Blue Ayuyus drops friendly vs Japan Soccer College

The CNMI’s Sun Joon Tenorio, second left, stays close on defense against Japan Soccer College’s Ryogoku Funaba, left, during the second half of their friendly game yesterday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field. (Roselyn B. Monryo)

Japan Soccer College avenged its loss to the CNMI last year after pulling off a 1-0 victory against the host’s training pool players yesterday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.

Hikori Kobayashi scored the lone goal in the friendly match as he converted a header off a corner kick in the third minute. The Blue Ayuyus had a couple of chances to equalize in the second half, but failed to complete the plays. Alan Hinson had the closest opportunity to put the CNMI on the board when he also let go off a header after a corner kick, but Japan Soccer College defenders blocked the ball.

Hinson was among the starters for the Blue Ayuyus, joining goalkeeper Christopher Aninzo, John Diego Masga, James Ermitanio, Kennedy Izuka, Yoshi Mafnas, Evan Belcher, Joel Fruit, Sun Joon Tenorio, Ryan Relucio, and Ryu Tanzawa. The same 11 kicked off the action for the host team in the second half, while coach Kiyoshi Sekiguchi listed nine other players on the Blue Ayuyus’ roster. The list included Trey Dunn, Clayton Izuka, Alex Park, Joshua De Leon, Jonathan Capayas, Edwin Kim, Chad Shankweiler, Joshua Abragan, and Louie Calayag.

On the Japanese side, Kobayashi teamed up with Yeno Tomu, Takumi Kimura, Yoshimori Sugawara, Yoshei Takei, Kentero Tsuchiya, Ryoke Nagano, Shota Kihira, Taisei Taguchi, Ayumu Tabata, and Ryo Kasei. Five new players then started out for the visiting team in the second half.

Though the training pool failed to duplicate the CNMI Boys U18 National Team’s 2-1 victory posted against the same group last year, Sekiguchi, according to assistant coach Jersh Angeles, said the Blue Ayuyus played much better than their previous outing with the Japanese team. Several players of the youth team suited up for the training pool that dueled Japan Soccer College yesterday.

“Coach Seki said they played better than last year. He is seeing a lot of improvements in the individual skills of the players, but he wants them to learn how to play better as a team,” Angeles said.

“Coach Seki asked the players to be more aggressive on offense and worked together harder on defense,” the assistant coach added.

Meanwhile, the training pool will take a break from their practice session today and will be back in action tomorrow as it faces Chuo University Countries at 4:30pm. Angeles hinted that against Chuo University Countries, Sekiguchi may change his lineup.

Chuo University Countries will also play today against Japan Soccer College at 10am, while the latter will challenge the Saipan All-Stars at 5pm.

The series of friendly matches against the Japanese teams will help prepare the Blue Ayuyus for the East Asian Football Federation East Asian Cup 2016 Preliminary Round 1 that will be held this July.