NEWS

Nadeshiko League champions Urawa Reds Ladies and defending All-Japan holders Nippon TV Beleza will face off in the final of the All-Japan Women’s Championship on January 1 at the National Stadium in Tokyo, after the two powerhouses won their semifinals on Monday.

Playing at Nishigaoka Stadium, Saiko Takahashi and Kozue Ando scored in Urawa Reds’ 3-2 win over INAC Kobe Leonessa.

Urawa played good football as they took control against last year’s runners-up, and took a 2-0 lead by the midway point of the first half.

In the 13th minute, Kobe’s Megumi Takase attempted to clear a Miyuki Yanagita corner at the near post, but only managed to direct it into the back of her own net.

Eight minutes later, Takahashi struck with a header after Akiko Niwada hit the bar.

Kobe replied in the 26th minute when Maiko Nasu headed home an Ayumi Hara free-kick in the area, and the goal helped the team get back into the game.

But Nadeshiko Japan player Ando struck in the 39th minute to put Urawa 3-1 up at the break.

Kobe rallied hard in the second half and pulled one more goal back through substitute forward Emi Nakajima in the 89th minute.

“We played at our usual pace and did well in the first half, but made our job harder by giving away goals,” Reds manager Hiroshi Muramatsu commented. “However, in this kind of tournament, the important thing is to win.”

“We will be the challengers in the final, so I hope we can show our brand of football and have a good New Year’s Day.”

“Giving away three goals in the first half hurt us a lot,” Kobe manager Keiji Tabuchi said. “We couldn’t play as we usually do because of our players’ condition, and they were overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the game at the beginning.

"We wanted to reach the final for the second successive year, but we are still missing certain things in our game and you cannot beat your opponents by temporarily fixing those things at this stage of the tournament.”

Later in the day, Nadeshiko Japan top guns Yuki Nagasato and Shinobu Ohno scored to help Beleza come from behind and beat TEPCO Mareeze 2-1.

Mareeze, who had beaten Beleza twice and drawn once in their league matches this year, went ahead in the 12th minute when Akie Igarashi headed home an Aya Samejima cross.

The team from Fukushima Prefecture then went on to take control of the midfield, but Beleza rallied in the second half and Nagasato equalized with a header off a Yukari Kinga cross in the 54th minute.

The two-time defending champions went on to dominate the game.

Eight minutes after going ahead, Ohno took a pass from Nagasato and cut into the box before slotting home the winner from 15 meters out.

“It’s good that we have advanced to the final,” said Beleza manager Kei Hoshikawa. “We knew we might have to give up one goal against them, and after going down 1-0, we suffered mentally for while. But having said that, we created a number of chances and I’m satisfied with that. We’d like to polish our game to prepare for the final.”

Mareeze manager Masaaki Kanno commented, “Our players worked hard and tried to show what we’ve worked on during the season.

“I knew we wouldn’t be able to keep the 1-0 lead to the end and that Beleza would fight back in the second half. We wanted to play the ball around as we had planned, but Beleza didn’t let us do that. We have to improve our game by one more level or we won’t be able to win tournaments like this.”

Friday’s final is to kick off at 10:30 a.m.