The 2nd All Japan Youth (U-18) Futsal Championship will kick off on 20 August in Sendai. The tournament is meant for determining the best team of the high school generation. As it gets underway soon, KOMORI Takahiro, the coach of U-18 Japan Futsal National Team, spoke about his expectations for his squad and tournament.

–You'll soon enter the 2nd All Japan Youth (U-18) Futsal Championship.

Komori: This is a fresh, but a tournament that offers a lot of potentials. Of course, I visited the first tournament last year. There were teams that were probably practicing futsal from their daily practice and teams that were probably acting as regular football teams, so it was interesting to see the games played by those teams with different styles.

– How do you think this tournament will develop going forward?

Komori: Futsal is still in its initiative process growing in the high school generation, so it's hard to think that something will change drastically during this tournament. As last year, if there are teams that get in this tournament playing with a sense of a mini football, I assume that teams that just play futsal will follow as well.

But I think that as the more times we have this tournament, the more teams that solely play futsal will take the reins eventually, as seen in the All-Japan collegiate futsal championship. Whether futsal-only teams advance further in the tournament or not will be an indication to see the development of this sports and its cultural penetration level.

– How would you describe those at the present?

Komori: It's not in the period that the futsal-only teams have to beat the teams that usually play the regular football. I rather expect them to take advantage of the opportunity of playing futsal for their development.

For example, for the coaches who usually instruct the regular football, when they play against the futsal-only opponents, they might notice that maybe those teams aim at playing in particular ways, and may be able to use that for their late use. And then, it could be an opportunity for them to pay attention to futsal even more.

– What are you looking forward to seeing in this tournament?

Komori: The individual players. Whether it's football or futsal, there's always players with techniques and judgement skills. If there are better players, it catches my eyes and provide their potential. Also, I'm going to see if there are players who can come through at a big stage and what their attitudes are like.

Putting aside whether players will play football or futsal after this championship, if there are good players, I want to put them on my list. And ideally, if they can eventually participate in our practice to see them closer, it would be great. Obviously, the door will be open to those who usually play football.

– Lastly, please give the participating players some message.

Komori: It will be one of the missions to spot players who could play for U-18 Japan Futsal National Team and in the F League, and eventually for the national team through this occasion. I would like to meet those players with hidden potential myself.

But in order to play better, you've got to enjoy the moment. And in order to enjoy, you've got to act with a dignity and communicate with your teammates. Feeling that it is an honor to compete in the national tournament, you've got to fully enjoy. I want them to play freely, making the occasion to test their ability.

Of course, it's a competition, and you are going to have a lot of different emotion throughout a contest. But I think that when you deal with the emotion, it will lead to the growths in your next stage. I bet that you will have occasions that you feel it pays off to have played sports in your future, and have fun as much as possible like high school students, not being timid.

The 2nd All Japan Youth (U-18) Futsal Tournament

Thu. 20 August – Sun. 23 August 2015
XEBIO ARENA SENDAI, Sendai City Gymnasium / Miyagi
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