Day 3 of our expedition to Brazil marked the beginning of the 20th Japan-Brazil Friendship Cup.
The tournament will be held daily, featuring preliminary league matches, quarterfinals (top 3 teams from 1st and 2nd place in the preliminary league), semifinals, and the final.
Group Divisions
Group C: Norte, Vasco da Gama, Cruzeiro, São Carlos
Group D: Kashima, Botafogo, Avaí, Bangu
Group E: Tsukuba, Santos, Grêmio, CFZ União
Each team will now follow a schedule tailored to their matches, including waking up, taking walks, having breakfast, and lunch.
The opening ceremony took place at the ZICO Center at 8:30 AM. Representatives from the Japanese Consulate also attended. The event began with Zico's address, followed by the hoisting of the national flag, officially commencing the tournament.
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Preliminary League Match 1, 9:00 AM Kick-off
Norte 1-0 São Carlos
First half 1-0, Second half 0-0
Scorer: Hayato Iida (9 min)
[Members]
GK: Daichi Sato
FP: Kosei Fujita, Heishi Otsu, Hayato Iida, Ahiro Tada, Taku Saito, Reo Ouchi, Taketo Nemoto (Shunsuke Hashimoto), Sho Shibata, Hidekazu Sugiura (Reiji Takano), Koji Umehara
This was a splendid victory, where our strategy of solid defense, quickly winning back the ball, and launching swift counter-attacks worked perfectly. The players clearly understood where to initiate their defense, and from where to launch attacks once they won the ball. Early in the game, we were awarded a free kick in the opponent's half, and in the 9th minute, a handball in the penalty area resulted in a penalty kick. Iida converted the penalty to give us the lead. Although the opponents had more possession until the final whistle, everyone put in a physical effort and defended tenaciously. Occasionally, we managed to build up play from the wings after winning the ball, pressing towards the goal, but the final passes and shots lacked quality, leaving room for improvement. It was a victory achieved through 70 minutes of collective concentration.
Preliminary League Match 1, 10:45 AM Kick-off
Kashima 0-0 Bangu
First half 0-0, Second half 0-0
[Members]
GK: Daisuke Makata
FP: Shotaro Taniguchi (Ryoma Minowa), Shuji Kofuda, Sora Okita, Yu Funahashi, Hikaru Shimano (Hikaru Iizuka), Tatsuya Kiuchi, Riku Sakurayama (Takeru Miyauchi) (Akira Maeda), Kaio Yanagimachi, Kai Ishizu, Rintaro Umetsu
From the start of the match, we completely dominated possession, applying pressure from both the center and the wings. It seemed only a matter of time before we would score, and twice in the first half, what looked like goals were disallowed for handball and offside. Despite this, we continued to break down the opponent's defense from the wings and the center, creating numerous scoring opportunities. However, many shots went straight to the goalkeeper or wide of the target, and we ultimately failed to score, resulting in a goalless draw.
Preliminary League Match 1, 4:00 PM Kick-off
Tsukuba 1-3 Santos
First half 0-1, Second half 1-2
Scorer: Junya Shinomiya
[Members]
GK: Taiyo Suzuki
FP: Yuto Niitsuma (Kaito Horie), Katsuhiro Urano, Haruki Sugaya, Yuki Sekiguchi, Hayato Yanagihashi, Shota Shimizu (Kazuma Yagi), Yuta Kikuchi, Ayumu Funasaki (Yotaro Yamaguchi), Shosei Takagi (Yua Ozutsumi), Yushin Sato (Junya Shinomiya)
Tsukuba faced the strong team, Santos. From the start, they actively pressed for the ball and aggressively pushed forward when in possession, resulting in an evenly matched contest. In the 20th minute, Santos broke through on the right wing and scored directly from a shot, but Tsukuba defended well thereafter. They looked for opportunities to counter-attack, but as Santos increasingly dominated possession, Tsukuba put up a physical defense in crucial moments and held strong. However, in the 58th minute, they failed to clear a cross from the left wing, resulting in an own goal. Immediately after, in the 61st minute, Shinomiya scored a brilliant volley from Yagi's corner kick to make it 1-2, but Santos quickly responded with a powerful long-range shot, making it 1-3 as the match ended. Nevertheless, the fact that they fought to the end without continuous concession of goals is a positive sign for tomorrow's match.
Each team, despite differing match times, thoroughly prepared for their games and completed the first day of the preliminary league, already getting ready for tomorrow. After dinner, they held meetings to confirm tomorrow's schedule before retiring for the night.
Tomorrow's Match Schedule
9:00 AM
Norte Team vs Vasco da Gama
2:15 PM
Kashima Team vs Avaí
4:00 PM
Tsukuba Team vs Grêmio
Zico Official Website
http://app.m-cocolog.jp/t/typecast/212260/182673
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