Pick-up Match

Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana Junior High School Women's Soccer Club  2-1 (1-0, 1-1)  Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Junior High School Football Club

The second day of the 21st All Japan Youth (U-15) Women's Championship was held on 24 July and the remaining 8 matches of the first round took place. By the end of the day, the 16 teams advanced to the second round. 

First game opened with Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana Junior High School Women's Soccer Club (Tokai 4/ Shizuoka), who returned to this national competition after 3 years, facing Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Junior High School Football Club (Kyushu 5 / Fukuoka), who has played for 2 consecutive years. This is the only match in the first round to be played between two junior-high school teams. 

Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana took initiative in the opening minutes of the first half from side attacks, regarded by coach Lee Zheng Mei as their strength. The first chance came in the 7th minute. NAWA Marina passed the ball from the left side and found unmarked IKEDA Shion in front of the goal, but she could not find the net. 

Fukuoka, on the other hand, gradually began to gain momentum in their offence. SATO Nei later noted: “Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana is good at dribbling and that gave us trouble initially, but gradually we got used to it.” After stealing the ball in their half, they tried to move the ball behind their opponents’ defenders, but could not score. 

After a brief (water) time-out, in the 18th minute, the match moved. Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana’s KOBAYASHI Ririko intercepted ball from the opponent’s goalkeeper and struck it successfully over her head, scoring the opener. 

Fukuoka had their chance in the opening minutes of the second half. In the 34th minute, ISHIKAWA Kaede stole the ball near the box and successfully equalised with a loop shot. However, in the 38th minute, Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana counter-attacked and Kobayashi netted home from a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper, making the score 2-1 in their favour. 

Fukuoka did not give up until the end. In the 40th minute, substituted MATSUMOTO Reo took a long-range shot but only to hit the cross bar. They were unable to score the equaliser and Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana advanced to the second round after coming out on top of this challenging match. 

Coach and Players' Comments

LEE Zheng Mei, Coach (Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana Junior High School Women's Soccer Club)
We encourage the players to be proactive once they receive the ball. I think we won today because we played to our strengths. It has been three years since we last participated in this tournament, and most of our players do not have any national-level experience. However, from the day before the game, they looked confident. Rather than being nervous, they were highly motivated expressing their desire to play in the game. The only comment I gave to them prior to the game was: “keep challenging with a positive attitude.” This victory will boost our confidence for the next match.

MIZUKAMI Rei (Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana Junior High School Women's Soccer Club)
We were nervous once the first match started, so I kept encouraging my teammates, trying to keep our motivation up. We made good offensive combinations from the first half, and we learned that we shouldn’t keep the ball behind too much since the national-level players are more aggressive in stealing the ball. We want to reach the top four. We cannot suddenly be stronger, so it is important to perform our best on the pitch, using what we have learned in our daily training and previous matches.

TSURUHARA Yu, Coach (Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Junior High School Football Club)
Since many of our players are quiet, we encouraged them to be more proactive and talk to each other. We can see the change gradually, but today their mental weakness showed up. They couldn’t motivate themselves to keep pushing on the pitch. In the game, they didn’t touch the ball in the front-line where they should have done, or they made a reckless kick forward when they should have moved the ball around. I think their passive attitude was reflected on their plays, and it was one of the key factors of our defeat. I want the players to remember today’s experience and keep working hard. 

SATO Nei (Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Junior High School Football Club)
I have been recovering from an injury from a week ago. I felt anxious at times. But my teammates backed me up when the opponents dribbled past me. I received tremendous support from everyone to play as a captain of the team today. We learned that even when concede a goal, if we don’t give up, we can find a way to equalise the game. In our team, we have four players who go to a different school and graduate from our team. I have a lot of good memories playing together and having trips to various places. I wanted to play with them as long as possible in this competition, so it is such a pity that we could not make it to the second round. 

Other Matches

Maruoka Ruck Ladies (Hokushinetsu 1/Fukui)  0-2 (0-1, 0-1)　NOJIMA STELLA kANAGAWA SAGAMIHARA AVENIRE (Kanto 5/Kanagawa)
Kamimura Gakuen Junior High School Women's Football Club (Kyushu 1/Kagoshima)  4-2 (3-1, 1-1)　Ehime FC Ladies MIKAN (Shikoku 2/Ehime)
FC Vitoria (Kansai 4/Osaka)  5-2 (3-0, 2-2)　Tochigi Soccer Club Ladies (Kanto 8/Tochigi)
Tokushima Lateesha (Shikoku 1/Tokushima)  3-0 (1-0, 2-0)　Vegalta Sendai Ladies Junior Youth (Tohoku 2/Miyagi)
Toyama Ladies Soccer Club (Hokushinetsu 2/Toyama)  0-2 (0-0, 0-2)　SFIDA Setagaya FC Youth (Kanto 6/Tokyo)
Kobe Football Club Ladies (Kansai 3/Hyogo)  1-1 (0-0, 1-1, PSO 3-2)　Oita Trinita Ladies (Kyushu 2/Oita)
Jumonji Junior High School (Kanto 3/Tokyo)  1-4 (0-3, 1-1)　JFA Academy Fukushima (Tokai 1/Shizuoka)

Nojima Stella kanagawa Sagamihara Avenire kept its momentum from winning the very competitive local qualifier in Kanto Region and beat Maruoka Ruck Ladies, who is a regular of this competition. This is the team’s first victory in the national-level competition. 

Kamimura Gakuen Junior High School beat Ehime FC 4-2, seeking their fourth title after 9 years. In an enticing match with 7 goals, FC Vitoria beat Tochigi Soccer Club 5-2.

Tokushima Lateesha and Sfida Setagaya won their matches shutting-out their opponents. Kobe FC vs. Oita went into the penalty shoot-out, and three Kobe’s players successfully scored and got the victory. JFA Academy Fukushima, who lost the final last year, defeated Jumonji with 4 goals and started the competition positively. 

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

The 21st All Japan Youth (U-15) Women's Championship

23 July 2016 - 30 July 2016
J-GREEN Sakai (Sakai/Osaka)
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