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Preseason or not, V-Varen Nagasaki got a glimpse on Sunday night of what it hopes the end of its 2019 campaign may look like.
After a 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer in the Pacific Rim Cup championship game, players were awarded gold medals and a trophy before posing for photos on the Aloha Stadium turf.
V-Varen Nagasaki has not won a J2 cup since being promoted to Japan’s second-tier of professional club soccer in 2013. When it opens the regular season on Feb. 24 against Yokohama FC, the hope is for the success it had in Halawa to carry over.
“This season, we have new coaches. It’s a nice experience for us to win,” forward Takashi Sawada said through an interpreter. “This is my first time in Hawaii. It’s beautiful here. It was a nice experience for us.”
Real Salt Lake was aggressive in the early minutes, but didn’t have any goals to show for it. Sawada broke a scoreless tie in the 19th minute for V-Varen Nagasaki, and Masashi Kamekawa doubled the lead in the 38th minute, giving the team a 2-0 advantage at the half.
Both teams missed early chances to score in the second half, which set the tone for a defensive stalemate until Real Salt Lake’s Julian Vazquez stunned V-Varen Nagasaki with a strike from 25 yards away, finding the top left corner of the net.
But any hopes of an RSL rally were thwarted when Takumi Nagura scored for V-Varen Nagasaki just a minute later to seal the victory.
Real Salt Lake’s lone score was the first professional goal for the 17-year-old Vazquez, who signed in October out of RSL’s U-17 Academy.
“It was really special,” Vazquez said. “That was my first professional goal so I was just very excited for the moment. Hopefully I get more.”
As the team prepares to head back to the cold of Utah, Vazquez already knows what he’ll remember most about his first trip as a professional, warm tropical weather aside.
“Definitely my goal,” he said, flashing a wide grin. “It’s a beautiful place and it’s definitely a nice place to come out here for preseason.”
In the third-place game, Iwaki FC edged Vancouver Whitecaps FC 1-0, thanks to Byron Vasquez’s penalty kick in the 86th minute.
Afterward, Vasquez fielded and answered questions in Japanese and Spanish, reflecting on what he felt was a successful trip to the islands after ending it victoriously.
“To be able to play against the top league from America was fun,” Vasquez said in Spanish through an interpreter. “Experience and confidence is what we can get the most out of these games.”
Iwaki FC heads back home to Fukushima Prefecture to compete in the sixth-highest tier of Japanese soccer in the Fukushima Prefecture Football League, knowing that it is capable of winning against its counterparts from the top league in North America.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC head coach Marc Dos Santos saw the club’s two games at the PRC as the first phase of preseason training.
The team is scheduled to fly to Los Angeles for two weeks of training with games against the LA Galaxy, Club Tijuana and LAFC. Whitecaps FC opens its season March 2 at home against Minnesota United FC.
Dos Santos says the trip in Hawaii was useful for getting reps for some of the team’s younger players. The upcoming excursion to Southern California will involve getting some of the team’s more experienced players involved before the regular season.
“We talk a lot about our vertical integration of the club. Some players in the last 30 minutes were 16- and 15-years-old. I think it’s a great experience for them,” he said. “We see our camp in two parts. In Hawaii, we had a lot of young kids to give them experience and an opportunity to be exposed to something like that.”
Dos Santos also mentioned the challenge of playing two international clubs in three nights as one that will better his team over the course of an MLS season. Whitecaps FC lost to V-Varen Nagasaki 3-1 in Friday night’s second semifinal.
“That helps not only in the physical part, but it also helps in our tactical growth. I wouldn’t like to have a preseason of five matches against MLS teams. You play them all year,” Dos Santos said. “Here, it creates something different and unique mentally. I like the fact we have to deal with teams that are different.
“Japanese clubs are intense in their work. They’re very disciplined. Physically, they don’t stop. It’s a great test for us and I think we’ll benefit from it for sure.”
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