Three day championship for elementary school boys and girls “Vermont Cup All Japan U-12 Futsal Championship” is about to start on Sunday, 4 January 2015 and closing on Tuesday 6 January. This is a review report of the previous championship.

The 23rd championship was participated by 48 teams and divided into 12 groups of four teams each. Winner of groups and top four teams among second-placed teams advanced to the knockout stage, the final round of tournament.

The championship started with an excellent player’s oath by the captain of Lumiere Shusho (Tottori) and followed by 48 of first round games held the first day. On the second day, all 16 teams advancing to the final round were decided and 8 teams who edged the other sides went onto quarter-finals. On the last day of the championship, four teams advanced to semi-finals. Four teams were Vermelio (Niigata) and Vegalta Sendai Junior (Miyagi) who won penalty shoot-out respectively, Kounan-Minami Boys Soccer Club and Kashima Antlers Junior (Ibaraki) each showed highly offensive play.

Going on to the semi-finals, the defending champion Kashima edged Vermerio 9-6 after both sides aggressively attacking. In another match, Kounan-Minami managed to advance to the final by defeating Sendai, the runner-up of the previous championship. It was really exciting final worth watching them as both teams had a track record of winning the championship before.

Kounan-Minami was the side who dominated the game first. They moved on the other side’s pitch and TSUKUUI Takumi scored opening goal in the 2nd minute followed by four goal rush before 8th minute and kept taking control of the game. On contrary, NAMAIZAWA Yohan of Kashima pulled back shortly after and the first half ended 1-4. Both sides made offensive to moving close to the goal but the score stayed the same, Kounan-Minami claimed the title for second time since the 13th championship.

“All the players including substitutes concentrated to start the game and that excellent attitude was driving force behind we generated the great result” said head coach MATSUMOTO Yosuke who were the head coach when the team won the championship featuring HARGUCHI Genki (Hertha BSC Berlin/Germany）. Goalkeeper AKIYAMA and TSUKUI received the best player award and Kounan-Minami who excited the spectators with fantastic offence and defence clinched the 23rd Championship. The championship finally brought the curtain down.

Vermont Cup 24th All Japan U-12 Futsal Championship

Sun. 4 January to Tue. 6 January 2015
Komazawa Olympic Park General Sport Ground Gymnasium, Ota-city General Gymnasium/Tokyo

More information of the championship