U-15 Japan National Team entered their second day of the East Japan training camp.

The U-15 shortlisted squad continued to work on practical drills using balls today in the same way as their Western Japan camp. Head coach Moriyama Yoshiro explained their objective toward the training before the morning session. “Keep quality of offence in mind. When playing defence, let’s try to foresee the following offensive move,” said Moriyama. The players apparently kept the words from yesterday’s meeting in mind and showed aggressive plays toward goal. As Japan boss Moriyama kept praising loudly saying works like “good ball” and “nice action,” the players tried to live up to his expectations. In the afternoon, the squad practiced attacking with cross balls. Under coaches’ demanding instruction, they went through the patterns over and over with an actual match in mind. In the end, the team had an 11-a-side intra-squad match with eyes for tomorrow’s match. Heated performances were able to be seen including intense challenge on the ball and sliding interceptions. “We were able to improve our mindset on defence a little bit after we discussed that yesterday,” said Moriyama to wrap up their training session of the day.

In the meeting after dinner, the players watched video clips of world-class players, and their boss Moriyama taught them the importance of positioning in offence and defence. They ended the meeting with watching a video about Gamba Osaka midfielder Endo Yasuhito. The focus was Endo’s story during and after the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany. He was selected for the national team then but had hard time because he never got to play in the tournament. Later he came back with his persistent efforts and went on to be a pivotal player on the current national team. The squad will have training matches against two Kanagawa Prefecture’s leading powerhouses, Shonan Bellmare Youth in the morning and Atsugi Kita High School in the afternoon.

Players' Comments

MF   MACHIDA Fukuto (Nagoya S.S.)
I worked out at today’s training with an objective to show more vertical dribbling with always goal in mind, which I wasn’t able to do yesterday. In the match on a small-sized pitch in the morning, I wasn’t able to play as I wanted. But in the intra-squad match, I tried aggressive dribbling to follow my boss’s advice “Try without fear of making mistakes” even though I didn’t eventually score. Our coaches Moriyama and Saito Toshihide proceed practice only after we understand the practice concept and their instructions, so that makes it easier for us to work out. In tomorrow’s match, I will try to show not only dribbling challenges but also my strength, getting involved in both our offence and defence.

MF   EGUCHI Hikaru (Honda FC)
I wasn’t able to play my game at the beginning because I was tensed. But today the quality of my cross balls seemed to get better, so I’m looking forward to seeing how well I can do it in the match tomorrow. Head coach Moriyama gives us many positive feedbacks and heated pep talks, so we easily understand what we are expected to do. Tomorrow, I will keep defensive efforts in mind and hopefully cap an assist with being careful of cross ball quality.

DF   TAKE Mahiro (Tokyo Verdy Junior Youth)
I haven’t been able to show my strength of hard-working play, so tomorrow I will do things like actively calling out to get more ball touches. In defence, I will try to be tenacious on one-on-one situations and throw my body in front of goal even against physically strong opponents. Head coach Moriyama gives us clear explanations with some gestures, so I will try to live up to his expectations.

MF   KURIHARA Shusuke (Yokohama F. Marinos Junior Youth)
My strength is to get involved in as many plays as possible through active communications with other players, so I will play the match to get a good result at any position I’m given. In the intra-squad match and other situations, I’ve got lots of advice on defensive mindset and positioning, so in tomorrow’s match I will show successful results from the training such as defence against cross balls and transition between offence and defence. I want to play the match, clearly figuring out what the team is expected to do and what I am expected to do.

Schedule

※The schedule is subject to change due to condition of the team, the weather, etc.