Pick Up Match

Gamba Osaka Youth（1st 1-0、2nd 1-3）Cerezo Osaka U-18

Coming off a month-long break, the premier league restarted with an “Osaka Derby” match between 2nd-placed Cerezo Osaka U-18 and 3rd-placed Gamba Osaka Youth. As enthusiastic crowd of 380 cheering from the stands, both clubs played hard in a heated contest.

Both clubs started attacking very aggressively early in the match, but it was Gamba Osaka who scored a goal first. At the 18th minute, Takagi Akito sent a pass to Yomesaka Shota who brought Gamba the first goal of the match. Cerezo Osaka also kept attempting to tie the match, but they lacked a decisive finish before the first half finished with a 1-0 lead by Gamba Osaka.

In the second half, Cerezo Osaka, reenergized by their head coach Okuma Yuji during the half time, started putting tougher defensive pressure up front. At the 49th minute, Maekawa Taiga passed the ball to Horie Daiki, who dribbled up on the right wing and sent a cross into the middle. Nishimoto Masataka received it and struck the equaliser. Cerezo’s offence did not stop there and continued moving up the ball quickly. Maekawa fired the go-ahead goal at the 59th with a feed from Sakamoto Masaki, and 9 minutes later, they effectively broke down Gamba’s defence again before Sakamoto scored to widen the lead. Meanwhile, Gamba Osaka started gearing up their attacks, backed up by the loud cheers by fans in the stands. At the 77th minute, Ichimaru Mizuki calmly took advantage of a penalty kick opportunity to make the score back to 3-2. Without wasting any minute after that, Gamba kept looking for another goal to tie the match. Cerezo Osaka, however, kept moving their feet to maintain their dominance and defended Gamba’s counter attacks. Finally the Osaka Derby between two hot teams in the standings heard its last whistle in favour of Cerezo Osaka.

Comments

UMEZU Hironari, Head Coach（Gamba Osaka Youth）
We started off trying to pick up the ball up early, and it was good that we got the first goal as we wanted, but we made many mistakes. We didn’t have enough shots, either, and now I think they didn’t let us play our football throughout the match. It is a new task for us to keep playing our football for 90 minutes even against a club like Cerezo Osaka.

YOMESAKA Shota（Gamba Osaka Youth）
About the goal I scored, I give half the credit to Akito (Takagi) who gave me the pass. That was a moment we could attack like how Gamba usually attack, which is to come up with a best way to attack the opponents’ goal situation to situation. After we got a goal, we turned a little passive against their attacks. It’s disappointing, but they played well, too. If we had controlled the ball more and created our rhythm, we could have played a better match.

OKUMA Yuji, Head Coach (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
We played ok in the first half, but when we had the accident, we allowed a goal. During the half time, I told my players how important it was to maintain poise when we were trailing from behind. As a result, we could turn the match around, but we lost goals when our focus got off. We have to keep working on that. In short, it will give us confidence to dominate a match against a very skilled team like Gamba Osaka Youth though.

MAEKAWA Taiga（Cerezo Osaka U-18）
After the first half, the coach gave us a pep talk during the half time, and that pumped us up. We got into the second half with good mood. (Speaking of the go-ahead goal) They gave us a good feed, and there was just a defender and me, so I thought I could attack myself. I knew that was going in when I fired it, and it just went in so I was happy. We lost the last match against Gamba Osaka Youth, so this match we had to win no matter what. I am just happy that we won. During the break, I could practice together with the top team in their camp. That was a valuable experience for me, and it helped today.

Other Results

Toyama Daiichi High School　1-1（1st 1-0、2nd 0-1）　Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18
Higashi Fukuoka High School　5-1（1st 2-1、2nd 3-0）　Higashiyama High School
Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth　2-0（1st 2-0、2nd 0-0）　Vissel Kobe U-18
Kyoto Tachibana High School　1-3（1st 1-2、2nd 0-1）　Nagoya Grampus U18

Although Toyama Daiichi High School (Toyama) scored first, they had their home match tied by Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18 (Kyoto) in the second half and ended up with a 1-1 draw. Their first win of the season slipped away once again. Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka) exhibited quite a scoring spree with two goals in the first and three in the second against Higashiyama High School (Kyoto) for an easy win. Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth (Hiroshima) held Vissel Kobe U-18 (Hyogo) scoreless by defending the two-goal lead they got in the first half until the finish. Kyoto Tachibana High School (Kyoto) matched up well against the league-leading Nagoya Grampus U18 (Aichi), but after tying the match at one point during the match, they eventually allowed Aoyama Kagemasa to score two goals and the final result turned out to be a 1-3 loss. Nagoya still remain at the top of the standings.