Academy Report

On the first day of our expedition to Portugal, we were hit by heavy rain late at night, but the weather turned out to be very good from the morning. The players had breakfast and prepared for today's match.After breakfast, we had a morning practice session. It was a run to a nearby beach, with Coach Koyano leading the way. Afterwards, we did short sprints and ball training on the grassy area within the accommodation.
Lunch was at 12:30, followed by a meeting at 13:45, and then we departed from the hotel at 14:00 to head to the match venue.The match venue was the same as the ground used for last year's practice match.
We kicked off at 16:00 against a Spanish team called CD Siempre Alegres.

The starting lineup was GK Kimura, and FPs Maeda, Ito, Matsumoto, Imai, Sasaki, and Kobayashi in a 2-3-1 formation. Ito was later replaced by Kotanaki. As it was the first match, there was some noticeable stiffness and a series of mistakes, but we gradually got into the game, creating chances from set pieces. The opponent tried to create opportunities by aiming for the goalmouth with long throws and long feeds, but our defenders handled them well.

In the second half, we started with GK Kimura, and FPs Kobayashi, Maeda, Matsumoto, Sasaki, Kotanaki, and Takeda. Mid-half, Okano replaced Sasaki, and Araki replaced Matsumoto. The opponent's tactics remained the same in the second half, but Antlers scored first from a corner kick. After that, we continued to attack relentlessly, and Matsumoto calmly scored from a long through pass, extending our lead to 2-0 and securing the victory.



The photos show the opening ceremony.