Looking to capture their back-to-back Asian Games titles, Japan National U-21 squad left Chiba, their last camp site until the day before, for Incheon, Korea Republic on 12th.

The airplanes’ operation problem caused a long delay of the departure time and subsequently pushed back their arrival time at the Gimpo Airport of Korea to 1:30 pm, two hours and forty minutes later than the original schedule. From there the team took a bus to the athletes’ village in Incheon and finished necessary check-in procedures before moving on to a nearby practice facility without taking a break.

Although the players arrived at the practice still in their official dress suits, were hurried to get changed and start the practice, they did not seem affected very much. Head coach Teguramori gave his instructions and the well-focused practice was carried out. The first workout in Korea lasted approximately for one hour and had drills including one to make sure how each player is supposed to move when they possess the ball.

Comments

TEGURAMORI Makoto, Head Coach
It took a lot more than we expected to get here, so I was thinking I would have to change the practice to some light conditioning drills, but we could have some scrimmages, too. Our players were very flexible in that sense.
Now all we think about is the first match against Kuwait.
(For a question from a reporter asking about the chaotic trip they had to make to arrive in Korea.) Yes, it was quite a chaos, but getting frustrated in such a situation means you can’t control your mental approach to things. We want to be a group of players who are patient, big-hearted, only focused on winning and don’t get frustrated with things.
Once you are aware of the fact that all the staff at the JOC as well as the JFA has been supporting us, you know you are here in Korea Republic to represent your country. Our matches start before other sports do, so we feel that we have a mission to get the whole Japan delegation going with our plays. I hope we can do that.

Popp WILLIAM（Tokyo Verdy）
The national team is unique and different from our own clubs. You don’t experience that very often. We have a sense of urgency and I am looking forward to playing with this team.
I have a different goalkeeper coach, so I want to do my best to learn new things. (Spain -native Ricardo Lopez, who also coaches Japan’s top team, was appointed from this tournament.)

17th Asian Games （2014/Incheon）Groups