Many of the tournament officials, coaches and three players from each team joined the welcome lunch hosted by the organizers on 10 August, one day before the tournament kicks off. From the Japanese National Team, coach UCHIYAMA, players YOSHIHIRA Tsubasa, IWASAKI Yuto and KOGA Taiyo attended it and expressed their mind-set toward the tournament. Uchiyama competed in the first edition of the tournament and talked about his experience of that time.

The team began a training from 16:00. After they checked their own tactics of both offence and defence, they worked on positioning at set plays, and wrapped up the training with penalty kicks. The 40th of the SBS CUP International Youth Soccer championship will start on 11 August.

Players' Comments

DF #5  HAMA Taiyo (Consadole Sapporo U-18)
We were able to share a lot of things during the practices in these three days. But we shall not be satisfied and should focus on developing our team, taking communication inside our team both on and off the pitch. The games will kick off from tomorrow, so we are going to have good preparation and get in the contests in good condition.

DF #4  SUGIOKA Daiki (Ichiritsu Funabashi High School)
Today, we watched some films on Costa Rica before our training and checked our offensive and defensive formations, assuming what kind of formations they would come against us. We attacked communicating well with each other with good tempo, and we had some moments that we robbed the ball. So we would like to do that in tomorrow’s game. Tomorrow will be our first game of the tournament, and it’s going to be an important game. So we would like to go for the win being united as one, while I want to boldly exhibit many of my strengths individually.

MF #8  KAJIYAMA Kanta (Nagoya Grampus U18)
I was picked up for the members for this SBS Cup this time, and I’m glad I’m here. We are going to play against some good teams like Costa Rica, Slovakia and Shizuoka, so I want to be particular about both how I play and results. By playing well in this tournament, I would like to develop my game.

DF #2  HASEGAWA Takumi (Albirex Niigata U-18)
Today, we practiced in the afternoon to prepare for tomorrow’s game. During the practice, we checked our set plays, offensive combinations, and defensive plays. Because it was the third day in this training camp, we have been able to communicate with each other better both on and off the pitch. So we would like to keep it up and play as hard as we can, winning tomorrow’s first game and eventually win the championship.

Schedule

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