Academy Report

As usual, I took a walk, exercised, and then had breakfast. We held a meeting to confirm what needed to be done today.



After the meeting, we had an early lunch, then had another meeting to announce the team members, and headed to the match venue.

It was the final day of the tournament and the placement match. Antlers, having finished 3rd in their qualifying group, played against FK Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade from Serbia), who finished 3rd in Group B, in the 5th/6th place playoff.

Match Result
First half 1-0 Second half 1-0 Total 2-0
Scorers: Horie in the 14th minute of the first half, Nakagawa in the 33rd minute of the second half

Starting lineup for today's final match
GK: Sato, DF: Takahashi (Youth), Otsu, Sugaya, Sekiguchi, MF: Nemoto, Fujii (Youth), Sakurayama, Sugiura, Shibata, FW: Horie

The tournament ended with a record of 2 wins and 2 losses. We finished 5th out of 8 teams.Most of the matches during the tournament were played in sunny and hot conditions. With the temperature making it difficult to maintain continuous pressure, we aimed to avoid the opponent's pressure, move the ball quickly, and create opportunities.

Despite many situations where we played with confidence, we scored the opening goal. In the 14th minute of the first half, Sugiura dribbled past on the right wing and delivered a cross. Horie timed his run to the near post perfectly, controlled the ball with one touch, and quickly shot.The second half also started well for us. The opponents tried to change the flow with substitutions and aimed for a goal, but we responded with disciplined defense, not losing concentration until the end, and prevented them from playing freely even against their height advantage from set pieces.

Conversely, Nakagawa scored from a right corner kick set piece, allowing Antlers to show their characteristic play.

After the match, we attended the final ceremony and watched the final.
Anderlecht from Belgium won the tournament, defeating Inter Milan 2-1. Melbourne from Australia finished 3rd (4-3), and 1. FC Köln from Germany finished 4th.



We returned to the hotel and prepared for our return home. We left the hotel after dinner.




Click here for tournament highlight video.