Pick-up Match

Ichiritsu Funabashi High School　1-0 (1-0, 0-0)　F.C. Tokyo U-18

The Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League EAST enters its Matchday 14 on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September as fourth-placed Ichiritsu Funabashi High School (Chiba) faced fifth-placed F.C. Tokyo U-18 (Tokyo).

As both teams have kept their hopes of remaining in the title tussle, they could not afford to lose the match. The match sparked into action early on. After two minutes, Ichiritsu Funabashi earned a penalty, which midfielder KUDO Yuki composedly netted to open the scoring.

Despite getting behind early in the match, F.C. Tokyo also started to rally back. Quickly providing the ball to three strikers SATO Ryo, OKUMA Kenta and UCHIDA Takuya, F.C. Tokyo were dominant with different kinds of attacking options.

Ichiritsu Funabashi, however, fought back against F.C. Tokyo offence, placing KOYA Seishiro, KANEKO Daiki and NISHIHA Taku in a 4-3-3 formation in front of four defenders. Led by central defence pairs SHIRAI Tatsuya and SUGIOKA Daiki, the Chiba side showed intense defence as goalkeeper TERAO Ryo protected the goalmouth as the last line.

Terao threw his body to block a shot in the goalmouth scramble in the 24th minute, and jumped to save Uchida's shot in the 35th minute. Ichiritsu Funabashi finished the first half 1-0.

The second half also saw F.C. Tokyo attacking and Ichiritsu Funabashi defending. The Tokyo side struggled to convert a string of chances into a goal while the opposing goalkeeper showed fine saves. F.C. Tokyo tried to shore up their offence, replacing defensive midfielder SUZUKI Yoshitake with defender HASUKAWA Sodai in the 67th minute.

And they also moved central defender YANAGI Takahiro to a right back position. But they were not able to break through the Ichiritsu Funabashi defence which kept high concentration until the end.

Ichiritsu Funabashi kept the slender lead that they got early to win it 1-0. After winning the tough match, coach ASAOKA Ryuzo said, "F.C. Tokyo were one of the teams we felt to be difficult to face in the first half of the season. It's big we won the match."

On the other hand, F.C. Tokyo coach SATO Kazuki pointed out what to improve. "When we aren't able to play as we plan after conceding a goal early in a match, how much we can stay calm is the key. We lack that point." The match turned out to be a contrastive result as Ichiritsu Funabashi kept their hope alive for the title race while F.C. Tokyo made a step backward.

Coach and Players' Comments

SATO Kazuki, Coach (F.C. Tokyo U-18)
It all comes down to the fact that we couldn’t tie the match in the first half. We couldn’t utilise our chances, and we also failed to materialise what we intended with substitutions. This outcome is nothing that we should be pessimistic about, but we could have won all three matches after the break.

It’s either my players are not being able to play to their best ability or I am not being able to let it happen. Either way, we need to play to our potential at crucial moments.

WATANABE Takuya (F.C. Tokyo U-18)
We had a lot of chances in the first half, but we couldn’t score a goal. We weren’t clutch enough. In the second half, I should have been more involved in building up the offence. But partly because YAMURA Ken I was facing was quick and difficult for us to deal with, I hesitated to push up the line. We want to keep up with the teams above us by winning all the rest of the matches.

ASAOKA Ryuzo, Coach (Ichiritsu Funabashi High School)
We didn’t want to let their three strikers play their game, so we employed 4-3-3 today. I think we showed what we had done in our preparation. On the last matchday against Aomori Yamada High School, after we scored a goal, we had our back line pushed back and we allowed them to come back. Today, after scoring a goal, our back line had guts to keep it up throughout the match.

SUGIOKA Daiki (Ichiritsu Funabashi High School)
They put more players for attacking flanks, but we thought all we needed to do was defend the middle and not let them play there. We didn’t try to chase them around in the flanks too much and we just tried to kick it back when it was there. I personally tried to keep our defence in sync by looking around for what was going on and covering my teammates.

We lost the match against Aomori Yamada High School last week, so we couldn’t afford to lose any more. Today’s win brought some more hope for us to win the title, so we will stay motivated and keep trying to win next week and after.

Other Matches

Shimizu S-Pulse Youth   1-0 (0-0, 1-0)   Omiya Ardija Youth
JFA Academy Fukushima   1-3 (0-1, 1-2)   Kashima Antlers Youth
Aomori Yamada High School   1-1 (0-0, 1-1)   Consadole Sapporo U-18
Kashiwa Reysol U-18   1-1 (1-0, 0-1)   Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School

League-leading Omiya Ardija (Saitama) recorded the first loss of the season against Shimizu S-Pulse Youth (Shizuoka) on the road.

Aomori Yamada High School (Aomori), tied with Omiya in points before the matchday, also failed to win theirs, when they allowed an equaliser to Consadole Sapporo U-18’s (Hokkaido) ANDA Rai and finished the match with a disappointing draw.

While the top two teams were struggling, Kashima Antlers Youth (Ibaraki) made sure to take advantage of it by defeating JFA Academy Fukushima (Shizuoka) 3-1. Although they couldn’t not surpass either team above, Kashima are now a step closer to them; two games behind from leaders Aomori Yamada and one game from second-placed Omiya.

The contest between two Chiba sides, Kashiwa Reysol U-18 and Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School, ended as a 1-1 draw.