The 2nd and 3rd legs of the first round at the 10th Japan Beach Soccer Championship were held on Saturday 12 September. Since it was Saturday, a large number of beach soccer fans including many children were present. With the backing of fine weather, the players pleased the audience with acrobatic plays and spectacular goalkeeping saves.

In Group A, Club Areia (Tokai/ Shizuoka) and G.C.Nerine (Kanto 2/ Tokyo) went head to head into the first extra period in this tournament. Even the three-minute additional period, however, could not determine the winner, and G.C.Nerine finally won the contest after the penalty shootout.

Although the Tokyo side added up one point, they ended up at second place with the total four points, giving way to Sol Mar Praia (Kyushu 1/ Okinawa), who clinched a final round spot with nine total points.

Group B saw Wakayama Bros SAS (Kansai 2/ Wakayama) celebrate their first win in the tournament with their supporters at the 2nd leg. At the following leg, Estaji Sasebo BS (Kyushu 2/ Nagasaki) showed their will to win against the title favourite Tokyo Lequios BS (Kanto 1/ Tokyo) by scoring the match opener.

Even though they conceded consecutive goals after that within the period, Estaji still held the Lequios line-up of five national team players scoreless in the second period. But in the final period, Lequios expectedly marched on by scoring six goals in the period alone to the final round with three straight wins.

Looking at Group C, the two 3rd leg matches kicked off simultaneously on different pitches with three clubs maintaining the possibility to advance to the final round. Avante Osaka (Kansai 1/ Osaka), who lost in the semi-final last year, took on Dorsole Kitakyusyu (Kyusyu 3/ Fukuoka) listing national team players on their squad.

Despite each side firing shots, the first two periods did not see any scoring partly due to goalkeepers’ outstanding saves. In the final period, Dorsole finally had OBA Takaaki break the deadlock with his goal. After adding one more by the opponents’ own goal, the Kyushu side moved on to the next round with the 2-0 win.

The lone university team in the tournament Kochi University (Shikoku/ Kochi) faced Hemosa Cadera (Hokkaido) in Group D, and outscored the opponents 10-5 with as many as 43 shot attempts. In the last leg, Dorsal M.FC/Ashiya (Host/ Hyogo) and Pracia Yamaguchi (Chugoku/ Yamaguchi) both with 6 points so far played against each other. After constantly adding up goals to their 5-1 win, Pracia advanced out the round without recoding a single loss.

Sunday 13 September has the two semi-finals and the final to be played. The title of the memorial 10th anniversary event will go to one of those four clubs standing at this point.

Players' Comments

TAKAHASHI Ryosuke (Club Areia)
In the match against G.C.Nerine, our start was better than any other matches before. We had a setback in the third period when we had an injury. But even when we allowed a lead, we could show that we were able to fight back. For the extra period, we came out to score without giving away any more goals. It would have been better if we had been able to come out with points. But there is not much more you can do if you lose in the penalty shootout.

TANIGUCHI Tomoki (Wakayama Bros SAS)
We wanted to live up to the fact that we were representing the Kansai region. Last time when we got to play in the final tournament, it was because we got the host slot. We didn’t win a single match, so we have practiced since then to win a match this time no matter what.

We were able to repay the people with this win for all the support they gave us. The sand at Okura Beach , the event site, was the best sand we had ever played on. Next year we want to come back to this national tournament and then move up to the final round.

MORI Shun (Aomori Stallions)
We finally got three points in the end. Many people have supported us, so it turned out to be a good gift to them. Speed and technical level of the national tournament are very different from those that we see at regional tournaments, so we want to take this experience back to Aomori to take advantage of it for our future. We want to promote beach soccer in Aomori by getting better as a team. We will work hard to make a consecutive appearance next year.

OBA Takaaki (Dorsole Kitakyusyu)
The opponents on Matchday 3, Avante Osaka are the opponents we played a practice match against about a month ago, and we lost it 3-2. Since then we had repeated team meetings to come out with the game plan, so we could deal with them pretty fairly. Of course we are playing to win the championship, but to make sure we win through the final round, we focus only on the semi-final and play with everything we have got.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

The 10th Japan Beach Soccer Championship

Fri. 11 September - Sun. 13 September
Hyogo/Akashi Okura Beach
Order of implementation the present campaign
Match information