Pick-up Match

Omiya Ardija Youth   2-1 (1-0, 1-1)   Yokohama F・Marinos Youth

The 6th Sec. of the Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Premier League EAST was held on 25-26 June, and Omiya Ardija Youth (Saitama) played against Yokohama F・Marinos Youth (Kanagawa) at their home NACK5 Stadium Omiya. 

They had already faced each other in the quarter final of the 40th JAPAN Club Youth (U-18) Football Championship earlier on 4 June. Just like the match when Yokohama won 1-0, they took control of from the beginning, and they trapped Omiya’s defenders well in the middle passing the ball to the front players who jumped into the space behind defenders.

Yokohama continued to pressure Omiya. However, in the 36th minute, one play changed the air. Before this moment, Omiya moved the ball mostly to side wings but Omiya’s forward OKUNUKI Kanji, who was one of two top players, received the ball in a vacant space in the middle of Yokohama’s half. He then dribbled and finished with a shot. 

This shot didn’t find the net. Okunuki later reflected it “I was waiting for the moment to jump in to the vacant space in the middle while diverting the ball to side wings.” In the 40th minute, Okunuki stole the ball from the final line player and continued to take the ball to the goal, this time he successfully scored the opening goal. Yokohama upped their game to try to find an equaliser but did not convert any their chances and the 1st half ended. 

In the 2nd half, Omiya took complete control. As the team’s midfielder YAMADA Riku said “we adjusted our defence, and that worked well”, Omiya could cut off Yokohama’s attack and spent most of the time in the opponent’s half. In the 58th minute, Omiya’s midfielder YAMAMOTO Takeshi crossed from right wing, the ball was kicked back by defender SASAHARA Dai and Yamamoto headed the ball at the goal. Omiya scored their second goal.

Yokohama changed a midfielder to TSUBAKI Naoki to counter attack. With his skilled play, he broke through Omiya and made a chance; in the 87th minute he originated the attack and the team’s forward WATANABE Riki scored one goal. Yokohama continued to attack Omiya but the time was up before they could get their equaliser. The match ended with Omiya’s 2-1 victory. They have won 3 consecutive matches in this Premier League so far. 

Coach and Players' Comments

OTSUKA Shinji, Coach (Omiya Ardija Youth)
We played against Yokohama F・Marinos Youth 3 weeks ago in the 40th JAPAN Club Youth (U-18) Football Championship and we were beaten at that match. Since then we prepared well not to let it happen again. In the end it was a good match that the players showed what we had done for today. Generally, a team has to keep growing up, and our team has grown up in fact. Right after the opening of this competition, we lost 3 consecutive matches and we reflected upon ourselves and brushed up our mentality, tactics, and skill. Today’s victory is the result of these efforts that we made. Our purpose to move on to the championship has never changed; we have just played a good match towards this purpose.  

OKUNUKI Kanji (Omiya Ardija Youth)
When I scored the opener, Yokohama’s defender was facing back and I felt it could be a chance and trapped him, it worked successfully and I could steal the ball. I then carried on going and smashed it. I am happy that I could score. Since we couldn’t beat Yokohama in the 40th JAPAN Club Youth (U-18) Football Championship, we wanted to get our revenge this time. By experiencing the match earlier this month, we could understand their system of play and responded well to their set pieces. We have got our third consecutive win, so we want to keep this momentum for the upcoming matches.

MATSUHASHI Rikizo, Coach (Yokohama F・Marinos Youth)
I think the players put themselves into the difficult situation. Omiya then took control and we went behind. This match was an important one in terms of getting victories as many as possible after the restarting of the league. During the break time of the Premier League, we could get through to the final of the 40th JAPAN Club Youth (U-18) Football Championship. I was looking forward to checking the team’s level from this match; hence it’s a shame that we lost today. While Omiya kept moving the ball our press defence stopped working and our mood just went down. 

YOSHIO Kaina (Yokohama F・Marinos Youth)
Before the match we were talking about making a good combination to steal the ball, but we couldn’t do it well and Omiya made use of our space between each other easily. The biggest issue we found today was that we allowed them to take control of the match and conceded the goals. In this season, we want to build up a scoring style from possession, but we haven’t scored since we can’t move the ball forward; we just keep pass work in our half. I still felt that we were doing better, but we have just lost the match in the condition how we used to be before the break of the league, so this is shocking. We will communicate with each other more to create better forms as a team. 

Other Matches

Albirex Niigata U-18   1-2 (0-2, 1-0)   Kashiwa Reysol U-18
Aomori Yamada High School   2-1 (0-1, 2-0)   F.C. Tokyo U-18
Kashima Antlers Youth   3-2 (0-1, 3-1)   Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School
Shimizu S-pulse Youth   0-1 (0-1, 0-0)   Ichiritsu Funabashi High School

Kashiwa Reysol U-18 (Chiba) beat Albirex Niigata U-18 (Niigata) 2-1. Kashiwa’s NAKAMURA Shunta scored both of these goals in the 1st half. 

Third place Aomori Yamada High School (Aomori) beat the top F.C. Tokyo U-18 (Tokyo) and moved up to second place. 

Kashima Antlers Youth (Ibaraki) was pushed by Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa 1-2 until the end of the match, but IDETSU Masaya and MAKITA Yasuhiro scored in the 87th and 88th minutes. As a result, Kashima turned the match around and won 3-2. 

Ichiritsu Funabashi High School (Chiba) has moved on top replacing of F.C. Tokyo U-18; the team’s NOMOTO Kota scored the opening goal over Shimizu S-pulse Youth (Shizuoka) and kept defending their goal until the end. Ichiritsu Funabashi High School won 1-0 and got the 3 points. 

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