The 26th Universiade was held in Shen Zhen during 12th to 23rd of August. Among the members of East Asian Football Federation, the host country China, Japan and Republic of Korea participated in men’s game. For the woman’s competition, participates from East Asian Football Federation includes China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Republic of Korea. Japan Men’s Football Team; China Women’s Football Team wining the Football Champions respectively, brings high honor to East Asian Football Federation. China Men’s Football team and Republic of Korea Men’s football team lost in quarter finals respectively (China finished at 7th, Republic of Korea finished at 5th). Japan’s woman football team won the silver, Republic of Korea and Chinese Taipei finished at seventh and tenth respectively.
Led by YAMAMURA Kazuya, who participated in 2011 the Asian Cup qualifying match, Japan Men’s Football team became the champion once more after 2005. They were in group D with team Ghana, Canada, United Kingdom, winning the first place with two wins and one draw. In the quarter finals, they encounter China. During the second half, when they were down by one goal, the substitute KAWAMOTO Akito use his header equalized the score, again in the 34th minutes of second half KAWAMOTO Akito’s header won the match for Japan. The final score- 3-2. When the score tired at 1-1 in the semi finals against Russia, it was again KAWAMOTO Akito and MARUYAMA Yuichi successively scored for Japan and they went into the finals with a score of 4-1. Facing Japan in the final is United Kingdom. In the 29th minutes of first half against UK. KAWAMOTO Akito gets the assist from MUSAKA Mitsunari and scored, it is the third consecutive games which he scored. In the 13th minutes of second half YAMAMURA Kazuya scored the penalty for Japan and eventually beat UK with a score of 2-0 and became the champion of men’s football.
Try to won their second champion after twenty years, Republic of Korea finished at fifth place. Facing Columbia in the first match, with exceptional performance from KIM Byung Oh and others, they won by 4-1. In the second game against Namibia, defender CHO Yung Hoon and striker SHIM Dong Woon each scored one goal and beat Namibia with a score of 2-1. In the last game of group game, Republic of Korea entered into quarter-final as the first place in Group A. Lost to the UK, however, as the opponent scored at 19th minutes of second half, eventually lost by 0-1. Although out of the medals, YU Sang Hun and KIM Kyeong Min, two goal keepers played great during 5th-8th places competition. They beat Italia and Uruguay, finally got the fifth place.
The host China who lost to Japan in quarter-finals, finished with 7th place. In the match against Japan, China conceded a goal at a very early stage. They bounced back in 22nd minutes with a goal from FAN Zhiqiang, two minutes later YANG Yang helped them to gain the lead. However, because lack of defense, they eventually lost to Japan in front of the home crowd. Midfielder Fan Zhiqiang had an amazing performance, scored three goals in two matches (against Namibia 1-1, Columbia 3-0). The team deserves praise for its hard work on the pitch. In the last group game, China draws with Korea, 0-0. Also in the 5th-8th competition, didn’t concede a goal against Italia and Uruguay. During all six competitions, China only conceded goals in two of them, which showed their strong defense.
In the women’s football competition, China beat Japan in the overtime and won the gold metal. China conceded a goal in the first half of 33rd minutes; PANG Fengyue scored the equalizer for China in the second half. In the 14th minutes of overtime, China’s defender XU Yanfen received corner kick and shot the ball on the crossbar, striker Fan Tingting scored with a header and helped China to win the game. Beside the quarter final game with Russia, which China won with relative ease (4-1). China’s other games score were close. In the group game, 2-0 beat Taipei, 1-0 beat Canada, 3-2 beat UK, every game was not easy. In the semi-final against Brazil when the scored tied after 120th minutes played. China won by penalty shot eventually (4-3). China woman’s football team never gave up in the crucial time proved being the key reason for them to won the gold metal again in Universiade after 1993.
Trying to won the first woman’s football gold metal, Japan finished with the runner up of the competition. In the the 33rd minutes of the game against China, defender TAKEYAMA Yuko intercepted the ball and assisted striker NAKADE Hikari scored the leading goal. However, Japan made some mistakes after the first goal and conceded two goals instead, lost to China eventually. Though lost to Brazil in group game (1-3), beat Canada with a big margin (6-0). Beat France in semi final (3-2), Japan showed to the world how good their offense game can be.
The champion of 2009 Universiade woman’s football, Korea, lost to France in quarter final, finished with 7th place. In the group game against South Africa, substitute CHOI Yoo Jung scored two goals, Korea won the opening game with a score of 4-2. In the next game, Korea draw 1-1 with Mexico, 1-0 beat Russia which was the last opponent of group, got into the quarter finals as the group leader. However, in the quarter final against France, conceded two goals in first half. In the 40th minutes of second half, MOON Mira scored a goal for Korea. They lost the game in the end. Didn’t accomplished the goal of defending title, they lose again in 5th-8th place competition to Canada with 2-3, beat Mexico, 3-2, finished with 7th place in the end.
Chinese Taipei finished with 10th place among 12 participated teams. In the game against UK, striker TSENG Shuo scored in 42th minutes for Taipei. UK equalized the score with a penalty. The game finished with a draw (1-1). After, they lost to China (2-0) and Canada (3-0), entered into 9th-12th competition with the last place of the group. In the match against Astonia, midfielder CHEN Yahuei scored two goals, striker TAN Wenlin also scored a goal for Taipei. They won by 3-0. After that, they draw both their matches against South Africa and UK. Taipei who used to participate in East Asia Women Football Championship final stages, used their performance in Universiade to show their determination and strength to perform at the world stage.
PHOTO:Reiko IIJIMA
