The Prince Takamado Trophy All Japan Youth Football League Championship was held on Sunday 14 December between the Premier League EAST champions Kashiwa Reysol U-18 (Chiba) and the WEST champions Cerezo Osaka U-18 (Osaka).

Kashiwa Reysol U-18（Chiba）　0-1（1st 0-0、2nd 0-1）　Cerezo Osaka U-18（Osaka）

With 14,654 in attendance for the match to determine the best club of this generation, Kashiwa, backed by the big group of supporters coming from hometown Chiba, put out some early highlights. In the 4th minute, Ito Tatsuya took the ball by himself up in the left flank and finally fed Aizu Yuki in the box. Aizu’s shot was denied by Cerezo’s defender but the big crowed was pleased to see some early action. On the other hand, Cerezo Osaka afterwards started putting defensive pressure high and early to prevent Kashiwa from creating additional chances. Their offence also produced a few crucial moments. In the 17th minute, Cerezo’s Nukui Hayato sent in a cross ball, which Maekawa Taiga tried to put into the goal with his head. One minute later Kishimoto Takeru ran past defenders for a pass from the back and went out for 1-on-1 against Kashiwa’s goalkeeper. 

In the second half also, the excitingly close contest continued. While Kashiwa carefully connected passes and got gradually closer to the opponent’s goal, Cerezo always looked for quick counter-attack opportunities. Then in the 60th minute, the match finally saw the first goal of the day. When Cerezo got a free kick in Kashiwa’s end, Nukui fed a cross into the middle. After both teams struggling to gain the possession right in the penalty box, the loose ball was kicked into the goal by Takeda Kazuya to give Cerezo Osaka the much-awaited first goal.

Kashiwa, then with their back on the wall, sent midfielder Michael James Den Heijer off the bench to change their attacking rhythm. Cerezo Osaka, however, kept running hard to defend. Coach Murata Kazuhiro said to his players before the match “we never stop covering each other, so you all don’t hesitate and go ahead to get the ball if you see a chance.” The players remembered the coach’s advice and kept chasing Kashiwa’s ball around up front. Kashiwa were forced to kick bad passes and lose their ball. Maekawa recalled after the game saying “around the 80th-minute mark, I think we all had leg cramps.” but Cerezo never stopped attacking Kashiwa’s ball aggressively. That effort eventually brought 1-0 win and their first Prince Takamado Trophy to the WEST champions Cerezo Osaka.

See match details here

Comments

SHIMOTAIRA Takahiro Head Coach（Kashiwa Reysol U-18）
Both the result and the details of the match are really disappointing. We couldn’t play to our potential in this big match, but that fact alone shows that we are not good enough yet. One of the reasons for the loss is (being affected by) this atmosphere. I didn’t expect our players would be affected by big pressure, because we had experienced a lot including some international matches, but we couldn’t keep moving the ball as we normally do to an unmarked player. Their defence was very powerful, but we had played against senior teams and even stronger defence, so knowing that makes today’s match even more disappointing.

NAKAYAMA Yuta（Kashiwa Reysol U-18）
We wanted to end this last match with a win. Both the result and the details of the match show they were the better team today, but we couldn’t play our style of football. It’s just complete defeat. When their two strikers were coming at our ball, I felt like “you can keep coming. We move the ball to pass by and then we get a good chance there.” But we couldn’t build up our offence collectively. People in the stand were loud and our voices couldn’t be heard. We wanted to show what we have repeatedly worked on in practices, but it was very difficult. There are so much to improve, so I want to take this loss positively as an opportunity to get better.

MURATA Kazuhiro, Coach（Cerezo Osaka U-18）
We wanted to stay aggressive and play to our strength without staying back and defensive in our end. There were some stretches when they dominated possession, but we all fought hard. (On scoring the goal) Fortunately the ball came out to where we wanted, and Takada Kazuya had it well. It was a match that could have gone either way, but the players kept moving their legs and running hard until the end. We kept going at the ball and covering each other and kept doing those, so that worked well. We kept three lines very compact, front, midfield and defence, I think that’s another reason for our win.

MAEKAWA Taiga（Cerezo Osaka U-18）
I am just happy that we won the national championship. When I joined this club, I was surprised how hard we practiced. But we kept practicing every day and our physical ability got better because of that, so we became able to chase around opponents so hard. Today’s match was the last one in my high school career, so I kept telling myself to “run until my legs got cramped.” We could play our style of football in such a big match like this, and we could show what we have been worked on. So that was very good. I am sure all the experience I got from this championship including the league matches will give me a great confidence in my future career and after I become professional.

JFA-TV

Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League 2014 Championship 

Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League 2014 Championship
Kick off at 13:00 on Sunday, December 14, 2014 (schedule) Saitama/Saitama Stadium 2002
Kasiwa Reysol U-18 (the Premier League EAST champion) vs Cerezo Osaka U-18 (the Premier League WEST champion)
More Information