Academy Report

On the 24th, the first day of Group B matches was held at the Frenz International U19 Cup in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

vs CHONBURI 0-0
Starting players
Ishikawa, Arakawa, Nakamura, Imura, Shirai, Nishimoto, Sasaki, Takezawa, Shinozaki, Sadamitsu
Substitute players
Sudo, Konuma, Yuki

Group B consists of four teams: Kashima Antlers, CHONBURI (Thailand), International (Brazil), and Besiktas (Turkey). The top two teams will advance to the semifinals.

Before breakfast, we took a walk around the hotel and did some exercises to check our physical condition.


The match against CHONBURI started at 4:15 PM. Kashima Youth departed a bit early to hold a meeting at the stadium. As last year, we had a police escort.After the meeting and AD check at the stadium, the CHONBURI team bus still hadn't arrived even an hour before the match. It turned out that their bus had mistakenly gone to another venue where Group A matches were being held. Since CHONBURI arrived only 30 minutes before the scheduled kickoff, after discussions between the MC, both teams, and the referee, the match was postponed by 45 minutes and kicked off at 5:00 PM.Kashima Youth had to restart their warm-up but approached the match with great enthusiasm.

Kashima Youth created many chances in the match but couldn't score. In the 30th minute of the second half, Nakamura's shot from a free kick entered the goal, but a Chonburi defender cleared the ball. The ball had clearly crossed the goal line, but the assistant referee failed to keep up, and the goal was disallowed. Despite creating many more decisive opportunities, they couldn't score, and the match ended.Comment from Coach Kumagai
"It was a match where we played with great passion and created many scoring opportunities. The first half was a close contest, but we didn't have any dangerous moments and had chances of our own. In the second half, we were able to take control and create even more opportunities. However, it's disappointing that we couldn't score. Our desire to win was evident in our play. We had traveled the day after a match in Japan and played this match with only two days' rest, so I think we did well. That's why it's so regrettable that we couldn't win. We've been playing with strong determination, so I want us to grow and improve quickly, both individually and as a team."