The Japan Beach Soccer National Team, who has been holding a training camp since Thursday 28 February to prepare for the upcoming AFC Beach Soccer Championship at the tournament site of Thailand, played a training match against the Thailand Beach Soccer National Team on Saturday 2 March. The team went onto conduct a two-part training session on the following day, Sunday 3.

With many of the matches of the AFC Beach Soccer Championship starting in the late evening, the training match against Thailand was scheduled to kick-off at 8:00 pm to simulate the tournament. Despite facing a tough match after conceding the opening goal, the Japanese side managed to finish the match with a 3-3 draw. The match provided the team with a great opportunity to go over what they had practised, while taking away both positive achievements and new tasks to work on.

On the following day, the team started off the day with a training session in the morning, as the players were seen taking a light jog and stretching their bodies at the nearby beach from their hotel. The morning session wrapped up with the team playing foot volleyball under a relaxed mood.

In the afternoon, the team moved to the official match site to conduct a training session. Despite the limited time at the venue, the team worked on the tasks they took away from the match against Thailand to prepare themselves ahead of their training match against the Russian powerhouse, BSC Kristal.

The team will seek to gain momentum through their final training match scheduled before the tournament.

Players' Comments

FP #6 MATSUO Naoya (Aveldage Kumamoto BS)
Yesterday’s training match against Thailand made us realise that we need to make adjustments in many aspects, so we spent time making those adjustments in our training sessions today. It gave us the opportunity to work on the basics and conduct a session with a game-like mentality, which made it a very productive training session. We must maintain this level of intensity in tomorrow’s training match and the training sessions leading to the tournament.

FP #11 OKUYAMA Masanori (Loewe Yokohama)
Despite the unique nervousness surrounding the team ahead of the Asian qualification round, the team has been able to conduct the training sessions with a very positive vibe. Following yesterday’s match against Thailand, we have made the tactical adjustments, as well as to heighten our mentality towards the opening match of the tournament. We will give our very best within the limited time to achieve our goal of winning the championship.

Schedule

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