2026/27 J Youth Cup, 33rd J.LEAGUE Youth Championship Tournament, Round 1

vs FC Gifu U-18

October 31, 2026 (Saturday) 14:45 KO
Venue: Gifu Prefectural Football Center

GAMBA OSAKA Youth 3-0 FC Gifu U-18
[First half 2-0 / Second half 1-0]

【score】
Esaka, Sakai, Kobayashi

[Starting Lineup]
GK landlord
DF Kasai (Naoki), Okamoto (Ryu), Kobayashi, Takehara
MF Sukegawa, Kasai (Tai), Higuchi, Esaka
FW Sakai Kagano

[Replacement]
Takehara → Nishiyama, Esaka → Sunada, Sukegawa → Ando, ​​Kasai (Tai) → Fujii, Kobayashi → Matsushita

【comment】
Hayato Esaka
Today's match was the second in the J Youth series, and since the previous match ended in a draw, we really wanted to get three points this time.
From the start of the first half, we had possession of the ball for extended periods and spent a lot of time playing in the opponent's half.
However, I think the team's weakness is that we couldn't capitalize on many scoring opportunities. In that context, I was glad that I was able to score the opening goal.
In the second half, we made some passing mistakes that gave the opponent chances, and there were times when we were caught out by counterattacks.
I want to focus on improving the quality of my passes in my daily practice sessions.
We will do our best to win the next match as well, so we would appreciate your continued warm support.

Oya Saku
Today's match is one we absolutely cannot lose if we want to advance to the knockout stage, and Cerezo won against Gifu 6-0 with multiple goals scored,
We went into the game determined to score 6 points or more and win.
We started the first half fairly well, but we struggled to score. We scored 2 goals in the first half and 1 in the second, and the final score was 3-0.
We had possession of the ball for most of the match, but we were unable to capitalize on our chances.
I realized that we need to improve the quality of our play in front of the goal during future training sessions.
In our next match against Nara Club, we will do our best to win with multiple goals scored and no goals conceded.

Thank you again for your warm support for GAMBA OSAKA Youth today.

https://www.jleague.jp/special/jyouth/2026-27/