Academy Report

It's the second day of the tournament. Match 4 3-1 ○ FC Lugano (FC Lugano, Switzerland) Scorers: Imai, Amagai, Tanoe We started the match poorly, conceding a goal in the 3rd minute of the first half after their left wing broke through, making it 0-1. However, in the 15th minute, Imai scored from a corner kick, equalizing at 1-1. In the 16th minute, Tanoe passed to Amagai on the right wing, and Amagai scored with a middle shot to take a 2-1 lead, ending the first half. In the second half, both teams struggled to create decisive chances, but in the 18th minute, Tanoe delivered a decisive final pass to Amagai. Amagai shot, but the ball hit the post, and Tanoe pushed in the rebound, making it 3-1.

Match 5 7-1 ○ vv.Jonathan (vv.Jonathan, Netherlands) Scorers: Tanoe x4, Tajiri, Masato Ebihara, Imai In the 2nd minute of the first half, Tanimoto dribbled past a defender on the right wing and passed to Tanoe, who scored with a middle shot, taking the lead. In the 6th minute, we intercepted an opponent's corner kick and counter-attacked. Tanoe was one-on-one with the goalkeeper and calmly scored, making it 2-0. In the 7th minute, Tanoe broke through on Tanimoto's through pass and scored again, extending the lead to 3-0. In the 12th minute, Tajiri scored from a free kick on the right wing, making it 4-0 at halftime. In the second half, Antlers continued to control the game, with Tanoe scoring in the 5th minute, Masato Ebihara in the 10th minute, and Imai in the 19th minute. Although we conceded a goal in the 15th minute, we won convincingly with a score of 7-1.

Match 6 (9th/10th place playoff) 0-1 ● sc Heerenveen (Heerenveen, Netherlands) We played against a team whose senior squad is in the Eredivisie (Dutch first division) and includes Yuki Kobayashi, who transferred from Jubilo Iwata. It was a close match throughout, ending the first half 0-0. In the 3rd minute of the second half, we conceded a goal after their right back got behind our defense, making it 0-1. After that, we failed to convert several decisive chances, and the match ended. *Final standing: 10th out of 16 teams Final AFC Ajax (Netherlands) 4-2 FC Nordsjaelland (Denmark) Ajax won with a come-from-behind victory after being two goals down. The match ball for the final was even delivered by a helicopter.

Kie Toyokawa (University of Tsukuba), who supported us as an assistant coach at Tsukuba School until last year, came all the way from Germany, where she is studying abroad, taking 3 hours to cheer us on.