The second-day training started at 9.30 a.m. under strong sunshine. 

After warm-up, stretch and sprint drills led by Trainer Namiki, players’ apparels instantly got soaked with sweat as drinks prepared were finished up in a blink of an eye.

In the afternoon, it turned to cloudy, unstable weather with some light sprinkles.
But after it got better in a moment, players repeatedly took up practical trainings for the final qualifiers.

A training match against U-16 Iran Nation Team will be held on Wednesday 6 at 4 p.m. Iran won the Caspian Cup in May, beating Turkey 1-0. For 98JAPAN, who have not experienced matches against Middle Eastern countries, the match will be a good experience for the upcoming final qualifiers.

*98JAPAN = the nickname of U-16 Japan National Team, aiming for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile

Head Coach and Players Comments

YOSHITAKE Hirofumi, Head Coach
Under the big theme of the final 23-player selection, I spoke my personal point of view to each player. I told a player believing he is good at dribbling that his strength is actually passing. I told him so because I wanted him to know using lots of passes makes his good dribbling skills more effective. For a player who didn’t recognise his superior post play skill, I wanted him to know running behind opposing defenders allows him to receive a ball more easily. For a player who couldn’t show what he really had on the pitch, I encouraged him to recognise that the reason lies in his mental issue as he showed dark expression on his face in the morning meeting. That’s not only for those three players I picked up just now. I hope what I said will be a trigger for the rest of the players to analyse themselves as well. I hope players will have a kick-off of the tomorrow’s match against U-16 Iran National Team as being looking for what is useful and advantageous for the team.

ASADA Shogo (Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18)
In the 11-a-side game-style practice in the afternoon, my speciality left-foot deliveries lacked accuracy and most of the passes went wrong. Thinking of tomorrow’s match against Iran National Team, the plays I did today will not work at all. I will look around me more often, make quick decisions and try to fight for the team.

DOAN Ritsu (Gamba Osaka Youth)
On the day two of the camp, I’ve been working while I try to keep it in mind to improve what I need to solve, the amount of running. As a team, we all spoke out and appeared to be coming together. Tomorrow against Iran National Team, I will try to get involved in our scoring goals and aggressively challenge with everything we’ve built up in the training.

SUGA Daiki (Consadole Sapporo U-18)
I was concentrating on playing as watching out for opponents, but my concentration was sometimes distracted when I got tired. If I get an opportunity to play the match against Iran National Team, I will try to improve on my assignment, “watching out for opponents” and making efforts to show what I have especially when I get tired.

Schedule

Future Schedule