Academy Report

Today was the final match of the tournament's preliminary league. Our opponent was the U-12 team of Sporting Lisbon, a strong team from Portugal.
Kick-off: Friday, December 15, 9:10 AM
Venue: Maybank acad-Field A
Unlike the artificial turf of previous days, this was natural grass, but it was wild grass. The pitch was hard and uneven.

Starting Lineup
GK: Maya Alex FP: Takahashi, Jinno, Shinbo, Ogura, Kameyama, Yoshida, Masuda, Ouchi
Substitutes: Higuchi (Yoshida), Oyama (Ouchi), Tanaka (Takahashi), Oe (Masuda), Green Caiden (Kameyama)
First Half 0-0 Second Half 0-0 Total 0-0
As a result, Tsukuba Junior advanced to the semifinals, finishing second in their preliminary group.
Their opponent will be the Malaysia national team.

Due to the early start of the match, we woke up and took a walk around 6 AM. Dawn came late, so our walk was still in the dark.
After breakfast, we left the hotel, but it was still dim. Today, Sporting, our opponent team, rode the same bus to the match venue.Everyone checked the ground conditions at the unfamiliar venue.Fortunately, the weather was cloudy, and although it was humid, the match was played in good conditions.
We had a pre-match meeting and warmed up with high spirits.From the kick-off, we pressed high with our forward defense, winning the ball several times and creating chances. It was a first half where we started with the defense we aimed for and maintained a compact defense. We forced errors from the opponent and didn't allow them many chances.In the second half, just like the first, we started with defense, and instructions were given to maintain defensive awareness.The opponent brought in fast players upfront and technically skilled players in midfield, going all out for the win.
We also played the same way as in the first half, winning the ball in the front and midfield to create chances, but we lacked precision in our final passes and shots, failing to score.

Today's hero was our goalkeeper, Maya Alex. In the second half, there were 2 or 3 dangerous moments from the opponent's fast vertical attacks, but he made excellent saves and didn't allow a goal.

Both teams lacked decisiveness and the match ended in a draw. Tsukuba Junior successfully advanced from the preliminary league, achieving their goal. At the end, both teams took a commemorative photo and praised each other's efforts.


In the other group, the Malaysia national team finished first and Aspire from Qatar finished second. The semifinal matchups are as follows:

Tsukuba Junior vs. Malaysia national team, Sporting vs. Aspire. The match starts at 11:00 AM.

After returning to the hotel and having lunch, the players did a cooling-down session in the pool led by trainer Ito.In the evening, after doing laundry and taking a nap, they made good use of their time before dinner by going to a shopping center (market) to shop.They returned to the hotel, had dinner, had a meeting, and went to bed. After dinner, they celebrated player Green Caiden's birthday with a cake.