Academy Report

It had been raining since morning, but the rain stopped when we left the hotel.

At international tournaments, meal times are fixed, and teams cannot eat according to their preferred schedule.After finishing our meal, we left by bus with the team playing at the same venue. It was still dim and chilly.When we arrived at the venue, it gradually brightened, and it was time for our first match.This tournament features various categories from U8 to U12. It is called a mini World Cup, with strong countries and clubs from all over the world gathering.

The U12 tournament has 12 groups, each with 5-6 teams, who play a preliminary league. The top team from each group and the top 4 teams among the second-place teams from each group, making a total of 16 teams, advance to the final tournament. It is 7-a-side, with unlimited substitutions. Each half is 25 minutes. The pitch size varies depending on the ground, but it's generally about 45m wide and 68m long.



Starting lineup
GK: Matsumoto, FP: Miyazawa, Tokuda, Sato, Shiba (C), Hatanaka, Kawamura
SUB: Miyoshi, Tsuchiya, Tanaka, Kiuchi, Ogasawara

In the 10th minute of the first half, Hatanaka received the ball in the center, dribbled past the defense, and scored the opening goal with his left foot. Then, in the 23rd minute of the first half, Miyazawa intercepted the ball in midfield and passed it to Kawamura, who calmly shot to extend the lead to two points, ending the first half.Second half lineup
GK: Matsumoto, FP: Miyoshi, Tokuda, Tanaka, Tsuchiya, Kiuchi, Hatanaka
Substitute players came on in both the first and second halves.At the kickoff of the second half, Tokuda looked at the goalkeeper and kicked the ball back directly into the goal.Although we conceded one goal late in the game, we finished our first match with a brilliant victory.

Despite a long journey and no time for training, we managed to secure a victory in the match, even with some sluggish play. Regardless of the content, winning the first match was significant.

After the match, we watched some games, but due to the bus schedule, we returned to the hotel and had lunch.

After lunch, we rested and then took a walk to a nearby beach from 4 PM, followed by a meeting.After the meeting, we all took the bus from the hotel to the venue to attend the opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony was held in a facility that was once a bullring in Tarragona.The event focused on tournament festivities, and the players' appearance was about an hour and a half later.

After the opening ceremony, we returned to the hotel by bus, had dinner, and went to bed.