The 11th Japan Beach Soccer Championship will kick off on Friday 14 October in Ginowan City, Okinawa, deciding the best beach soccer team in Japan. Let’s take a look at the previous championship before three days of exciting tournament.

Sixteen teams including hosting-city team took part in the 10th Championship held in Akashi City, Hyogo and were divided into  groups of four teams to compete in the first round (round-robin format), where the top team in the each group advanced to the knock-out stage.

Four teams got through to the final round—Sol Mar Praia Okinawa (Kyushu 1/Okinawa), Tokyo Liquids BS (Kanto 1/Tokyo), Dorsal Kitakyushu (Kyushu 3/Fukuoka), and Praia Yamaguchi (Yamaguchi/Chugoku).

The first semifinal saw the meeting of two previous championship winners, Lequios (2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014) and Sol Mar Pria (2010, 2012). In the 2nd minute, Sol Mar Pria opened the scoring with goalkeeper TERUKINA Shingo’s shot, but Lequios equalised from a superbly taken free kick by TABATA Teruki in the 5th minute. The thrilling contest went back and forth with both teams having stretches whereby they controlled the match. However, the game could not be decided after regulation and extra time. At the end, Lequios came on top of Sol Mar Pria by winning the penality shoot-out and earned the ticket to the final.

The second semifinal between Dorsole and Pracia saw both teams going on a goal spree. Dorsole took the early initiative by OBA Takaaki’s opener, but soon it was equalised by SAKAGUCHI Kento’s goal. Then, Dorsole scored the go-ahead goal and added another to take a 3-1 lead. Dorsole controlled the match, while tallying their scoring to 5 goals, but Pracia came back strong and cut Dorsole’s advantage to merely a single point. However, Dorsole defended tenaciously and did not allow Pracia to score the equaliser in the final minutes of the game. They won a breathtaking contest 5-4.

The final was the meeting between Lequios, aiming for a ‘three-peat’, and Dorsole, advancing to the final for the first time in their franchise history. Unlike our expectation, Dorsole dominated against the previous title winner. They opened their scoring with MIYAMOTO Hikaru’s shot in the 3rd minute and added to their scoreline from a header taken by AKAGUMA Takuya in the 10th minute. Furthermore, Akaguma’s second goal extended their lead to 3-0 in the beginning of the second period, and now Dorsole firmly took control of the match.

However, seemingly a decided match did not end here. Lequios, showing their pride as six-time champions, scored back-to-back goals by GOTO Takasuke and TABATA Teruki and cut their deficit to merely a point. Both teams added a single goal in the second half and it ended 4-3 in favour of Dorsole.

Lequios kept showing their strength in the final period and scored a much-awaited equaliser by Goto. The exciting contest could not be decided in the regular time and went to extra period. Having the momentum of tying the match, some may thought Lequios was going to win their third consecutive titles. However, it was Dorsole who finally put an end to the exciting match. In the 39th minute, Oba forcibly slotted the much-awaited, go-ahead goal, while falling down into the ground. This was the only goal after regulation. Dorsole won their first championship title and became the top beach soccer team in Japan.

Akaguma who was deeply moved by their first championship title later commented: ‘it’s been my goal for the past four years to win this championship. We were able to win this title, since we fought together as a united team, including all the staff members and supporters.’

This year's championship will be held between Friday 14 and Sunday 16 October at the Tropical Beach in Ginowan City, Okinawa.

11th Japan Beach Soccer Championship

2016-10-14(Fri.)-16(Sun.)
Okinawa Prefecture/Ginowan Tropical Beach

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