On 27 May, Nadeshiko Japan had an official training session at Minami-Nagano Sports Park stadium for the match of Kirin Challenge Cup 2015 against Italy, which will be held tomorrow. This is the last international match before the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015. At the press conference, Nadeshiko Japan head coach SASAKI explained the importance of this match against Italy in respect to the future challenge at the World Cup. “Even though we won the match against New Zealand on the other day, I’m not satisfied with our performance. So we treat the result of that match as a draw, and now we are more motivated to go for a win in the next match.” SASAKI also mentioned the importance of offense, which appeared to be the issue in the match against New Zealand, and giving many players a chance to experience challenging matches.

Their official training was open to the public for 15 minutes and the players checked the offense strategies during that time.

Italy National Team who is in 13th place on the FIFA Ranking, could not qualify for the World Cup since they weren’t successful in the play off of the European qualifying round. However, Japan hasn’t beaten Italy in their previous 7 encounters. Italian players are highly motivated since the qualifying round of UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 will start in September. “Our motivation is very high now, we are also excited to play against one of the great teams” says FW #8 Melania Gabbiadini. “It is our transitional time as a team, so this will be a test match for us to see how much we can do” says DF #5 Sara Gama. KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2015 match between Nadeshiko Japan and Italy will kick-off at 7:20 pm of 28 May.

Head Coach and Players' Comments

SASAKI Norio, Head Coach (Nadeshiko Japan/Japan Women’s National Team)
Italian players have excellent quality in skill. In that sense, we just regard this match as the future 2nd match against Cameroon and the 3rd one against Ecuador of the coming World Cup. In the previous match against New Zealand, we couldn’t move the ball round well and were unable to have good finishing and making good pass work, combination play and I think part of the reason was such a slippery pitch condition. We have had some training sessions particularly for offense training and we want to keep aiming at the goal and moving the ball round in the next match. What we learned in Kagawa was good sense of switching between defense and offense and more consistent defense. Now we want to add the extra strength for the future matches.

FW #11   OHNO Shinobu (INAC Kobe)
Tomorrow, we want to play better than in the previous match against New Zealand. I heard that Italy is a good team so I just want to play as much as possible maximising this chance to play with them. Tomorrow, I expect the front line players to attack in 1 vs. 1 situation. I will pay attention to make good forms to score not only from set-plays but also from other good attacking play. I want to challenge more, to be more active for contributing to getting goals.

GK #18   KAIHORI Ayumi (INAC Kobe)
I believe that doing my best for the team is very important. If all of us can play at our best for the team to win, we should be able to see good results in the end. Tomorrow, it will be the last international match before the World Cup, so all of us want to win the match to encourage ourselves for the up-coming challenges. The important thing is we do our best each day and we will be united to win the future games.

FW #15   SUGASAWA Yuika (JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies)
In the match against New Zealand, I could receive the ball well not being crushed by the opponents’ pressure. I want to keep working well to improve what I can do. I just want to contribute to the team as much as possible, so I just want to be ready at anytime when I will be called to be substitute. As a FW player, what I have to do is simple; I keep playing to score goals.

Antonio CABRINI, Head Coach (Italy Women’s National Team)
It will be a very important match both for Japan, who is joining the World Cup, and for ourselves since we are preparing for the qualifying round of UEFA Women’s EURO in 2017. The world wants to follow Nadeshiko Japan. We want to fill the gap between Japan and ourselves. This time, I want to see how much we can do against a top team.

We want to maximise each players’ ability as much as possible. We appreciate more technique than physical strength. In that sense, this time we will be quite offensive against Japan.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2015

Nadeshiko Japan(Japan Women's National Team)  vs. Italy Women’s National Team
Thu. 28 May    Kickoff 19:20 (subject to change)
Nagano / MINAMI NAGANO SPORTSPARK
Ticket Information (Japanese version only)

Shuttle bus information
Access information (Japanese version only)

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015

Information