The 13th All-Japan Women’s Futsal Championship will kick off on 28 October in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The participating teams will compete for the title in the three-day tournament. As it gets underway, ITO Masanori, Japan Women's Futsal National Team's coach, talked about the outlook for the tournament.

There are so many teams that have accomplished positive outcomes in the past and that have young, talented players, and it’s hard to predict on which team will take the first-places in each group.

Group A is particularly difficult to foresee. One of the reasons is that you can’t really measure how good FC Kouyama Ladies are. Hokkaido is the host venue this year as well, and I feel that the host team have an edge. In fact, in January’s All-Japan youth futsal championship (U-15) in Hokkaido, three of the four teams that advanced to the semi-finals were from Hokkaido. They could really perform well when they play in Hokkaido.

LETIZIA FEMMINILE (Chugoku/Okayama) are an invincible team in the Chugoku area. Member of The Gang (Tokai1/Mie) are a team with ability as well, and especially their Ito sisters are intriguing presences. ITO Chisa, the older sister, kept scoring goals in the Tokai regional. The team have their style of play, so if they get the momentum, they have a chance to qualify through the first round.

Leograsta (Kansai2/Osaka) have some anxieties as SAKURADA Miku, who’s the ace player for the national team as well, had a broken bone in July, and they don’t have depth on their roster. Yet Sakurada, who’s now returned to action, and left-handed footballer UEMOTO Yuna aren’t players who can be stopped easily, and they still are one of the top teams in Group A. So it will come down to how they can overcome their difficulties..

In Group B, I think that SWH Ladies Futsal Club (Kansai3/Hyogo) and Viix Tokyo Ladies (Kanto1/Tokyo) are ahead of other teams. SWH have Japan’s best goalkeeper YAMAMOTO Ayaka while former national team player SAKATA Mutsumi is still going strong. They have struggled up until this point, but I hope they will show what they can do as the reigning champions. Veex have captured the title for five tournaments in a row when they were called as FUN Ladies, so they are a team who know how to win in this tournament. They have KICHIBAYASHI Chikage as their definite ace player and it’s a strength for them, too. Like with FC Kouyama, Safilva Colmillo (Hokkaido) are a team that you can’t put your eyes off of them.

The first game of Group C between arco-iris KOBE (Kansai1/Hyogo) and SAIKORO (Kanto2/Saitama) could be really a game to determine a final-four team. Yet the ability of Tokiwagi Gakuen High School (Tohoku2/Miyagi) are uncertain. Though they are focusing more on playing the regular football, but it’ll be interesting to see how much a team like that will be able to play on par against teams that mainly play futsal.

Some futsal versus football contrasts will be seen in Group D as well. The reigning runner-ups Fukui Maruoka Ruck (Hokushinetsu1/Fukui) are the favorite to advance to the semi-finals, but it’ll be worth noting how much FC ALEGRE CAMINHO (Kyushu/Saga), who have long-time history, will perform against them. Also, UNIAO Ladies (Tokai2/Aichi) have sufficient chances. MORIMOTO Yuko, their captain, understands the traits of futsal well and she’s a player who can guide her team to a positive direction. Depending on situations, this is a group that you might see close competitions.

This is a short -term tournament and it won’t be too astonishing which teams will win and lose. This is the first national championship since I took over as the coach for the Japan women’s national futsal team, so I’m looking forward to the opening of it and seeing which team will wind up capturing the title in the end.

13th All Japan Women's Futsal Tournament

2016-10-28(Fri.)～30(Sun.)
Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center

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