Our defense with high pressing seems very good and forces give-aways from Spain leading to our fast counter-attacks. I hope they can stick with this 2-1 score and maybe make it 3-1 soon.
Oino from the long distance forced a mistake from Spanish GK, and we're 3-1 ahead!!! I had seen it coming!
Wow, Spain now plays with the "flying goalkeeper"! I hadn't seen that since I was playing with my neighbors around age six! I am afraid I really know nothing about futsal!
Japan managed to let the clock run and the game ended. 3-2 and Japan reached the final of the tournament vs Portugal. Apparently we made a big upset happen since Spain were the absolute favourite to win the golden medal. But, if it's Spain-Japan in a knock-out stage match with some silverware at stake, there is no contest: be it an U-17 WWC, an U-20 WWC or a Futsal Youth Olympic, it will be a Nadeshiko win!!!
3-2 it is! Major upset! Japan will play in the final against Portugal. They had lost against them 0-2 earlier (last group match) but that was of no consequence as they qualified to semi's already by then.
At HT, at Young Olympic Futsal, it's Portugal-Japan 3-0. Difficult to imagine a comeback, not for the score in itself, but for how well Portugal is playing.
First goal in 8th second was very curious...imho Portugal player in front of Japaneses goalie should've been carded for obvious intent of handling the ball. Portugal is looking a better side, but is also obvious that they have more in tank as they played very easy semifinal (16-2 vs. Bolivia).
Huge achievement and progress, I remeber 2 years ago when Japan couldn't cope with Iran girls in AFC. Now they play for medals at world stage albeit in youth tournament (U15-18)... this team here has some future.
Talking about the youth olympic games, i have watched some of the sports, like climbing or athletics, and it was a very entertaining event. Especially the Japanese athletes were very successful, not only in futsal, and were able to collect many many medals. But there was one young athlete, that really caught my eye: Kitazono Takeru. He is a young gymnast and has had a really good showing. He won 5 gold medals out of 7 and it really looked amazing while he flew through the air There are even some comparisons with the great Kohei Uchimura. So if you want to watch his performances, the replay should be available on youtube (somewhere ).
Tomorrow's games: Nadeshiko League Cerezo vs Urawa 13:00 Beleza vs Inac 14:00 Nadeshiko League 2 Chifure vs Setagaya 13:00 Iga vs Bunnys 13:00
Not sure if the results of these two games had been posted (they possibly got lost in-between futsal updates): Shizuoka 0-0 Orca Setagaya (Yamamoto Naomi) 1-0 Harima So Setagaya are virtually safe right now and Nippatsu caught up with Harima at 2nd place
Watching Beleza vs Inac live (g'morning *yawn*) and it's HT, Beleza is playing like a well oiled Pep team. Stark difference to Inac.
Cerezo vs Urawa 1-2 Beleza vs Inac 0-0 Goalless match, chances wise it could have gone either way. Inac needed, Beleza deserved a win. Beleza got what Inac lacked, good positioning and decision making, very tight passing. Whereas Beleza kept the ball for long strings Inac resigned to quickly giving away the ball again and again through unforced errors. Honestly it felt more like a league leader playing against a lower table club, not 1st vs 2nd placed ones. Goal chance conversion is a general problem.