F.League: Oceans capture inaugural crown

ODAWARA, Kanagawa Prefecture--Kaoru Morioka stuck twice as the Nagoya Oceans defeated Shonan Bellmare 5-1 Sunday to become the champions of the inaugural season of the five-a-side futsal national league.

The Oceans, the only professional club of the eight-club F.League, extended their winning streak to 12, and earned 50 points with two rounds of the season remaining.

Although the Oceans struggled in the first half, they netted four times after halftime at Odawara Arena.

"I'm relieved that we won the title," head coach Mario Tateyama said after the game. "As the only pro club in the league, we were under a lot of pressure because everyone expected us to be the winner. I thank my players for understanding my tactics so well."

Earlier in the season, the club sacked head coach Oscar Majikina after the first two matches because he apparently brought little or no game plan to the court. However his successor, Tateyama, is strong on game tactics.

"Until three matches after I took over, I was not satisfied with their performance. But the team quickly grasped what I wanted from them from then on," Tateyama said.

Nagoya's Morioka opened the scoring after receiving a pass from Teppei Maruyama in the second minute. But the home side equalized in the 13th minute by Ryuki Shinozaki.

Shonan took the rhythm after leveling the score 1-1 and created several chances with through passes going behind the Nagoya players.

Morioka busted the Oceans out of their dour mood by nailing a strong shot four minutes from halftime.

"I knew a draw was enough for the title," the Japanese Peruvian striker said. "But I wanted to celebrate the title with a victory. I hope we'll finish this season by winning the remaining two matches."

The Oceans then swamped Bellmare by netting three times in a row to make it 5-1.

It was typical Nagoya, which had strong performances throughout the season, scoring 90 goals and allowing only 26 goals, both league bests.

After 19 rounds, the Oceans boast an impressive 16-1-2 record. Their only defeat came in Round 7 on Nov. 4, when they met StellAmigo Hanamaki.

"Regarding skills, we don't have a big difference with the other seven clubs," Morioka said. "But we have a good atmosphere and circumstances to concentrate on practice."

The Oceans held two training sessions a day while the other clubs were not able to practice as much because amateur players have tighter schedules because of their jobs.

"We practiced as much as we could to win the title," said Yoshihito Sakurai, the general manager. "I hope the other clubs will become professionals in the future."

"The F.League shows that Japanese futsal has made great progress," added Kuniya Daini, chief operating officer of the league.(IHT/Asahi: February 4,2008)