Training Match vs Costa Rica Beach Soccer National Team
2017-1-22(Sun.) Kick-off 11:00 (Local Time) Playing Time 12 min ×3
Club Punta Leona（Costa Rica）

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

Scores
2'　OBA Takaaki（Japan Beach Soccer National Team）
3'　GOTO Takasuke（Japan Beach Soccer National Team）
5'　MOREIRA Ozu（Japan Beach Soccer National Team）
11'　goal against（Costa Rica Beach Soccer National Team）
16'　goal against（Costa Rica Beach Soccer National Team）
16'　KOMAKI Masayuki（Japan Beach Soccer National Team）
25'　goal against（Costa Rica Beach Soccer National Team）

Starting Line-ups
GK：TERUKINA Shingo
FP：MOREIRA Ozu, IINO Tomoyuki, OBA Takaaki, GOTO Takasuke

Substitutions
GK：KAWAI Yusuke
FP：ISO Hiroaki, KOMAKI Masayuki, HARAGUCHI Shotaro, NAKAHARA Yuki, AKAGUMA Takuya

Match Report

The Japan National Beach Soccer Team, who are currently on the Costa Rica tour, played their second training match against the Costa Rica Beach Soccer National Team on Sunday 22 January.

The pitch yesterday was 1000 metres above sea level, while Club Punta Leona, the site for the second match, is located along the coast with higher temperatures and humidity. The players faced tough conditions.

The game was played at a beach resort surrounded by many spectators, and Japan took the kick-off.

Just after two minutes, OBA Takaaki worked his way through the defence from a one-two with GOTO Takasuke and took a shot to open the scoring for the Japanese side. Three minutes later, Goto, who had been fouled in the penalty area, calmly converted from a spot kick to stretch their lead to two goals. Then in the fifth minute, MOREIRA Ozu fired a volley from NAKAHARA Yuki’s corner kick for the third goal. Although Japan continued to dominate the match, the team gave away a free kick in front of the goal in the 11th minute, just before the first period ended. Costa Rica took advantage of this chance and scored. The game went into the next period 3-1.

Japan continued to control the match in the second period by keeping the possession of the ball. However, the team struggled to create goal-scoring opportunities. After 16 minutes, a penalty kick was given away due to a handball in the box, and the opponents scored to close the gap to one goal. Despite the concerns that Costa Rica would gain some momentum after the scoring, KOMAKI Masayuki of Japan directly scored with a volley from the kick-off, stretching the lead once again to two goals. The score stayed at 4-2 until the end of the second period.

In the opening minutes of the third period, a shot from the opposing goalkeeper bounced and changed direction in front of the goal and went directly into the net, closing the gap again to one goal. Although the opponents were constantly looking to threaten the Japanese goal from long-distance shots, goalkeeper TERUKINA Shingo defended superbly. On the other hand, Japan broke through the opponents’ defence with various combinations, but failed to strike the deciding goal. The score stayed the same until the final whistle and Japan won the match 4-3.

SHINOHARA Mamoru, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Costa Rica, who had paid a visit to the national team the other day, came to watch the match. He joined a photo shoot with other Japanese people living in Costa Rica after the game.

The Japan National Beach Soccer Team, who succeeded in finishing their tour with five victories, will leave Costa Rica on Monday 23 and arrive in Japan on Wednesday 25 January.

Coach's and Players' Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Coach
Our USA & Costa Rica tour had been an excellent one. The purpose of this tour was to build an even stronger team, as well as getting good results. The players were able to remain highly focused on playing beach soccer in a great environment, including the meals we had and the hotel we stayed. Although there were a lot of good plays in terms of attack, we need to work on reducing our mistakes in defence. We won five consecutive matches, but there is still plenty of room to improve defensively in preparation for the World Cup qualifiers in March. Lastly, I’m grateful to the United States Soccer Federation and the Costa Rican Football Federation for supporting this tour.

FP AKAGUMA Takuya (Dorsole Kitakyushu)
We played our second training game against Costa Rica today. The match was at the Club Punta Leona, one of Costa Rica’s resorts. It was a completely different pitch from our practice environment. Thanks to the excellent venue, we could play in a great atmosphere filled with spectators. We managed to win 4-3, but the match went on – both in a good and bad way – just like yesterday. Having said that, I still believe that we managed to play as a united team by learning from yesterday’s game.

Winning all five training games on this tour has brought us some confidence. We also found many tasks for the team and for individual players, and this was probably the most important takeaway of the tour. With a little more than one month to go before the World Cup qualifiers, I’d like to continue our preparation back in Japan and prove that this tour was necessary by getting good results in the qualifiers. Personally, during this camp I realised that there are many areas that need work, which I couldn’t have discovered without coming here. So I really appreciate this wonderful opportunity that was given to me. I’d like to work on my issues and practice hard in order to contribute to the team, so that we can win the AFC Championship and book a place in the World Cup. Lastly, I’m grateful to have been able to participate in this excellent tour and I’ll perform as hard as possible for the team.

GK TERUKINA Shingo (Sol Mar Praia Okinawa)
We played our fifth and final practice match of this USA & Costa Rica tour against the Costa Rica National Beach Soccer Team. Since we faced each other yesterday, both teams entered the match with a plan. We struck first, followed by another goal. We played advantageously from these goals and continued to create more opportunities. However, we couldn’t capitalise on those chances, which, I believe, revealed the current problem for our team. It was excellent that we won all the matches, especially because we could get a taste of the AFC Championship, in which we’ll play just as many games. I’d like to improve our weak areas prior to the start of the championship.

Schedule

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