After defeating the U-19 France National Team in their first international friendly, the U-19 Japan National Team resumed their training on 1 September for their second contest. The players who played longer than 45 minutes went through recovery regimen that included running and stretching. They later soaked themselves in ice bath in their accommodation.

The other players worked for about an hour on 4-on-4 game-format training which included a neutral player and a goalkeeper. After the practice, they watched a film of the Japan-UAE game of the Final Asian Qualifier (Road to Russia) and then went out to Paris to see around the town for about two hours.

One day before their second French game on Friday 2, the squad had a training in the morning. They checked their offensive tactics and development, plays leading to the goal, and the timing of initiating attacks. After they played a 9-on-9 plus a neutral player game, offensive players worked on crossing and finishing drills from both sides, checking on the timing of when they should run in front of the goal. In the afternoon, they had a meeting using video footage of their first game and shared their views on the issues and achievements from this match.

On Saturday 3, U-19 Japan squad will take on France at Stade des Bourgognes in their second international friendly.

Players' Comments

GK #1  KOJIMA Ryosuke (Waseda University)
We worked on our offensive build-ups and crossing and finishing drills, while sharing our image inside the team. I feel that our rhythm and combination have improved offensively. We will play our second game against France tomorrow. Winning the first game, I believe that the opponents will come aggressively from the beginning. We should not get passive. We should focus our efforts on finding their weak spots and exploiting them.

DF #4  MACHIDA Koki (Kashima Antlers)
We worked out for our second against France. We checked our build-ups in order to share our image as a whole. Also, we watched the Japan-UAE game of the final Asian qualifier and felt that it’s difficult to play in Asia and in the world. Hopefully, we will play well tomorrow leading up to the AFC U-19 Championship.

MF #10  WATANABE Kouta (Tokyo Verdy Youth)
Ahead of tomorrow's game, in the morning we checked our offence ,and in the afternoon we had a meeting watching a film of our first game. We took the first game, but we still have lots of things to improve on, so we would like to work on those.

FW#11  KAKITA Yuki (Kashima Antlers)
I’m glad that I’ve been called up for the trip to France and UAE. We had an excellent first game, winning 3-0. We want to win tomorrow’s game convincingly before we travel to UAE. We will not only do our best to beat UAE, but seek to perform well also.

Furthermore, we need to gear up for the AFC U-19 Championship in October. Individually, I want to score as many goals as I can. We don’t have much time left in our trip, but we would make the best preparation possible for the championship.

Schedule

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