The 2nd National Senior (Over 40) Football Tournament had the last day of the event, two semi-finals and the final, at J-GREEN Sakai in Osaka on Monday 3 November, a national holiday, and Aichi Selection Masters Ov40 (Tokai 1 / Aichi) became the champions.

Semi-Finals
Okinawa Senior Selection   1-0(1st 0-0, 2nd 1-0)   Mie Masters
Aichi Selection Masters Ov40   1-0(1st 1-0, 2nd 0-0)   Tatebayashi Senior 40SC

The semi-final match between Aichi Selection and Tatebayashi Senior 40SC (Kanto 1 / Gunma) saw a scoring scene, which turned out to be the only one in the game, three minutes after the kick-off. Aichi Selection’s Tomura Masahiro went up the right flank and fed a cross inside, which was headed in by rushing Iwaki Hiroyuki. Aichi Selection kept controlling the match and survived the come-back efforts by Tatebayashi to finish the match with 1-0 win and notched a spot in the final.

The other semi-final had Mie Masters (Tokai 2 / Mie) and Okinawa Senior Selection (Kyushu / Okinawa) battle against each other. In the seventh minute, Mie had Yamanaka Toshiki shoot a chip shot which went just off target over the crossbar. In the second half, Okinawa started their attacks. In the 21st minute Oshiro Susumu’s shot went only inches off by the right post, and one minute later Takara Kiyokazu left two defenders with his dribble and fired his own. The shot beautifully went into the goal and became the match-winner to give Okinawa 1-0 victory.

Final
Okinawa Senior Selection   0-2 (1st 0-0, 2nd 0-2)   Aichi Selection Masters Ov40

The final started approximately 90 minutes after the end of the semi-final. It was Aichi Selection that grabbed the tempo of the match early. Tomura showed his superb quickness to move to the sides to receive the ball and initiated attacks. Okinawa tried to block those side attacks by making a substitution but remained to be the receiving end of such attacks as the shots fired after a cornerkick in the 15th minute. Finally four minutes after the start of the second half, Aichi Selection finally scored the first goal of the match when Tochishita Masashi put a loose ball from a freekick into the back of the net. Two minutes later, Okinawa made another substitution and added another striker up front to accelerate their offence. But Aichi Selection did not slow down their quick attacks. Then in the 28th minute, Aichi’s Tomura came out of the pack in a counter attack and ran his way up to hit the right corner of the net. That second goal secured the Aichi Selection’s lead all the way to the end, and they finally won the championship.

After the final, there was a photo shoot where players of both teams got together for one big group picture, and celebrated each other’s great effort.

Click here for the detail of the matches (Japanese version only)

Comments

KOBAYASHI Masayuki, Head Coach(Aichi Selection Masters Ov40 / Aichi)
We really wanted this title, so I am extremely happy. This past year we have worked hard together. We can seldom have everybody at one practice, so we had to rely on individual workout when needed, and when we got together, we had practices together. Then here we were today. There has been some pressure on us, but we kept trying to play our style of football for one year. Everyone knew what each one of us could do and couldn’t do, and what others could do and couldn’t. So that helped us to get better as a team. Not only the final but also matches before that were very tough, but you can’t have an opportunity like this very often to play against best teams in each region. That fact motivated our players and it turned out to be a very fulfilling tournament.

IWAKI Hiroyuki (Aichi Selection Masters Ov40 / Aichi)
I am happy to win the championship. It was big that we could score when the course of the match was really tough. We (usually) tend to get tired when we focus too much on attacking. Then we run out of time with a score being tied, and we end up with a draw. But today we could score in that kind of situation. The penalty shootout is not the way games like this are supposed to end, so we told ourselves to keep scoring one goal at a time and keep winning. Today we wanted to keep attacking and win, so I am glad that we did that. In the first match against T.Dreams, we didn’t lose to them, so that’s when we could figure out how to play in these matches. We have a good striker, but this time we didn’t rely too much on him and all of us tried to score. I think that led us to this win.

ONAGA Takashi, Head Coach (Okinawa Senior Selection / Okinawa)
We spent as long as six months to build this team, so we could get this good result because of that. In the end, our effort wasn’t enough, but overall we could show what we have trained. In April we selected this roster and started working as a team. We worked together with other players in their twenties and thirties, and we have focused on nothing but this tournament. It’s very hot in Okinawa, but we kept practicing to become capable of running all games long. Our opponents in the final, Aichi Selection, were the best teams we have ever played against, in terms of not only skills but also stamina. We accept the fact that they were better than us, and I am also satisfied with the result. We still have some unfinished business here, so we want to try again next year.

OSHIRO Susumu (Okinawa Senior Selection / Okinawa)
I wanted to win. I was thinking that the key point of the final would be the second half when we attacked on the windward. We changed our system and players to attack, but it didn’t work how we wanted. Even so, I’m proud that Okinawan team got through to the final in the national tournament. It brought us a confidence that “we can do it.” I think we did a great job as a whole. We could communicate with lots of players in this tournament where lots of football fanatics gathered. (The first round opponents) Hiroshima Shijukara Soccer Club players cheered us until the end. I felt our connections expanded through football, and I’m happy that we could fight out together as a team.

JFA-TV

The 2nd All Japan Seniors (over 40) Football Tournament

Sat. 1 November - Mon.Holiday 3 November 2014
J-GREEN Sakai/Osaka

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