The second stage of the Olympic qualifiers prep camp of Japan Women's National Team entered its third day on Monday 15 February as the shortlisted squad worked on game-style practice just as the previous day.

The session starting at 15:00 was the only training of the day. After having a meeting with video footage at the practice site, they worked on passing drills, a 10-on-10, game-style moves on a small-sided pitch and an intrasquad scrimmage on a full-sized pitch in order to go through their combinations.

As well as improving their team tactics and shared understanding, coach SASAKI is focusing on their condition for the final Asian qualifying round, which will get underway on 29 February in Osaka. As the matches will be played with only one-day interval even before the regular domestic league starts, the players need to be in good enough shape to cope with the tough schedule.

On the last day of the first camp in January, the team’s physical coach OKAMOTO Ryugo gave a lecture about the required condition when regathering at the following camp. Okamoto spoke of the current situation," the numbers we collected on the first day were good, and the players seem to move well during games. That's a token that each player was conscious about improving condition before coming here."

Forward OHNO Shinobu said, "our condition now is better than when we were in the first camp. We will take it day by day and hopefully try to make the training valuable for the next stage." The squad will further tune up in the remaining Okinawa camp and prep one-week training in Osaka.

Players' Comments

MF  SAKAGUCHI Mizuho (Nippon TV Beleza)
We have a lot of game-style training and have time to sort out what we could and couldn’t get done in the Ishigaki-jima camp, and our combination side is also working smoothly. I think one of each player's goals is to showcase herself to be selected to the final qualifying round squad. Playing in a competitive environment is good for the team. As an individual, I hope I can create our game with passes that directly lead to a goal and passes to sides. During the limited time until the real match, we will try to communicate well with each other.

MF  KAWAMURA Yuri (Vegalta Sendai Ladies)
I want to grow by learning a lot from other players after challenging a lot of things and making mistakes in a game-style practice. We want to move the ball more and players themselves also need to move to break through the opponents. And on defence, a little gap leads to a pinch, so we've got to improve more. Playing at multiple positions is my strength, and I will try to showcase that in daily training.

Schedule

*Local time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.

Asian Qualifiers Final Round (Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016)

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