The JFA Nadeshiko Square was held in Hokkaido on Sunday 17 August by the Muroran Football Association’s Girls Project, which is organised by the association’s Women Committee and Diffusion Committee. The light rain occasionally fell and it was rather chilly, but many children participated in the event.

As participating kids were instructed to “play freely until the meeting time” at the check-in, they altogether were all over the place chasing for the balls and chasing around each other with no regard for their ages and clubs or schools they were from. Therefore, the normal activity of name-tag making was omitted and instead children were let introduce themselves and remember each other’s name only through talking to each other. In ice-breaking games in groups and the game of tag played as team competition, the children did not need any help to start assigning roles by themselves and working together for better results.

Furthermore, in shooting drills, not only they played hard when their turns came around but also they cheered for others while waiting and older children often helped young ones. Good teamwork was certainly found among them. Parents joined their children to play matches together in the end. That was when the children showed their best smiles of the day.

Comments from Organiser

MORITA Kazunori, Vice Chairperson of the Muroran Football Association’s Women’s Committee
As a regional association we had been working on diffusing and developing the generation of these girls, but it wasn’t very strong in terms of meeting new people and building relationships. So we re-categorised our diffusion effort for girls in lower grades of primary schools as “JFA Nadeshiko Square” with our main focus on relationships. With support from local clubs such as Muroran Ice Birds, Hokkaido Otani Muroran High School Girls Football Club, and teams belonging to the Class 4 Committee of the region, we now have “JFA Nadeshiko Square” and “School” every month, two opportunities a month when girls play with only girls. By building relationships among them when they were in lower grades of primary schools, we can help them participate in training centres when they turn to upper grades, keep playing when they move on to upper schools, and get together and join the same club with friends. That makes women’s soccer in this region bigger and more active. Hopefully we will see a future Nadeshiko Japan player out of these girls that start their career in this region.

Comments from Participants

MASUKAWA SORA ・TERAYAMA SENA 
It’s fun to play football with girls. I still say only “hi” to many girls when I see them on the field, but I want to keep coming back and make more friends. I love playing matches and tag. Parents-children games are the best. The game we had many balls at one time was fun, too. I want to play more different tags.

JFA Nadeshiko Square

"JFA Nadeshiko Square" is a “place” and “time” for women, from little girls and grown-ups, to casually and periodically “start”, “enjoy” and “keep” playing football and futsal. We are looking for organisers as well.

More details here!