Prince Takamado All Japan Youth (U-18) Football League will be resumed on Saturday, 23 August.

EAST

Kashiwa Reysol U-18 (Chiba), new face on the League, has been in a first place since the end of the first half. Well-practiced flowing football is a team’s characteristic. The team has kept possessing and passing a ball for a long time in the opponent’s side and that’s why their play style has eased a burden, bringing a good stability on defense losing only 5 goals in 9 games since the opening. It won with consummate ease, proving its persistence as well in the match against Shimizu S-Pulse Youth (Shizuoka) in the 9th Sec. The team will be challenged by other teams in the second half, trying to make every effort to play the game they face, as its captain Nakayama Yuta said “We are the team aiming to be a professional football player. We will try to knock the pressure down."

Shimizu at a second place experienced a big change in the team. In the stoppage period, the assistant coach, Hiraoka Hiroaki replaced the head coach, Oenoki Katsumi, in the youth team following Oenoki’s assuming the head coach in the top team. What impacts will be brought in the team by changing of coaches in the middle of the season. Let’s watch closely how the team will play in games of the second half as well as a team’s ace striker, Kitagawa Koya who has just been recovered from injury and his condition.

Adding to them, teams belonging to All Japan High School Athlete Federation like Ryutu Keizai University Senior High School(Chiba) and Funabashi Municipal High School(Chiba), or Mitsubishi Yowa SC(Tokyo), the champion team of the adidas CUP 2014 The JAPAN Club Youth (U-18) Football Championship are expected to play for recovering from their setbacks.

WEST

Nagoya Grampus U-18 (Aichi), Cerezo Osaka U-18 (Osaka) and Gamba Osaka Youth have battled games for a first place.
Nagoya Grampus at a first place has made a demonstration of its stubborn defense that has had only 1 game losing multiple goals. The team has also been powerful when it possesses a ball, successfully scoring points by mainly Sakurai Subaru and Aoyama Hiroaki. The team has definitely little weak points in both offence and defense, as shown in comments like “We tried to control the game by keeping a ball, but faced the opponent’s control in the game against our will.” (Nakai Hideto, Vissel Kobe U-18 Hyogo) and “The team has focus in defense as well as physical and mental strength to seize and keep a ball.” (Morishige Junya, the head coach of Higashi Fukuoka High School, Fukuoka).

Cerezo Osaka at a second place is clutch team, winning four games by one point. The team has been trained to be able to keep running through whole the game, showing signs to get exhausted even at the end of the game. Maekawa Taiga and other his teammates participated in a top team’s training program made a contribution to gain victories for the team. Gamba Osaka at a third place has its ace striker who is ranked as a joint-top scorer in the league. Overcoming challenges in its defense will enable itself to reach higher place.

Adding to top 3, well-performed other teams will try to play catch-up. There will be attention focused on rollback plays by Fukuoka High School which won Inter-high School Festival (Football) this summer, and Vissel Kobe, the defending champion in the WEST, whose condition has been getting better and better since entering into stoppage period.