01 Jun 2018

Three Samurais in Nazaré!

Saki, Ozu and Goto represent Japan in the Euro Winners Cup

The Euro Winners Cup is a truly global beach soccer festival. A world agora where different cultures meet, mix and interact. Different ways of understanding life, sports, and beach soccer, coming from 48 different countries and five different continents.   

Three beach soccer players in particular can claim to be the ones who have come the furthest distance, though: Japanese Saki Kushiyama (Lady Grembach Lodz), Ozu Moreira (Falfala Kafar Qassem) and Takasuke Goto (ASD O Sotão) have travelled all the way from the other side of the world, flying 11.000 km to join a beach soccer competition that every player in the world wants to play in. 

However, Ozu and Goto already have experience in this competition, with the latter claiming the cup in his first ever appearance, in the ranks of Italian side Viareggio (2016), but this year was the first time for Saki at the Euro Winners Cup. 

Her arrival to the competition came thanks to Ozu and Bernardo Botelho, who have a good relationship with the Grembach Lodz management. A key player at Dorsole Kitakyushu, the team of her hometown of Fukuoka, she was immediately gripped by beach soccer, and looked for a way to join a European club, a chance she finally encountered.   

She had some experience playing on the sand, but had never competed at the highest level, and the first moments it was hard for her to cope with the pace, and the demanding level of physicality. But in a matter of days, she became a key piece in the team, thanks to her lightning speed and her eye for goal. 

With Beach Soccer, Saki is living a true passion. “It is very difficult, but very fun at the same time, and I love actions such as the bicycle kick”.

Her landing in the Polish team, despite the language barrier, has been very smooth. “She is highly regarded by her teammates. Not only because of her skills and how fast she is, but also because of her behaviour within the team. She is an example”, points Marek Miller, member of the Grembach Lodz management structure.  

With Ozu and Goto, two players she admires, she has two excellent examples to follow in her procedure of learning about the game. And without a doubt, she will make the most of it.