The 3rd Youth Olympic Futsal Tournament 4th Group Stage Match
vs U-18 Portugal Women's Futsal National Team

Sat. 13 October 2018 Kick-off 14:00 (Local time)
CeNARD Hall (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

U-18 Japan Women's Futsal National Team 0-2 (0-1, 0-1) U-18 Portugal Women's Futsal National Team

Scores
6' goal against (U-18 Portugal Women's Futsal National Team)
22' goal against (U-18 Portugal Women's Futsal National Team)

Starting Line-up
GK: SUTO Yuria
FP: YOKOYAMA Rinka, IKEUCHI Aki, MAEDA Miu, YAMAKAWA Rikako

Reserves
GK: KOBAYASHI Mitsuki
FP: MIYAMOTO Mai, OINO Sara, ARAI Ichika, ABE Mirano

Match Report

On Saturday 13 October, the U-18 Japan Women's Futsal National Team squared off against the U-18 Portugal Women's Futsal National Team in their fourth group stage match of the 3rd Youth Olympic Futsal Tournament Buenos Aires 2018 and lost the match 0-2. As a result, the team advanced to the semi-finals as the runners-up of their group.

The final match of the group stage featured the clash between the two undefeated teams. Japan wanted to win this match to carry the momentum into the final round but struggled against the in-form Portugal side who has scored a total of 35 goals in the past three matches. The opening goal came in the sixth minute when Japan conceded a free kick in their own territory. The initial shot taken from the spot kick struck the wall, but Portugal was able to convert the loose ball to take the lead. Despite Japan’s efforts to level the match, Portugal struck their second goal in the 22nd minute. The remainder of the match saw the Japanese side forced to play in the defensive end for a long stint, as the match ended with a final score of 0-2. With the loss, Japan advanced to the final round as the runners-up of Group D.

Japan will now face the U-18 Spain Women's Futsal National Team at the semi-finals with their medal at stake on Monday 15 October at 16:00 local time.

Players’ Comments

FP #7 MIYAMOTO Mai (Kyoto Seika Gakuen High School)
Even though we saw their films ahead of time. they were much faster than we expected. Their techniques to play the ball with direct touches was something we need to learn from. Although we couldn’t find our rhythm in the early minutes of the match, we eventually managed to execute our game plan. As Coach KOGURE has been demanding us to “Fight with courage,” I feel like we have been able to express that on the court. Now that we are through with the group stage, we will now enter the knockout stage. Our opponent in the semi-finals is Spain, who are similarly talented as Portugal. We will implement what we have learnt in this short period of time and give our very best to play up to our full potential. I personally hope to score a goal to help our team earn a victory.

FP #9 YAMAKAWA Rikako (Fukui Maruoka RUCK)
As a player who has experienced playing for the Japan National Team, I was very much looking forward to play against Portugal today. The result was unfortunate but playing against the best teams of our age group has given us a great learning experience. I feel that we have shown improvements after each and every match we have played. That could be said for this match against Portugal as well. We hope to showcase an even more improved version of our team in the next match.

Schedule

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