In the morning on Thursday 6 October, the women squad visited the mosque to experience the Islamic culture. All the players commented ‘it was a wonderful experience”, as they spent precious time exposing themselves to foreign culture.

In the training in the afternoon on natural turf, they worked on pass and control drills, long pass exercises, then moved on to playing intra-squad scrimmage, and wrapped the session up with shooting practice. Everyone maintained a high level of concentration, listening attentively to the coach Kusunose’s advise, and worked diligently.

After the training, they moved to Amman International Stadium, the venue of the match against the U-17 US squad, and had an official practice session. This is also the stadium where the final will be held, and the squad members felt the actual grass and the atmosphere on the pitch. They had a highly-focused, fruitful training day.

Players' Comments

KUSUNOSE Naoki, Coach
Since when I started to coach the U-17 women squad, we faced the US twice and lost both of them. They are our rival team that we are aiming to become. I am looking forward to compete against them the day after tomorrow. We only have one group-stage game left, but, looking ahead to the knock-out stage of the tournament, we need to maintain our current in-form condition and get ready for the game.

MF #7 TAKARADA Saori (CEREZO OSAKA SAKAI Ladies)
We do not have any pressure to play the game against the US. We are constantly looking forward, and we have been in good form to compete for the next match. The US team are very strong, and I have great respect for them. However, we are not thinking about losing either, and we will be making the best preparation possible to win the match.

Schedule

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