2015 U-20 Women’s NTC Invitational 1st Match vs. United States
2015-6-2(Tue) -18:00  Playing Time 90min
Glenn "Mooch" Myernick Field (Carson, USA)

U-19 Japan Women’s National Team  3-0 (1st 2-0, 2nd 1-0)  U-19 USA Women's National Team

Scores
7'   MIZUTANI Yuki (Japan )
38'   HASEGAWA Yui (Japan )
56'   SUMIDA Rin (Japan )

Line-ups
GK:  MATSUMOTO Mamiko
DF:  MIYAGAWA Asato, NORIMATSU Ruka, ICHISE Nana, KITAGAWA Hikaru
MF:  MIZUTANI Yuki, SUMIDA Rin, KOBAYASHI Rikako, HASEGAWA Yui, MOMIKI Yuka
FW:  SHIRAKI Akari

Substitutes
GK:  MORITA Yukari
DF:  HAZA Hisui, SHIMIZU Risa, TAKEMURA Misaki, MATSUBARA Shiho
MF:  SONODA Mizuki, SUGITA Hina, MIURA Narumi
FW: SEIKE Kiko

60'   MIYAGAWA Asato → SHIMIZU Risa
60'   MIZUTANI Yuki → SUGITA Hina
60'   SHIRAKI Akari → SEIKE Kiko
72'   MOMIKI Yuka → MIURA Narumi
72'   KITAGAWA Hikaru → TAKEMURA Misaki
86'   HASEGAWA Yui → SONODA Mizuki

Match Report

Japan national women's U-19 team had their opening match against host United States on the fourth day of their trip.

At the beginning of the match, the Japanese girls struggled to connect passes against the opponents with speed and length. In the 7th minute when the Japan squad were getting used to the opposing pace, Sumida Rin switched the side with a pass to Kobayashi Rikako on the right flank before Mizutani Yuki opened the scoring. In the 35th minute, a USA player picked up a loose ball from a corner kick and took a shot on goal, but Mizutani cleared the shot off the line. In the 38th minute, Hasegawa Yui, running through with a wall pass with Kobayashi, added a goal to give her side a 2-0 lead before halftime.

Japan continued to mount attacks in the second half. In the 56th minute, after Hasegawa fed a right cross, Sumida floated the ball from an acute angle into the net for her side's third goal of the match. Japan then replaced six players to go for another goal, but the match remained at 3-0 until the end.

Head Coach and Players' Comments

TAKAKURA Asako, Head Coach
I'm glad that we won with a clean sheet in the first match for this generational team. But there were lots of situations where they were losing to USA's speed and power. Because our passing accuracy was poor, we couldn't attack smoothly. That's also what to improve. In terms of the defence as a team, we've got to explore even further where to win the ball and how to win the ball. We all will go out together for the next match to play quality football both in offence and defence.

ICHISE Nana (Tokiwagi Gakuen High School)
We won 3-0 over the US today, but we found lots of things to improve. The first thing is to cope with America's strengths that we cannot experience in Japan like their high momentum, long reach, running speed and physical intensity. We had hard time getting used to them. We made easy mistakes and allowed shots.
I felt it's important to get used to them as soon as possible. The other is to control the defensive line. To help our offence in a good way, the compact defence is indispensable. But I moved the defensive line down too early. And I, conversely, failed to move it down even when an opponent is in kicking motion and allowed her to run into space behind the line. We'll face a lot of homework that we found today and improve as much as we can for the following Brazil match.

MATSUMOTO Mamiko (Urawa Reds Ladies Youth)
Today we had our first official match as the Japan national women's U-19 team, and the opponents were the USA, who are at the top level. I was a bit tensed because it's been a while since I played a match against overseas players after the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. We created a good mood from warm-up and went out to play clearly from the start.
To loosen our tension, I tried to keep talking to my teammates. We allowed counter-attacks to the opponents utilising only the speed at times, but we were able to keep them scoreless thanks to our defenders throwing their body. The next opponents are also not easy to beat, so I will get well-prepared to show the performance how I always show.

MOMIKI Yuka (Nippon TV Beleza)
It was the first official game for this team and very important for AFC U-19 Women’s Championship. All the players had common objectives for attack and defence. We could demonstrate the common understanding by scoring in good time of the game and kept clean sheet for winning the game. But there are many outstanding points like we occasionally lost when fighting for the ball and lose the ball. We have to improve these, enhance what we are good at and want to win the match against Brazil.

MIZUTANI Yuki (Tsukuba University)
I had never played against overseas players. It was my first time to play an international match. In this USA match, we went out the match to focus on aggressively taking shots and playing hard on the ball. When I received the ball at the edge of the box and faced an opponent on one-on-one, I had a picture in mind how to beat the defender and fire a shot.
Thinking about the space around me, I found it difficult to take a shot after breaking through the defence, so I just moved the ball to the right hand with a dummy, switched the ball to my left foot when the opponent challenged on me with her foot, and then smashed the ball to the far post.
It was a good timing for our team to score, so I'm happy to fire the shot without hesitation. American players were quicker and stronger than I expected. I've got some situations where I lost on the ball and I wasn't able to slow down their speed. I felt I need to improve my positioning better.
In such a hard-fought match, I found myself not being able to fight out throughout 90 minutes if I don’t improve myself.  So I will work on improving both muscle strength and stamina. By playing against the world's top country, I've learned a lot of things. I will take advantage of them for my future.

Schedule

The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.

2015 U-20 Women’s NTC Invitational
Four coutries of U.S.A., Mexico, Brazil and Japan will play a round-robin.

Future Schedule

 The schedule is subject to change.