Yamanashi Masters Legend (Yamanashi) 2-0.

Three-time champions Hyogo Prefecture Senior 50 Select (Hyogo) in the Group B protected the long goal they scored in the first half to win against Osu Senior FC (Ehime) 1-0. The match between Dream Mito Senior FC (Ibaraki) and Mie Senior (Mie) had Suzuki Shigeaki score a go-ahead goal seconds before the end and bring three points for his club.

The defending champion Toyopet Club (Tokyo) cruised to a 4-0 win against Tsuruoka FC Dream 50 (Yamagata). Toyopet Club is edging Fukuoka UNITED (Fukuoka), which defeated Hiroshima Fifties (Hiroshima) 2-0, by goal differential for an early lead in the Group C standings.

It was Chitose Fifties Sparrow (Hokkaido) that gained the early lead in the Group D. As they are a young team with only one year of team history, this is their first national tournament appearance. However their big 4-0 win against Fukui Phoenix FC Senior (Fukui) showed both their attacking capability and tenacious defence. Following at the second place is Aichi Senior 50 (Aichi), which came back from behind and won by scoring three goals in the second half against Kyoto Prefecture 50 Select (Kyoto).

Today, the second day in the tournament, has the first round’s 2nd and 3rd Secs.

GroupA
Hitsujigaoka Old Kickers2002　1-1　Alfoot Azumino Junior
Yamanashi Masters Legend　0-2　Tottori Prefecture Senior SC50

GroupB
Osu Senior Fc　0-1　Hyogo Senior 50
Mie Senior　0-1　Dream Mito Senior FC

GroupC
Fukuoka United　2-0　Hiroshima Fifties
Toyopet Club　4-0　Tsuruoka Dream 50

GroupD
Fukui Fenix FC Senior　0-4　Chitose Fifties Sparrow
Aichi Senior50　3-1　Kyoto 50 selection Team

Comments

YOKOBATAKE Koji（Hitsujigaoka Old Kickers 2002／OV50）
We have many players coming back from last year’s team that won two matches in the tournament. So we are confident. We expected to win this first sec match, but we couldn’t start off very well. In the second half, we got our rhythm back and it got better. We expected to win, so this draw is disappointing. Last year it was in the city of Fujieda in Shizuoka, so there were some of us who couldn’t make it because of work or family schedule. This year we play in our home Hokkaido, so everyone is here playing. We represent Hokkaido, so we want to go through the first round no matter what and advance to the final round. We will do our best to win the rest of the two matches.

MAEDA Shoji（Hyogo Prefecture Senior 50 Select）
This year we have so many new players. There are some guys who haven’t experienced much of national tournaments. Guys like us who have played long weren’t so nervous, but new guys looked a little nervous. In the meeting we said to each other “When we get nervous, we tend to rely too much on long passes. So we have to be careful”, but we couldn’t pass around the ball with a good rhythm without holding the ball too long. We always practice that, but we couldn’t do it today. We have good fundamentals, so once we can play to our strength, we will play a good game. We will be ready for the next match tomorrow.

KAWAMATA Susumu（Dream Mito Senior FC）
It was such a dramatic ending as we won by the last-minute goal. Shige-Chan (Suzuki Shigeaki) who scored the goal can keep running for a long stretch, so it helped. Last year we lost in the first round, so this year we want to go through that and play to the final four. We all have different jobs and different addresses. We can’t get together for a practice so often. So on Saturdays and Sundays we play as many matches as possible. We play around fifty matches a year. Not just we gain match experiences, but also we build our teamwork by drinking together! Even today we have already booked a bar to go to, so we will get ready for tomorrow there.

HAZAMA Kyoji（Tottori Prefecture Senior SC 50）
It was our first match, so we couldn’t play as good as we wanted to. We couldn’t move around the ball very well. But even when that was the case, after scoring the first goal, we could start moving it around, and we could create our own tempo. That goal meant a lot. That helped us to feel better. We are a select team, so we have tried to get better by practicing together after our own clubs’ practice. We never had a day off except New Year holidays and Obon holidays. We practice and play matches throughout a year, so every time we go on a trip, we bring some gifts back home for our families to make them feel better. Before leaving home for this match, they wished us a good luck, so I want to tell them that we have done a good job.

JFA-TV

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