U-18 Germany Expedition Day 6.
Today, in the morning, we visited the stadium of the prestigious local team, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and watched the training of the TOP team. The players seemed to be thinking about their own dreams while feeling the greatness of the club's history and tradition firsthand.
The opponent for the fourth match of the Germany Series is the amateur team "Tiotona" from the 6th division of Germany. The match was played against the only adult team on this expedition. The kickoff was at 18:30 at the ground of the suburban town club "Schag".

In the early stages of the game, we were confused by the opponent's aggressive defense, which came deep into our territory, and we couldn't quite get into a rhythm.
Still, the FW line of Nishimoto Rui, Yoshimura Toshiki, and Hantani Yosuke show aggressive plays and shots, gradually taking control of the pace.
And at 32 minutes, Hanaya, who ran into the center from a cross from Yoshimura on the right side, calmly controlled the ball and slid it into the left corner, taking the long-awaited lead by seeing the GK well.
After that, we continued to dominate the game, but we conceded a goal due to a careless mistake in front of our own goal in the 40th minute, and the first half ended in a 1-1 tie.

46 minutes into the second half, Nishimoto receives the ball in the center of the opponent's territory and takes a powerful left-footed shot, piercing the goal's right corner from about 30 meters away!
Nishimoto took the lead again and in the 64th minute, Nishimoto stole the ball from a sharp forecheck and passed it to Katsuya Aihara. Aihara remained calm and scored a goal against the GK, making it 3-1.
In addition, Ryo SATO scored in the 77th minute and Yuki Jokatake added another goal in the 80th minute, leading to a final score of 5-1. This marked the first victory in the team's first trip to Germany.

Tomorrow, we will have a training match with Schalke 04, which will be the final game of our home expedition. We want to give our all and fight with all the strength we have, and return to Japan with one more valuable experience.

FW Nishimoto Rui's comment
"I'm glad we were able to grab our first victory as a team. We will continue to play with all our might towards another win tomorrow."
MF Shirogatake Yuki's comment
"I was surprised by the high level of physicality and speed. We also have things we can do, so we will play with confidence again tomorrow."
DF Watanabe Taku's comment
"There were some plays that didn't go as planned against their physicality and height, but there were also moments where we were able to cover it with quick decision-making and technical skills, so we want to make use of that."