Pick-up Match

Kobe Koryo Gakuen High School　2-1（1-0, 1-1）Ozu High School

The Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League WEST had the 14th matchday on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September, as Kobe Koryo Gakuen High School (Hyogo) and Ozu High School (Kumamoto) played against each other on 24.

HIRAOKA Kazunori, coach of Ozu High School, mentioned this match between two teams stagnating near the bottom of the standings as “the important one to change the fate for potential relegation.” In order to squeeze out three points of this contest, Hiraoka’s squad came out aggressively for a goal early in the match. The first highlight took place in the 8th minute. Ozu, whose game plan was to attack the flanks with vertical long balls, took the ball up on the right to feed the ball toward Kobe Koryo’s goal, which NODA Kazumasa shot only to see it go off target.

On the other hand, Kobe Koryo matched Ozu’s intensity with tenacious defence and counterattacks. In the 43rd minute, after taking the ball in their end, the Kobe side kicked it forward and TAKAKUBO Yuhi left defenders behind to pick it up and feed it into the front of goal. There MURAYAMA Ken rushed in unguarded but Ozu’s goalkeeper MAEDA Yuya showed an outstanding save. A few minutes later, Kobe Koryo’s IMAI Ryota ignited another counterattack with his vertical pass on the right flank. Takakubo again shock off his defender and sent a cross to TAKEMURA Fumiaki, who opened the scoring with his volley. Takemura later reflected on his goal saying “Last time we played against Ozu, it was so disappointing that I couldn’t do anything. So I was determined so strongly to pay back today.”

The second half saw Ozu raise their offensive intensity even higher for the equaliser. In the 54th minute, TANAKA Takumi’s cross was met by FUJIYAMA Yuiku and found the back of the net, but a moment later the play was judged as off-side. Kobe Koryo survived through the tough stretch with their defenders showing great efforts. As KINO Goki said later “As long as we kept defending, we believed a chance would come for us,” one minute into the additional time, substitute TATEIWA Genki took advantage of Ozu’s failed clearance and scored the second goal for Kobe Koryo. Immediately after that, Ozu tallied one back after a penalty kick attempt, Kobe Koryo heard the last whistle with the lead maintained and grabbed three points.

Coaches' and Players' Comments

TANI Junichi, Coach (Kobe Koryo Gakuen High School)
Winning and losing today’s match would have put us at two totally different places. We studied the opponents thoroughly to get three points today. When we played against Ozu last time, we focused on possessing the ball. But highly talented Ozu offensive end outplayed us. So today we focused on defending tenaciously to steal one goal through counterattacks. The opening goal was exactly what we aimed. The penalty kick in the end was something we should have stopped it from happening, but overall we could play this match just as we wanted by improving the weaknesses we found in the first half of the season for this second half.

KINO Goki (Kobe Koryo Gakuen High School)
Today’s match was between two teams sitting near the bottom of the league. A loss here would have got us even closer to relegation, so everybody had the mindset that we would not allow ourselves to lose. Ozu are the ones we lost to 3-0 in the first half of the season, but now in the second half we are different. Now we don’t force to connect passes from the back and we simply clear the ball after we rob it. The early part of the season was somewhat difficult, but we are obligated to keep our place in this Premier League to ourselves on behalf of the players who follow us. The key to the win we found before the match was a quick vertical attack, and we could do just that today. In the second half, we haven’t lost except one. We want to take this rhythm over to next matchday.

HIRAOKA Kazunori, Coach (Ozu High School)
We were playing not so badly early, but we were a little too uptight. The way we allowed the goal was bad. If you allow a goal in the additional time of both halves, no wonder the end result will be like this. In sports, they say there are no unreasonable losses while there are unreasonable wins, and this certainly applies to us today. Simply we weren’t good enough. From now, we need to raise the level of ourselves. There is no time for us to be down. We have to refresh our minds and go for next.

SUGIYAMA Naohiro (Ozu High School)
In the first half, we were able to get close to their goal, but we couldn’t pick up the second balls and deflections. So that prevented us from executing second and third attacks and finishing our offence with shots. In the second half, we were able to create good chances, but we couldn’t score when we were supposed to score and we dug a hole for ourselves. Getting three points here would have given us a better chance to stay in the league, but we lost and it’s very disappointing. Next match will be the last match before the All-Japan High School Soccer Championship Regional Qualifiers, so we want to play as one for the win.

Other Matches

Nagoya Grampus U18　1-1（1-1, 0-0）Oita Trinita U-18
Vissel Kobe U-18　2-4（0-4, 2-0）Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC Youth
Cerezo Osaka U-18　3-0（1-0, 2-0）Higashi Fukuoka High School
Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18　0-2（0-1, 0-1）Gamba Osaka Youth

Nagoya Grampus U18 (Aichi) struggling to get out of relegation scare ended up with a draw to Oita Trinita U-18 (Oita) after a see-saw battle.

League leaders Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC Youth (Hiroshima) took the challenge by Vissel Kobe U-18 (Hyogo) on the road, and fiercely scored four in the first half after AKEHI Tomohiro scored the opener only one minute into the match. Although giving away two goals in the second half, Hiroshima maintained the lead and kept the no-loss streak since the 6th matchday alive.

Third-placed Cerezo Osaka U-18 (Osaka) defeated Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka) 3-0 to move up one spot. The contest between Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18 (Kyoto) and Gamba Osaka Youth (Osaka) saw Gamba score one goal each in both halves to extend their winning streak to three.

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