The day after finishing up the first three-game series, Futsal Japan National Team players had relatively long free time.
They spent time off in various ways including recovering at a spa, relaxing in the own room and going out to a local market.
The training was short and only for 90 minutes from 8:15 pm. The training had only warming up and making sure some offensive sets. Only goalkeepers kept training afterward and made themselves work harder and longer.

From this point on in this trip, players will keep moving from city to city as they have a game at every stop. It will be a new challenge for players to maintain good condition physically and mentally and keep performing well in the three games left under such tough circumstances.

Players' Comments

Fujiwara Jun(Bardoral Urayasu)
Today we had a free time in the morning, and everyone did his own thing. The training started late in the evening, but I think everyone concentrated well. I haven’t played in the game yet, but I have to be ready at all times. So I prepare myself in the training and get ready to be called, and basically that’s how I want to move forward in the rest of this Spain trip.

Watanabe Tomoaki(Nagoya Oceans)
I started training with the team today. I watched last three games from the bench and I realized again how fast they are and how high their level is in the Spain league. I will work on my conditioning and get it ready for games. I want to keep working hard to get good results as a team and personally show good performance in the three games we have left. Today’s training was mainly about conditioning recovery and “quatro” plays. To work around the high pressure defence by Spanish clubs, it’s important all four players work together, and move toward the opponent’s end. How we can coordinate our offense between four players is the key and we will keep working on it in the training.

Nishitani Ryosuke(Daucao Kobe)
Training matches against Spanish clubs have so much to learn such as their speed, spacing, ball control, ball movement, set-pieces, and variation of passes. It has been a very good experience to see and feel those by playing against them. Also I have a lot to learn from my teammates. But I am trying to communicate what I need to tell them as well in order for me to mature as a player. During the same Spain trip last year, I couldn’t really play my game. But with that in mind, I think I am doing better in the training and the training matches. We still have more games to play. We will always face our weaknesses and keep playing hard to show our strength and get good results even at this high level of competition.

Hoshi Shota(Bardoral Urayasu)
In the last game, we played the best offense and defence so far in this trip. But we lost the game by letting it slip away from us. Not letting it slip away from us, but winning games even with a few crucial chances, that is what we need to try to do to go to the next level as a team. Today we had a free time in the morning to rest and relax. In the training in the afternoon, we tried some new system and started working on our new offense. The new offense requires a quicker judgement from us in terms of our body control and quickness. We need to keep reminding ourselves of that on the pitch. We will keep getting better in the rest of our training.