On Friday 28 December, the Prince Takamado Trophy JFA 30th U-15 Japan Football Championship had its final match at Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka in Tokyo, where FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa (Kanto3/Tokyo) came out of the contest with their first national championship in four years, the third time in team history.

Final

FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa 2-0 (1-0, 1-0) Zweigen Kanazawa U-15

It was FC Tokyo Fukagawa who took the initiative early in the match. They dodged the intense defensive pressure applied by Zweigen Kanazawa U-15 (Hokushinetsu1/Kanazawa) by effectively utilising the width of the pitch and quickly connecting the ball. With the help of the tailwind blowing from their end, they were able to feed fast passes to their two quick-footed strikers upfront. In the sixth minute, MOGI Hideto Ifeanyi shook off a defender on the right flank before sending a cross, which the left fullback YASUDA Kojiro almost put home at the near side. Two minute later, NOZAWA Leon created an opportunity in the left flank to finish off the play with a shot on target.

In the 18th minute, Mogi connected with a cross ball in front of Kanazawa’s goal to take back-to-back shots but fell short from scoring the goal. However, just one minute later, their offensive efforts came to fruition. It was Mogi who once again left a defender behind in the right flank before composedly sending the ball into the box, allowing Nozawa to tap in the ball into the net to give FC Tokyo Fukagawa the opening goal.

Kanazawa struggled against FC Tokyo Fukagawa’s aggressive approach towards the ball while the strong headwind did not help them, either. In the second half, however, they slowly gained their rhythm and managed to show better ball movements even against the opponent’s fierce defence. One of the two strikers, FUKUDA Ryo, made many efforts to drop down to the midfield area to receive balls and helped his teammates make the overlap to join the attack. In contrary to the first half where they gained only one corner kick opportunity, they had five of them in the second half, and three consecutive corner kicks from the 58th minute had Kanazawa very close to tying the match.

Despite seeing Kanazawa taking control of the match, FC Tokyo Fukagawa showcased a solid performance in defence, especially in the central area, to keep their lead intact. In the 74th minute, their patience gets paid off, as Mogi scored a superb shot off a counter attack to extend their lead to two goals.

The goal reenergised the FC Tokyo Fukagawa side and their pressure against the opponents intensified again. Even with just two substations, all the players kept running all around the pitch until they heard the final whistle, prevailing at the same final stage where they shed disappointment tears a year ago.

Coaches and Players' Comments

OHTA Masato, Coach (FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa)
Last year, we experienced a huge disappointment, so I told our players not to let our guards down even when playing with the advantage. We faced some tough stretches in the second half, but our players fought with great patience. I think we played a bit too hard in the first half and ran out of gas later on, making it tough for us to respond to the opponent’s high-quality offence. Until the start of the summer break, we were really an inconsistent team who lost matches after big wins, but I think we have improved greatly over the year.

MOGI Hideto Ifeanyi (FC Tokyo U-15 Fukagawa)
My partner upfront has scored a lot already, so I really wanted to score at this final. I have prepared all year for this moment, so I was committed to score that goal no matter what. In this tournament, I learned the importance of being united as a team. Our team came together to play in behalf of the third-graders who couldn’t make the roster and that resulted in this good outcome. I personally have changed a lot through this year and I have become more compassionate to others. I think that was transparent on how I delivered the passes to my teammates today. Winning the Prince Takamado Trophy has been my goal since I was a first grader, so I think I was able to wrap up my high school career in a good fashion.

TERANAKA Katsunori, Coach (Zweigen Kanazawa U-15)
Our opponents showcased solid techniques and strengths that forced us on the defensive end for a long stretch. Perhaps the players were feeling the pressure more than we have observed from the outside. However, we did manage to play with a good rhythm in the second half. The fact that we made it this far was a great achievement, but more than anything, how much our players have improved over the course is what matters the most. I feel like the work put in by our players over the three years was on full display and I felt the potential for their future growth as well.

FUNO Yusei (Zweigen Kanazawa U-15)
The players of FC Tokyo Fukagawa were all very skilful, and as expected, we faced a very difficult match. We weren’t able to attack at all when we last faced them in the summer, and we played very passively in our match today as well. However, we did manage to move the ball around well in the early minutes and the closing minutes of the match, so I feel like we have improved since our last encounter. We are glad that we were able to achieve our goal of reaching the final. After enduring a 0-7 loss against Cerezo Osaka U-15 at the JAPAN Club Youth Football Championship during the summer has led us to this deep run at this tournament, so we hope to feed off of this result and earn better results in our next competition.

Prince Takamado Trophy JFA 30th U-15 Japan Football Championship

Tournament Dates: Sat. 22 - Fri. 28 December 2018
Venue:
1st Round - Quarterfinals @ Maebashi Football Center/ Maebashi Sogo Undo Park (Gunma), J-GREEN Sakai (Osaka)
Semi-Finals - Final @ Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka (Tokyo)

Tournament Information