Day 2 of the 13th All Japan Women's Futsal Tournament was held on Saturday 29 October at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Four teams who advanced to the final round were determined after the 12 first-round matches were played on that day.

Group A leaders Leograsta (Kansai 2/ Osaka), who had won the first two matches, went head to head against second-placed FC Kouyama Ladies (Host/ Hokkaido) with the record of one win and one draw. Kouyama Ladies capped four goals in the second half in a tensed atmosphere. The home side kept out Leograsta on defence as well. At the end, they kept a clean sheet in all three group stage matches to take over top spot for the final round.

Group B also had a head-to-head contest between two unbeaten sides in the first two group stage matches: SWH Ladies Futsal Club (Kansai 3/ Hyogo) and Veex Tokyo Ladies (Kanto 1/ Tokyo). As Veex did not have a chance to advance to the final round only with a draw, they started a power play 10 minutes into the second half. But they gave away the ball, and SWH Ladies' AMISHIRO Anna found the back of the net in the end. Veex got back on level terms with TAKAGI Yumiko's last ditch equaliser, which sent her team equal on points and goal difference with SWH Ladies. The Tokyo side, however, missed a last four spot on total goals scored.

Arco-iris KOBE (Kansai 1/ Hyogo) proved how good they were in Group C, where there were two more matches left. After the Kobe side beat Own Goal (Hokushinetsu 2/ Toyama) 5-0 in the second fixture of the group, they thrashed Tokiwagi Gakuen High School (Tohoku/ Miyagi) 7-1 in the third one. Arco-iris KOBE finished the group stage with perfect 3-0 record which was achieved by Arco-iris only in this tournament, and moved on to the final round. Saikoro (Kanto 2/ Saitama), who lost to Arco-iris in the first match, moved up to second place with two consecutive wins.

Group D turned out to be hotly contested as three teams were levelled with six points. In the match between teams who won the first match - FC ALEGRE CMINHO (Kyushu/ Saga) and UNIAO Ladies (Tokai 2/ Aichi), the former won 3-1. Fukui Maruoka Ruck (Hokushinetsu 1/ Fukui), who had beaten Doraku (Shikoku/ Kagawa) 6-0 in the second match, saw off UNIAO Ladies 3-2. As a result, UNIAO Ladies advanced to the final round on goal difference (+1). Fukui Maruoka Ruck were eliminated in the group stage despite their runners-up feats in the past two championships.

The final day on Sunday 30 October has two semi-final matches and the final. The semi-finalists of the last tournament Kouyama Ladies take on defending champions SWH Ladies with their hope to play the first final match in their history. Arco-iris KOBE, looking for the title after two years of failure, meet tournament debutants UNIAO Ladies. It is a must-see whether either of the two past champions from Hyogo get back the title again or new tournament champions are born. The semi-finals will kick off at 10 a.m., while the final will start at 2 p.m.

Players' Comments

KASAKI Ikumi (FC Kouyama Ladies/ Hokkaido)
Our strength is defence, keeping a clean sheet throughout the tournament. We tried to defend well and hit on the break on counterattacks. We picked up our rhythm after scoring a goal in the second match against Member Of The Gang, so I thought it would be fine if we could get the opening goal in the Leograsta match. We are going out as a challenger in the semi-finals, but that fact that we have been able to reach the last four in two straight years proves that we are getting better. We want to go out to win it. The tournament is held in our prefecture Hokkaido. I want everyone to know how good Hokkaido teams are.

SUGANO Fuko (Tokiwagi Gakuen High School/ Miyagi)
It's the first time for Tokiwagi Gakuen High School to take part in this tournament. Other teams playing futsal daily are combining smoothly, and we couldn't keep up with them. Our stamina ran out in today's second match. Until when I was a junior high student, I used to play for Own Goal, who we played against in the first match. I've got emotional in that match, but at the same time, it's a kind of tough situation because I know everyone on that team. I got foot skills through futsal, so I want to take advantage of them in football as well.

MORIMOTO Yuko (UNIAO Ladies/ Aichi)
It's our first time taking part in this championship, so our goal was to reach the final round. The players who have an experience in playing at the national tournament are only me and the goalkeeper. We aimed to get through the group stage even with unrefined styles of play. I'm happy we made it. In the national league, we lost to Maruoka Ruck 3-2. We played a good game at that time but didn't win battles on the ball. Today, we managed to do that. But the two goals we gave up are something we need to reflect on. On Day 3, if we can play like today in terms of battles on the ball and winning attitude, it must lead to our future no matter what the results turn out to be. So we will do our best.

TAKAO Akari (Fukui Maruoka Ruck/ Fukui)
In our past two appearances, we had ended up in runners-up. This year, we tried to win the title just as third time lucky. I'm very disappointed we couldn't reach the final round. The first match (that we lost 2-0) was everything. We refreshed our mind after losing the first one and played in a good mood on Day 2. But it was too late. Playing a tournament, we knew the first match was important. The results reminded me of it once again. I've got a lot of regrets where I can’t help saying "I could've done it differently," but I consider this as our current state and work hard to become the Japan champions next year. I will watch the semi-finals and final tomorrow and try to imagine how we will play next year.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

Second-day Highlishts (10/29)

13th All Japan Women's Futsal Tournament

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

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