Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup Dubai 2014 Placement match
Fri. 7 November 2014 Kickoff 16:15    12min x 3 periods
Dubai International Marine Club(UAE/Dubai)

Japan Beach Soccer National Team   3-4(1st 1-0, 2nd 1-1, 3rd 1-3)   UAE Beach Soccer National Team

Scores
12min　GOTO Takasuke（Japan）
18min　HARAGUCHI Shotaro（Japan）
18min　Goal against（UAE）
26min　Goal against（UAE）
32min　Goal against（UAE）
32min　GOTO Takasuke（Japan）
34min　Goal against（UAE）

Starters
GK：TERUKINA Shingo
FP：TOMA Masahito, MOREIRA Ozu, GOTO Takasuke, HARAGUCHI Shotaro

Substitutes
GK：SUGITA Tetsuji
FP：ODA Hirofumi, TAKIGUCHI Takashi, AKAGUMA Takuya, OBA Takaaki

Non-registered members
FP：MAKINO Shinji, MATSUO Naoya

Match Report

Japan, who finished in the third place in the group stage, entered placement matches to determine the fifth to eighth places.

"I’ve been a head coach for UAE for seven years. They are scared that they are exposed as I am the coach for Japan now. I bet they want to avoid to end the tournament winless at home. So they have so much pressure on their shoulders,’" Japan coach Marcelo told his players in a pre-game meeting, reading their opponents’ psychological status. "Let’s take advantage of the pressure and play with the momentum."

As confirmed in the pre-game meeting, Japan increased their movements to oppose to UAE’s physicality. It worked for Japan and they got the momentum at both ends of the ball. Before the first period ended, Japan’s GOTO Takasuke scored a goal for the fourth straight game. In the second period, Haraguchi Shota added another for Japan, yet the UAE quickly cut the gap to one goal as they netted one right after the kickoff. The two sides entered the final and third period, maintaining the tense mood.

But Japan’s defence gradually came apart and began making mistakes, and the UAE took advantage of those to have a one-goal lead. Goto had an equalizer, but Japan had a hand penalty and the UAE made the PK. Japan fell short 3-4 and will now play in the seventh-place match next. 

Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Head Coach
Today's game was nothing but very disappointing. In terms of how we entered the game was very good. We kept our formation compact while our pressing was working, and we were able to take a lead as we scored in the first period. But we gave our opponents chances because of our own mistakes, and we let our momentum away from our hands. We have the Asia Beach Games right after this tournament, and we should not make the same mistakes there. I hope our players learn from these mistakes and take advantage of those sooner than later.

ODA Hirofumi (TOKYO LEQUIOS BS)
Today’s opponents were one of the teams we are going to compete in the Asian qualifier for a World Cup berth. Personally, they were a team that we wanted to beat. As a result, we scored two first and allowed them to rally past us in the end. Anyone would realise that we still have weaknesses from this result. A real strong team is a team who don’t get off-balance so easily and keep their lead defensively. We can’t do that yet and it means we are still lacking something. We swill have matches to play and have to keep learning. The real important games are still ahead of us. I am not satisfied with my own performance, so I want to avenge myself.

TERUKINA Shingo (SOL MAR PRAIA)
We entered today’s UAE match with the momentum from yesterday’s game against the United States. There’s a higher chance for us to face the UAE in the Asian qualifier too, so we played with that in our mind. In the first period, while we were able to watch how they would come in the game, we scored a goal effectively. We were talking about the UAE’s traits, so I think we were holding them as we wanted. In the second period, too, we were very much aware of how they’d play, but we couldn’t capitalize on our momentum to add another score, and then we eventually gave the momentum up to them. We then allowed them to tie the game and finally go ahead, and ended up losing it. We just haven’t been able to maintain our momentum until the end in many of our recent games. We have to read the flows of the games and play accordingly, otherwise we won’t win games we are supposed to win. This is an issue that we must overcome by the Asian qualifier.

Schedule