NEWS

The Japan women’s Under-19 team clinched the AFC Under-19 Women’s Championship by beating Korea Republic 2-1 in the final on Wednesday night at Hankou Sports Culture Stadium in Wuhan, China.

Japan forward Mana Iwabuchi, who was named the MVP of the tournament, struck the tie-breaker three minutes from time to give her side their first title since the inaugural 2002 event.
Japan will take part in next year’s FIFA Women’s Under-20 World Cup in Germany, along with runners-up Korea Republic and third-place finishers DPR Korea. DPR Korea downed hosts China 1-0 in the third-place playoff on Wednesday.
“I am satisfied with the victory, which we achieved by playing our own brand of football, and I’d like to praise our players’ hard work,” said Japan coach Norio Sasaki.
The young Nadeshiko played aggressively from the start of the game and threatened the Korean goal with attempts from forward Megumi Takase and full-back Yuko Takeyama.
The first half ended scoreless, but the game came alive after the break.
In the 63rd minute, in-form Sawako Yasumoto dribbled up the middle of the park, beat a defender and fired a left-foot shot into the back of the net.
But five minutes later, the Koreans leveled the scores on a penalty by Ji So Yun after the Korean broke through the Japan defense and was brought down in the box.
The Japanese girls continued to attack hard and second-half substitute Ayano Dozono had a good strike in the 78th minute, forcing Korea goalkeeper Jung Jisoo to pull off a good save.
Three minutes from time, Takase took a long feed from Yasumoto near the byline and returned the ball to Iwabuchi. The Nippon TV Menina player then fired home the winner.
Japan midfielder Nozomi Fujita was named Player of the Match. Iwabuchi, who was named Player of the Match three times out of her four appearances in the tournament, finished as joint top goal-scorer with four goals with Ji of Korea Republic.
Iwabuchi said, “The Asian title has been my target for a long time and my success in this tournament will bring me confidence.
“All my teammates fought so hard today and I just put the ball into the net. I hadn’t done much for the team before that today, so the goal gave me some relief, and it turned out to be the winner, which will be a big boost for me.”
“Now we can shift our focus to the World Cup in Germany. We’d like to reach the last four this time and go one stage better than before,” Iwabuchi added.
Sasaki added, “There's not much difference between the top four teams in this tournament, but Japan can grow more and still need to do more to reach the top international standard.”