On Saturday 23 August and Sunday 24 August, the Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League West will hold its week 10 games. Kyoto Tachibana High School will face Higashiyama High School in “Kyoto Derby”. “As I am getting used to the play speed of the league, I want to play as much as I can” said IWASAKI Yuto, Kyoto Tachibana High School and expressed his willingness to win. Having been defeated by Higashiyama High School in the opening match, they are all eager to make long-waited victory of this game.

Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18 (Kyoto) will meet Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth (Hiroshima) in the home. Although the original target was to become champion but currently struggling in 7th place, Kyoto Sanga is going to make recovery taking advantage of Okugawa Masaya, co-top runner of score ranking. On the other hand, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, ranking forth, is not fully satisfied with the game contents as Shiraoka Timothy saying “It seemed the number of scoring goal is less and many unnecessary goals were taken.” Both teams are trying to make it a turning point by winning the game.

Eighth-placed Toyama Daiichi High School (Toyama) will challenge top-ranked
Nagoya Grampus U18 (Nagoya). Toyama Daiichi has been had hard time in this season so far but first grade players like Kubo Yoshiya,Minamida Naoki, etc. become prominent after the qualifiers of Inter High School Sports Festival and giving momentum to the club. Nagoya is all set for the game by holding detailed scouting to make a good start. They aim to keep the top spot by adding three points for this week.

Cerezo Osaka U-18, chasing Nagoya by one point, will take up Higashi Fukuoka High School. Having accumulated points without difficulty, some of Cerezo Osaka’s key players, Nakahara Junya, etc. are feared to be sidelined. Higashi Fukuoka won the Inter High School Sports Festival recently by excellent performance of the strong forward players like Masuyama Asahi, etc. Keeping the momentum for winning, the question is can they narrow the point difference with upper-ranked clubs.

［Pick-up Match of the Week 10 in WEST］
Vissel Kobe U-18 vs Gamba Osaka Youth

Two clubs, aiming to stimulate latter half of the season, will be playing against each other. They were slumping in the bottom of the league as the prediction of Noda Satoru, Head Coach, came true. He predicted as saying “It will be not easy to play this season because there will be much attention to our club unlike last year with almost no attention at all”. But they were gradually making recovery to sixth place now after come back of injured key players. Still “5” points behind third-placed Gamba Osaka Youth (Osaka), Vissel Kobe is in the position good enough for making recovery.Gamba Osaka has been part of battling for upper position thanks to aggressive play style as Yomesaka Shota saying “our strength is to defend aggressively and quickly switch to the offense”. Takagi Akito, co-top ranking scorer, is going to be away for U-17 Japan International Team this week but they still have other formidable forward players Hirao So and Senoo Naoya. Please don’t miss this game as both clubs battling for three points.

Vissel Kobe U-18 vs Gamba Osaka Youth
Dates: Sun. 24 August 2014   Kickoff at 16:00
Venue: Ibukinomori Kyugijo
Access: Take city bus from Seishin Minami station of Kobe Metro (Kobe Area Railway Network) and 10 minute walk from bus stop “High Tech #4”

The first 300 fans arrive at the stadium will get a neck strap made exclusively for the tournament. Please come and watch the match at the venue.