The Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League is the top league competition for high school age players and the new season of this league will kick-off on 11 April. For the opening, several matches will be held only at a one venue. 20 teams will be divided in two leagues of EAST and WEST, and in each league, the teams will play in a round-robin tournament in their home and away venues. Champions from both leagues will move on to the final which will be held on 12 December. Prior to the beginning of new season, this article reviews last year’s League.

For the EAST of the Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League, Shimizu S-pulse Youth from Shizuoka boosted the beginning of the competition. With their aggressive play style, the team got five consecutive wins scoring three goals in each of its opening five matches. On the other hand, Kashiwa Reysol U-18 from Chiba attacked its opponents with intensive possession football style and chased Shimizu very closely. At the 9th Section, Kashiwa took the top spot by beating the Shimizu and kept earning points. Throughout the season, Kashiwa experienced consecutive defeat for only once. They won the league for the first time with a 10 point difference between them and the second team of the EAST league.

Unlike the EAST league where Kashiwa was far ahead of the other teams, in the West several teams had opportunity to win the league towards the end. There were four teams who competed to get the victory at the final Section of the regional league: from Vissel Kobe U-18 from Hyogo, the top team to Nagoya Grampus U18 from Aichi, in 4th. While Kobe drew the match against Kyoto Tachibana High School from Kyoto, the second team Cerezo Osaka U-18 from Osaka beat Higashiyama High School from Kyoto with 3-0. At the very end of the league, Cerezo Osaka U-18 were the top of the WEST league, fending off Vissel Kobe U-18.

Cerezo Osaka kept increasing the morale of the team even in the championship match against Kashiwa Reysol U-18 from EAST. They pressured Kashiwa in a high position from the beginning of the match blocking their passing work, which was one of their strengths. Cerezo Osaka simply kept aiming at the Kashiwa’s goal by stealing the ball in the middle and moving it quickly to front players. On 60 minutes, Cerezo Osaka took the lead by TAKADA Kazuya’s goal and kept attacking Kashiwa with their speed which had been trained throughout summer. The match finished with 1-0 and Cerezo Osaka U-18 won the League.

It has been five years since this League established. JFA has worked to make the league style more popular based on its belief that “official matches make both players and coaches grow”. If they have to keep working for a victory by playing over a long period of time, not only by a match, the team are expected to have more serious attitude to improve themselves with a longer perspective. JFA expects U-18 players to improve their levels by offering a good playing environment where they can play in a longer perspective with high quality as a player and as a team. This is not thought to happen in short-term football events. By experiencing long-term based league matches, U-18 teams and players are encouraged to change for better. For this season, please check out the “process” of their development as well as the league matches of each occasion.