The Empress's Cup JFA 40th Japan Women's Football Championship started on Saturday 3 November, and eight fixtures of the first-round took place at multiple locations nationwide.

Pickup Match1

JFA Academy Fukushima (Tokai/Shizuoka) 1-0 (1-0, 0-0) Chifure AS Elfen Saitama (Nadeshiko League 2nd Division/Saitama)

The first match at Fujieda Sports Complex Park saw Chifure AS Elfen Saitama from the second division of the Nadeshiko League taking the initiative early, while JFA Academy Fukushima fought back with their offence led by the tall forward SHIROWA Reina.

It was JFA Academy Fukushima who scored the opening goal. In the 33rd minute, Shirowa delivered a through ball upfront, allowing ENDO Jun to break through and take on the goalkeeper one-on-one. Endo calmly dribbled passed the opposing goalkeeper and slotted the ball into the net.

The second half saw AS Elfen adding more pressure upfront to equalise the match, as they broke down the JFA Academy Fukushima defence with their side-attacks but struggled to level the match as they lacked quality in their plays at the final third. In the 69th minute, they applied numbers in their attack to break into the penalty area, but TAJIMA Minori’s shot was denied by the opposing defenders twice. In the following corner kick, MATSUOKA Sayuri made a diving effort to head the ball flicked by ARAKAWA Eriko, but JFA Academy Fukushima’s ITO Megumi blocked the shot right at the goal line.

Although they were missing four players who were away for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Uruguay 2018, JFA Academy Fukushima survived through the intense offence of AS Elfen to come out of the match with a 1-0 victory to clinch their third straight second-round appearance of the Cup. Coach GAYA Eiji said after the match, “We were able to show our toughness to resist giving away a goal.”

Pickup Match2

Fujieda Junshin High School (Tokai/Shizuoka) 4-0 (2-0, 2-0) Okayama Sakuyo High School (Chugoku/Okayama)

The second match featured the same matchup from the All Japan High School Women's Football Championship final, as Okayama Sakuyo High School squared off against Fujieda Junshin High School.

Sakuyo took the initiative of the match as they threatened Fujieda Junshin’s goal in the early minutes. TAKUNO Monami and ARAKAWA Kurumi both struck the cross bar with their shots taken on the fourth and 11th minute respectively. First grader OKAMOTO Ako responded to a through ball delivered in the 14th minute, as she took on the goalkeeper one-on-one, but the opposing goalkeeper did well to close down the gap and denied her attempt at goal. Another shot was denied by the wood frame as Takuno struck the post in the 15th minute.

While many thought that it was only a matter of time for Sakuyo to score the opening goal, but it was Fujieda Junshin who captured the goal first in the 25th minute. An early cross delivered by IKEGUCHI Kyoko on the right flank was beautifully met by OHARA Ranna’s header. After converting their first opportunity of the match, Fujieda Junshin went onto extend their lead in the 38th minute, when KANEKO Mayu capitalised on Ikeguchi’s cross, sending the match into halftime with a two-goal lead.

With the two-goal advantage, Fujieda Junshin composedly controlled the second half. NOJIMA Ayami scored two goals late, one in the 84th minute out of a scramble in the box and the other in the 86th minute off a feed from YANASE Funa, to move her side further ahead. A shot by ISE Satsuki of Sakuyo once again struck the cross bar in the 88th minute. Fujieda Junshin High School with enthusiastic support from the home crowed won the match 4-0 to advance to the second round where Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara (Nadeshiko Div.1/Kanagawa) awaits.

Coach and Players' Comments

ENDO Jun (JFA Academy Fukushima)
Before I scored the goal, there was a disappointing moment where I couldn’t take advantage of the cross delivered from Shirowa. She gave me another opportunity and this time it was a perfect delivery, so I was committed to score this time. I am proud of the fact that I played at an international stage and came back with the championship. That was a very good result but at the same time I stayed humble and I was able to have another fresh start. We will face NIPPON TV BELEZA at the second round in two weeks, and they are the team I hope to play in the future. We played them last year and it ended up with a very disappointing result. This year we will keep playing our style of football and try not to be outplayed.

ARAKAWA Eriko (Chifure AS Elfen Saitama)
Although we were fully aware that the first match of the tournament has a very unique difficulty to it, but we still conceded the opening goal. We couldn’t score when we had a good rhythm in our attacks, and we couldn’t seem to pick up the momentum later on. We faced high school players, but I didn’t feel any difficulties in playing against them. We utilised the space in the flanks effectively to create many chances, but the goal didn’t come easily to us. Probably it means that we weren’t good enough. We will try against next year.

OHARA Ranna (Fujieda Junshin High School)
When I scored the opening goal, I made a good eye-contact with Ikeguchi, and I ran to the goal anticipating for the ball. She delivered a perfect ball, so I just had to tap it in. We have worked on the early crosses for a while, so I am glad that we were able to execute it in the match. Sakuyo is an opponent we may face at the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament, so we didn’t want to lose to them as same high schoolers. We lost to them in Ise, so I am glad that we could pay back this time.

IKEDA Hiroko, Coach (Okayama Sakuyo High School)
We were expecting the match to play out with us playing in a passive role. Our inability to finish was evident, and I think we were being satisfied with just finishing our plays with a shot. If we could have created more situations with numerical advantage and gave more options to our plays, we might have been able to score a goal that could have changed the outcome of the match. To a certain degree you have to live with weakened defence when you apply numbers in offence, but I feel like we could have stopped our opponents from scoring the third and fourth goal. We will now move on to prepare for the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament.

Empress’s Cup JFA 40th Japan Women’s Football Championship

Tournament Dates:Sat. 3 November 2018 - Tue. 1 January 2019
【1st Round】Sat. 3 & Sun. 4 November 2018
【2nd Round】Sat. 24 & Sun. 25 November 2018
【3rd Round】Sat. 1 & Sun. 2 December 2018
【Quarterfinals】Sat. 22 December 2018
【Semi-Finals】Sat. 29 December 2018
【Final】Tue. 1 January 2019

Tournament Information