Nadeshiko Japan, competing in the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015, resumed training in Vancouver on 19 June to tune up for the first round of the knockout stage (Round of 16) against the Netherlands to be held on 23rd (24th Japan time).

After the team got through the group stage atop with three consecutive wins, Nadeshiko players got a day off for the first time since they arrived in Canada on 18th and spent their time as they pleased.

Under clear sky and strong sunshine, the players arrived at the practice site in a relaxing mood. Before starting practice, they had a brief meeting in a circle once stepping on the pitch with the words from head coach SASAKI Norio, saying "Refresh our mind and focus on each match."

In the first 15 minutes open to media, the squad worked on running and stretching with a lively look. The training session went closed-door then, but the players' firing voices were echoing to the outside of the pitch.

All the Japan players saw action in the three group stage matches and every one of them seems to feel her performance went well.

IWABUCHI Mana (FC Bayern Munich), who made an appearance from the 80 minutes in the match against Ecuador after coming back from injury she suffered just before the tournament, says "That was big 10 minute for me when I found I could play like that." She looked further at the upcoming contests, saying "I want to give some spark to the team."

Japan captain MIYAMA Aya (Okayama Yunogo Belle) says she "refreshed my mind as well" after the day off. "We will play like we are growing in each one of the matches," she added.

On a side note, FIFA revealed the stats from all the 36 group stage matches. According to them, the total number of goals scored was 107 and its average per match was 2.97. The total number of attendance was 885,369 and averaged 24,594 per match. The opening match of host country Canada held on 6 June in Edmonton, when the Netherlands vs. New Zealand was also held, gathered 53,058 fans, which was the highest number of attendance so far in this tournament.

Starting with a match between Germany and Sweden to be held on 20th in capital city Ottawa, the contests of the knockout stage first round will take place in different regions for four days until 23rd.

Players' Comments

MF #8   MIYAMA Aya (Okayama Yunogo Belle)
The key is how we can battle from now on. There are both the positive side and the negative side (so far), and we need to make clear each one of the assignments we have. We will play like we are improving in each one of the matches. In the Ecuador match, we had some spell when we were able to move the ball at a higher position, so we will try to improve such quality. My impression on the Netherlands is they are fast vertically. The Netherlands have good side attackers, so we need to stop that part and grab our own rhythm.

MF #13   UTSUGI Rumi (Montpellier HSC/ France)
The Netherlands have lots of big players, and we got info from Iwabuchi that they have an 18-year-old young striker. Of course, we are aware of keeping an eye out. But we will concentrate on what we have done and what we haven't done by focusing on our style of game because it's that of course every team at this stage has better physical presence and also has speed and power here.

FW #16   IWABUCHI Mana (FC Bayern Munich/ Germany)
When you lose an upcoming match from now on, it's going to be the end. So we will make a good preparation as a team. If we can score more goals, I think we can catch our momentum. But the most important thing is to "win," and it's good for the team to have kept winning so far. I hope I can give some spark to the team in such a situation.

I've been watching the Netherlands since the play-off of their qualifiers. Miedema (her teammate at Bayern) is young and powerful. And she is expected to be a key Dutch international. She is a great player, but I don't want to be outplayed. We won't win if we don't score, so we will get well-prepared. As an offensive player, I will focus on shooting accuracy.

FW #15   SUGASAWA Yuika (EF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies)
In the past matches, I struggled to score and there was a gap to my teammates in coordination. We have more time until the Netherlands match, so we will try to improve combinations. The number of shots we had was not big, and we will need to take shots from distance. We also need to improve our scoring touch. I won't give up until the end and try to make even a bit of contribution to the team within a given time period.

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015

Second Stage Round of 16
Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women’s National Team)    vs.  Netherlands Women’s National Team
Wed. 24 June - 11:00 (Japan time)

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