The 18th All Japan Youth Women’s Football Tournament get underway

The JOC Junior Olympic Cup 18th All Japan Youth Women's Football Tournament began on Saturday 3 January at J-GREEN Sakai as eight matches of the first round got underway.

Pickup Match 1

AS Elfen Saitama Mari（Kanto4／Saitama）6-1（1st 3-1, 2nd 3-0）Aosaki Soccer Club Hanako Clover’s（Chugoku／Hiroshima）

The contest between AS Elfen Saitama Mari (Kanto 4/Saitama) and Aosaki Soccer Club Hanako Clover’s (Chugoku/Hiroshima) saw actions early. In the 3rd minute, after Elfen Saitama Mari broke through the right side, Sato Fuka opened the score. In the 16th, Nagashima Sara tapped in a loose ball from her fellow’s shot to give her side another goal. While Aosaki SC with their head coach’s passionate coaching given erased a gap to one goal with Takashima Ayane’s goal in the 25th, Elfen Saitama Mari Sato Moe’s goal ripped apart the opponents six minutes later to end the first half.

The players of Aosaki SC, striving for a goal, said to each other “Let’s get into the box without hesitation” before starting the second half. Just after the break, however, Elfen Saitama Mari converted a chance into another goal. In the 43rd and 58th minutes, Nishiyama Yuka scored goals to expend her side’s lead. Against Elfen Saitama Mari creating chances from sides, Aosaki SC tried to come back after winning the ball by working together but were not able to convert. In the 74th, Nagashima’s vertical cross went into the opposing goal to make it 6-1. Elfen Saitama Mari, capping 21 shots, won the contest and advanced to the second round.

Match detail (Japanese version only)

Pickup Match 2

Yokosuka Seagulls JOY (Kanto 6/Kanagawa)   0-2 (1st 0-0, 2nd 0-2)   Albirex Niigata Ladies U-18 (Hokushinetsu/Niigata)

Yokosuka Seagulls JOY (Kanto 6/Kanagawa) went on aggressive attacks early on and their players fired shots against Albirex Niigata Ladies U-18 (Hokushinetsu/Niigata). While Yokosuka Seagulls built up their offence with short passes, Albirex Niigata made defensive efforts helping out each other not to allow a goal. With both teams backed by their fans who visited the site from afar, the score remained at 0-0 until the end of the first half.

Yokosuka Seagulls had the ball in the net first in the second half, but it was called an offside. On the other hand, after Albirex Niigata kept opponents quiet despite giving away the momentum in the first half, centreback Ikeda Reina headed in an opener from a corner kick in the 56th minute. Sub Chino Nanami, sent on in the second half, added a goal after two minutes. Albirex Niigata had some situations where Yokosuka Seagulls tried to rally back with plenty of run around the field and came close, but the players threw their body to keep the ball out, and the match ended at 2-0. As Albirex Niigata converted both of two shots they attempted into goals, they got through to the second round.

Match detail (Japanese version only)

Comments

SANO Yuki, Head Coach (Albirex Niigata Ladies U-18)
Our goal is to win the match in 80 minutes or even in the penalty shootout, so I said to my players that “Chances will come. Get well-prepared. You get in trouble if you lose an opening goal.” Because of snow, it’s been a while since we played on a pitch. We had some difficulty in terms of the sense of players real matches and the amount of run, but the players got used to it as they communicated with each other. Our team lost in the quarter-finals in the last two years. I always say to the players we will reach the last four and play on the tournament’s last day.

KATO Nozomi (Aosaki Soccer Club Hanako Clover’s/Hiroshima)
Our play didn’t get through. We wanted to possess the ball and finish it but couldn’t make it at the last moment. In the first half, we had lots of time to keep the ball so we needed better scoring ability. When we defended, we only looked at the ball and weren’t able to catch up with the opposing third player. At this tournament, we found the level of our teams is still not good enough, so we will look for more things to improve and practice harder.

NAGANO Katsuyuki, Head Coach (Yokosuka Seagulls JOY/Kanagawa)
In the first half, as we moved the ball, we played football as we wanted. (During the half-time) I told my players to continue that and get a goal in the second half, but we failed to take unguarded shots at the last moment. My players, who had aimed at the national tournament since they were in junior high school, finally got to the national stage. I told my players to show their ability even when they got uptight, and I was very excited to see them playing. The result didn’t come out well, but I hope we can link the experience of this tournament to the next for example players under this category also aim the national tournament.

IKEDA Reina (Albirex Niigata Ladies U-18/Niigata)
As we were frustrated with the last year’s result, we played aggressively from the beginning by uniting our hope together. I think we kept the other side from scoring goal, calling out loud each other when somebody makes a mistake. Having made up mind for scoring goal from corner kick, I always said to myself “got to score this time”, every time we have a corner kick. Usually playing as a defender, I am very happy about scoring a goal. Actually I felt it raised our team spirit calling out after scoring goal. For the second round game, I hope we can score opener early in the game and calling out each other without hesitating just like today.

JFA-TV

1st Round Eight Matches - Highlights

 JOC Junior Olympic Cup The 18th All Japan Youth Women's Football Tournament

Sat. 3 January - Wed. 7 January 2015
Osaka/J-GREEN Sakai

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