Ocean Cup / Kobe Festa 2015 Report

By Steve Harris

Photos by Fuchu Athletic F.C., Hiroshi Gunki (official F.League photographer), Kosuke Kumano, Steve Harris

A Tournament Created in Kobe Combines with the F.League Cup
Like all major ports, the city of Kobe has long been an important entry way for foreign culture in Japan. Football in Japan was first played in Kobe and, similarly, futsal also found a home in the area as the sport was rapidly growing in the early 2000s. Deucao Kobe was one of the eight original teams in the F.League, Japan’s first nationwide futsal league that was initiated in 2007.

Two years later, regional futsal administrator Toshio Nakagiri launched an international futsal tournament that combined local color with foreign visitors. The Kobe Festa hosted the two local F.League teams, their second squads, regional selection teams and Brazilian team AABB. After six successful editions, the tournament was looking for a special way to celebrate the city of Kobe’s recovery from the devastating earthquake disaster that claimed the lives of 6,000 in 1995.

Opportunity for a special celebration came in 2015 as a result of the idea to combine the F.League’s cup competition – the Ocean Cup – with the Kobe Festa through the support of ball sponsor Sfida. This is how the name of the event became the very long: “Sfida F.League Ocean Cup / Kobe Festa 2015 – Project to Mark the 20 Years of Recovery from the Great Hanshin Earthquake.”

Budget Increases x3 and Schedule Is Demanding
The budget was tripled and the number of teams was increased to 18: all 12 F.League teams, the top two regional teams (the equivalent of the division 2) and four foreign teams. The 14 domestic teams were an automatic choice, but the four foreign teams were decided by different reasons. Latvian powerhouse FK Nikars Riga had already claimed the Kobe Festa title in 2014 when it was invited due to the sister-city connection between Kobe and Riga. A similar connection to Barcelona resulted in inviting a selection team from Catalonia that drew heavily on Spanish top-division side Marfil Santa Coloma. Kobe Deucao manager Ricardo Chiwata assisted in arranging a selection team from Brazilian state Mato Grosso do Sul and tournament pioneer Nakagiri personally contacted Korean champion Jeonju Mag.

With only six days to play, the tournament format became compact and demanding. The 18 teams were divided into six groups of three. The top first-place teams would be joined by the highest finishing second-place teams for the quarterfinals. Teams that advanced to the semifinals would end up playing five matches in six days. And the foreign teams were to stay only seven days in Kobe.

Foreign Teams Struggle
Three of the four foreign teams played their group matches in Kobe Central Gymnasium and only Korean side Jeojun Mag started at Kobe Green Arena, which is where the knockout of the tournament was held during the last three days. Knowing what most of the Japanese teams were like, I opted to watch the teams from Brazil, Latvia and Spain play their opening matches at Kobe Central. This was quite astonishing.

In match #1, Pecadola Machida faced the Mato Grosso do Sul selection team. It was clear that the Brazilians were a lesser side, as Machida easily penetrated the defense and finished with a 5-0 victory. The Brazilians would next lose to F.League team Voscuore Sendai 1-2 and be eliminated from the group. A vivid contrast was provided by FK Nikars Riga, the Latvian team that won the 2014 Kobe Festa and advanced to the UEFA Futsal Cup Elite Group in that same year. The team was made up of mostly Latvian national team members and was coached by Orlando Duarte, the legend who had overseen the rise of the Portugal national team into a world futsal power. He had the Latvians extremely well organized in defense and very good at catching opponents off guard at the other side of the pitch, but Nikars was no match for the lightning fast Fugador Sumida. And yet the Latvians were able to book a wildcard spot in the quarterfinals by beating Agleymina Hamamatsu in the next match.

Arguably the best of the tournament was the Catalonia selection team, which was very unlucky to meet with Espolada Hokkaido on the day the team from Japan’s northern island played like futsal gods. With players such as Corvo, who has previously been the top scorer of the Spanish second division, and Ruben, captain of Marfil Santa Coloma, Team Catalonia had the potential to win the tournament. But Hokkaido caught fire and were leading 6-2 by the time the Spaniards pulled their goalkeeper in favor of a power play. They had clearly not prepared for this contingency because they had to tape a #4 to the back of a jersey for Sepe to play as flying ‘keeper. The tactic produced two goals but those and an 8-5 victory over regional powerhouse Mikihouse was not enough to earn the Catalonians a place in the quarterfinals.

The Knockout Round Sees Controversy and a Historical Upset
Like Mato Grasso do Sul, Korean side Jeonju Mag scored only one goal in the tournament, which meant that the only foreign team to reach the last round was FK Nikars Riga, who was joined by Machida, Sumida, Nagoya, Kobe, Fuchu, Osaka and Hokkaido. Of these teams, Osaka had won the first two editions of the Ocean Cup and Nagoya the last five. Nikars was the Kobe Festa defending champion and the other five teams were looking for a first title. In the quarterfinals, Nagoya and Fuchu both shut out the opposition, while Nikars and Hokkaido went through to the semifinals on penalties. And this is where the tournament took on controversy.

In all of the matches up to this point, the behavior of the Latvian team and especially the manager Duarte had been quite poor. The Portuguese manager relentlessly argued with the officials, went beyond the technical area despite repeated warnings and would whistle in a very loud and misleading manner. It was quite strange that the referees had not dealt with him during the first three matches, but in the semifinal with Nagoya clearly a decision had been made in advance. Duarte was warned early about his misbehavior and then banished to the stands early in the first half. He tried to coach from the stands but was escorted further away. His team went on to lose 2-3 to Nagoya, Japanese and Asian champions of everything, while Fuchu scored a miracle equalizer one second from the buzzer to take Hokkaido to extra time and eventually book a place in the final.

Bad behavior continued to plague the Latvian team in the third-place playoff, where even Duarte’s assistant and a Nikars defender were sent off. But the Riga team managed to win the bronze in penalties (and possibly lose an invitation to next year’s event). Fortunately the bad aftertaste of the bronze match was wiped away by a final that was unimaginably good for Fuchu and the biggest nightmare Nagoya has ever experienced. Fuchu Athletic opened its account in the second minute of the match and was up 2-0 by halftime. Nagoya Oceans, in contrast, was at full strength but struggled to penetrate Fuchu’s defense and two goalkeepers that day, new acquisition Guilherme Kuromoto in the first half and normal starter Toshinori Tanaka in the second. By the time the final buzzer of regulation was sounded Fuchu had fattened the score line to 6-0 and secured their first ever title in the 15-year history of the club. Kuromoto, the Brazil-born Italian who started the tournament by allowing the Korean team to score their only goal, was awarded the Sfida Player of the Tournament Award in front of the 1600+ spectators on the final day.




































































Posted by Mico Martic --> mico.martic@futsalplanet.com