On Saturday 29 April, the day after the first match against Poland at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, Japan Beach Soccer National Team went through a light workout session for the second match on the following day.

Prior to leaving their hotel for the practice facility, the team studied film on their next opponents Tahiti. The workout started with light jog to ease the fatigue from the previous day’s match and moved on to trunk training employing rubber bands. Then they engaged in a game-style drill to carefully review the game plan against Tahiti which was just shared at the hotel. Coach Marcelo MENDES himself joined the players on the sand as goalkeeper to simulate the opponents’ expected tactics over and over again.

At the end of the session, the squad was separated into two groups, that of the players who played in the previous match and who did not, and adjusted the level of practice intensity to get in their best possible shape. The former group practised free-kicks and penalty-kicks, while the latter had shooting drills where shots were fired one after another.

At 15:00 local time on Sunday 30, Japan’s national team take on Tahiti, the runners-up of the last World Cup, at the second match of the group stage.

Players' Comments

FP #5 IINO Tomoyuki (Dorsole Kitakyushu)
We had a team meeting after breakfast for the Tahiti match tomorrow. And then we worked out to review our game plan. In the afternoon, we went to the stadium to watch just one match and we again learned the atmosphere around the pitch and how we should start off tomorrow’s match. There is no easy match, so we will make sure to get ready and put out our 100% efforts.

FP #4 YAMAUCHI Shusei (Ryukyu Erythrina)
We were able to finish up the first match in a favourable way and I was able to rest well yesterday. We have only one day between two matches, so I tried to spend today effectively. Everything including going through our tactics and taking care of our body is part of our preparation for tomorrow. We did good preparation, so we want to make sure to play well again and win tomorrow’s match without getting too excited about the first match. We want to pile up wins and reach the bigger result (that is winning the championship). Again we will play with our best. Please keep supporting us.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule may be subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017

27 April 2017 (Thu.) ～ 7 May 2017 (Sun.)
Tournament Information