Ahead of their opening match against Australia in the AFC U-19 Women's Championship China 2015, U-19 Japan Women's  National Team had the final tune-up session for an hour in the afternoon on 17 August.

After starting with dribbling and juggling, they went on to working on one-touch passing drills in a small area and long-ball passing drills in a wider area. Lastly all the players finished their final day of training before their opener with going through build-ups from the goalkeeper.

Prior to the opening match of the tournament, a press conference was convened with the coaches from four Group A nations – Australia, Uzbekistan, China and Japan. Japan coach TAKAKURA Asako showed her enthusiasm for the tournament, saying "I'm really looking forward to the tournament. We all will have a strong determination to get a ticket to the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.”

Coach and Players' Comments

TAKAKURA Asako, Coach (U-19 Japan Women's National Team)
Our first opponents Australia had good games in the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada and have got great physical strength and speed. It's important to create imagination in collective defence and offence. With a strong determination to get a ticket to the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup at any cost, we all will head to the opening match.

MF ＃6   SUMIDA Rin (Nippon TV Beleza)
In the last AFC U-19 Women's Championship, we failed to get the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup spot and that was disappointing. This time we will definitely win it.

We will try to be cooperative to win the ball together in defence and look around carefully in offence. And we are thinking to build up our game by using both centre and sides on the pitch in different situations. We will try to show offence and defence in one and make the team that can help out each other.

MF ＃14   MIURA Narumi (Nippon TV Menina)
As the opener of the tournament is just one day away, I'm excited about showing off what I've done so far. I think the first match is the most important. We will get together to grab a win.

I will get involved in team's goals by challenging aggressively in offence and run harder and commit myself in defence. To show Japan's overwhelming performance and win the title, we will give it our best to play each one of matches.

MF ＃8   HASEGAWA Yui (Nippon TV Beleza)
In the last AFC U-19 Women's Championship, we had a feeling that we could make it, but we ended up losing and missing the spot for the World Cup. So this time we will battle every single match with a determination. On my performance side, I scored only one goal in the last tournament.

This time I will play aggressively toward goal and hopefully contribute to the team with my hard-running as well. We will put our determination together and play the tournament.

Schedule

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