One day before their first match, the Japan national Under-18 team went through training, putting emphasis on deepening their tactics both in the morning and afternoon.
They held a meeting before the morning session. The players were explained with their team concepts and then checked on what they were supposed to do both offensively and defensively by watching the films of the games from last year's tournament.

After the meeting, they trained to emphasize on their offensive awareness in the morning, then defensive awareness in the afternoon, through practical game-style menus. Head coach Uchiyama frequently stopped the plays during the training to provide advices to the players. The more the players accumulated the plays, the better they became better in their qualities, exhibiting good plays both offensively and defensively.

The team will entre their first match of the tournament against Azerbaijan on the next day.

Players' comments

OGAWA Koki （Toko Gakuen High School）
I'm glad that I've been selected on the national team for the first time this time. I'm thrilled to play with different players in difference circumstances. I would like to tune up in my conditions and perform at my best, so I can contribute to help the team win the championship. I want to get a lot of experience and grow, and want to make this a great trip.

KOJIMA Ryosuke（Nagoya Grampus U18）
We've practiced for two days, and have revealed our good parts and bad parts as the team, and hopefully we can improve those bad parts into good parts by playing games. The first game will be important, so we want to win it with the entire team so we can get some momentum going forward.

Schedule

*The schedule may be subject to change according to the team condition, the weather, etc. without notice.

The 27th Valentin Granatkin Memorial International Football Tournament Group Rosters

   Group A: Russia, Lithuania, Moldova
   Group B: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia
   Group C: Bulgaria, Slovenia, Kazakhstan
   Group D: Slovakia, Saint Petersburg, Greece
   Group E: Moscow, Korea Republic, Finland
   Group F: Japan, U-17 Russia National Team, Azerbaijan