28 August (Sun.)
The U-19 Japan National Team, who are to participate in the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain in October, left for France to play international friendlies against the U-19 France and the U-19 UAE.

29 August (Mon.)
The U-19 Japan National Team arrived in France after 24 hours of travelling, including flight connections. The team mainly focused on running and stretching in order to recover from their journey. During the training camp, the players are staying at the National Football Centre of Clairefontaine owned by the French Football Federation. There are excellent practice grounds and facilities, as the national teams for each generation also attend practice sessions there, which allows them to concentrate on football.

30 August (Tue.)
With one day to go before the friendly, the U-19 Japan National Team held training sessions in the morning and in the afternoon. They also attended meetings prior to each session, in which the coach UCHIYAMA shared the aim of the practice. The players understood the team’s tactics before starting to train. They will play two friendlies against France on 31 August and 3 September, before leaving for the UAE.

Players' Comments

GK #23 OSAKO Keisuke (Sanfrecce Hiroshima Youth)
I look forward to playing against world-class teams during this trip. I’d like to show off my strengths – stopping shots and aggressively contributing to attacks, so that I will learn how competitive I can be at an international level. As I do understand I need to improve the technical aspects of my game, I’d like to work on that during this camp.

FW #13 KISHIMOTO Takeru (Cerezo Osaka)
This trip is a vital one prior to the final qualifying round. I’d like to play as a united team against the U-19 France and the U-19 UAE teams in preparation for the final qualifiers in October, so that we can build up positive momentum by getting good results. Personally, I want to contribute to the team to get positive results and be chosen for the final round.

MF #18 ENDO Keita (Yokohama F・Marinos)
We went through the team’s tactics in attack and defence in today’s practice sessions. First of all, I’d like to beat France, to whom we lost in Korea in May, in order to prepare for the final Asian qualifying round in October.

DF #5 OMINAMI Takuma (Jubilo Iwata)
I’m very pleased to join this trip. We focused on attacking practice in the morning, and worked on defence in the afternoon. I believe we prepared well for tomorrow’s game. I’d like to win the coming matches, so that we can build up positive momentum for the AFC U-19 Championship in October.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.