Academy Report

It's already the third day since Kashima Junior departed for Portugal. Today, MUNDIALITO 2015 kicks off. By the way, Portugal is now on daylight saving time, so the time difference with Japan has shortened by one hour. In the morning, we had a light practice session on the futsal court in front of the hotel.



After that, we moved to the match venue. We completed the tournament registration procedures and received our AD cards and hats. We also watched matches on the pitch where we will be playing, and the juniors are ready for battle.This is a large tournament held at two venues in Portugal and Spain, with 216 teams from 16 countries participating in five categories (U-12, U-11, U-9, U-7, U-6). The U-12 category, which Kashima Junior is participating in, has 78 teams, and after a preliminary round of 12 blocks, a final tournament will be held.

Kashima Junior's first match was against Santa Cruz from Brazil. It was a 7-a-side match, 25 minutes per half, and Kashima Junior achieved a splendid 2-1 victory!



Kashima Antlers Junior 2-1 Santa Cruz

Kashima Starting Members: Yuto Koide, Hikaru Kusano, Fushin Owa, Shota Iwama, Shuto Seki, Uta Yamaguchi, Harumu Sumi
Substitute Members: Tosei Sugawara, Shuma Ishihara
Goal Scorers: Harumu Sumi, Tosei Sugawara



Coach Kotani's comment: "I anticipated that the first match in a tournament like this would be tough, but we couldn't find our rhythm throughout the game and couldn't play calmly. It was good that we equalized at the end of the first half after conceding an early goal and then came back to win in the second half. However, we couldn't score any more goals and there were some dangerous moments, so I want us to make adjustments for tomorrow's match."



After that, the tournament opening ceremony was held at the main stadium. This was a very large ceremony, with participating teams from each category marching in. By the way, Kashima Junior had the honor of leading all teams and entering first!