UAE Tour International Friendly vs Russia Beach Soccer National Team
Fri. 2 November 2018 Kick-off time 16:30 (Local time) Match duration 45mins (15mins x3)
UAE FA Beach soccer pitch, Dubai, UAE

Japan Beach Soccer National Team 2-4 (1P 0-1, 2P 2-0, 3P 0-3) UAE Beach Soccer National Team

Scores
7' goal against
19' MATSUO Naoya
26' MOREIRA Ozu
33' goal against
38' goal against
43' goal against

Starting Line-up
GK: TERUKINA Shingo
FP: MOREIRA Ozu, KOMAKI Masayuki, OBA Takaaki, GOTO Takasuke

Reserves
GK: KAWAI Yusuke
FP: TABATA Teruki, IINO Tomoyuki, MATSUO Naoya, MATSUDA Kosuke, AKAGUMA Takuya, OKUYAMA Masanori

Match Report

The Japan Beach Soccer National Team, who are on a trip in UAE, played an international friendly against the Russia Beach Soccer National Team on Friday 2 November.

Russia is one of the strongest teams in Europe, and they have won consecutive titles of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2011 and 2013. For Japan, this match was the opportunity to check their current level in the world.

From the beginning, Russia actively took shots. Even though Japan tried to defend, they conceded the opening goal due to a mistake made in the seventh minute. Japan continued to make efforts to move the ball upfront to create chances but struggled to find the net. Towards the end of the first period, Japan’s goalkeeper TERUKINA Shingo delivered a long pass to AKAGUMA Takuya who headed the ball into the net, but it was ruled as no-goal.

In the second period, Japan gave away a penalty-kick in the 17th minute, but Terukina denied the spot kick. In the 19th minute, Japan earned a free-kick in front of the goal, and MATSUO Naoya successfully converted this opportunity to level the match.

In the 26th minute, Japan turned around the game 2-1 by a powerful volley-shot by MOREIRA Ozu. They continued to threaten the Russian goal with OBA Takaaki’s shot from distance, but it was blocked by the Russian goalkeeper. The second period would end without seeing further action.

Japan moved the ball around with composure in the third period. However, they conceded a goal after being caught off guards in the 33rd minute. Russia scored another goal in the 38th minute when they capitalised on a loose ball given away by Japan to make it 2-3. They scored another goal in the 43rd minute from a corner-kick. As a result, Japan lost the match 2-4.

On Saturday 3 November, Japan will play another international friendly against the Tahiti Beach Soccer National Team, whom they have played in last year’s World Cup.

Players' Comments

GK #1 TERUKINA Shingo (Ryukyu Erythrina)
We entered this match against Russia with the things we learnt from the UEA match, but we ended up losing the match. We couldn’t implement those tasks we brought from our previous match and saw ourselves spending most of the time defending our goal. This match really made us realise that we cannot win against teams at the top tier if we keep playing like this. As a team, we must share a better understanding of the opponent’s approach. We still have matches to play, so we will put ourselves on the same page and seek to earn better results.

FP #10 MOREIRA Ozu (Tokyo Verdy BS)
As a team, I feel like we managed to perform a better match today, compared to yesterday’s match against UAE, however, the result didn’t comply with us. When we are facing strong teams like Russia, we cannot afford to make small mistakes, as they will pick up on it and capitalise on those opportunities. We will be facing another tough match tomorrow, but we will learn from today and prepare ourselves ahead of the match. We are given the opportunity to play against strong teams, so we will work to heighten the overall level of the team.

Schedule

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