The U-23 Japan National Team wrapped up their Portugal trip with a practice game against Sporting Clube de Portugal on 28 March.

Japan, who entered the game with a 4-4-2 formation, showed tough physical battles for the ball to take the initiative from early. But Sporting were physically superior and gradually dominated the ball. In the 9th minute, Japan goalkeeper SUGIMOTO Daichi fouled a Sporting midfielder, who became free as his teammates provided him a through pass. The Portugal club made it to have a lead. But Japan bounced back and take their pace, and midfielder MINAMINO Takumi, who received a pass from midfielder HARAKAWA Riki, fired a shot in the 23rd, which was stopped by the Sporting goalkeeper. In the 42nd, forward ONAIWU Ado took a shot but it went off the left side of the goal mouth. After all, the game entered halftime with Sporting up 1-0.

In the second half, both teams displayed a see-saw contest. Yet in the 75th minute, a Sporting defender committed a hand penalty inside the box with a shot by Harakawa. Harakawa kicked the penalty kick into the left corner of the goal himself to tie the game. Japan tried to take a lead afterwards but weren't able to do it, and the game ended as it was, 1-1.

With the result, Japan faired with one win and one draw in their Portugal trip, making it a valuable time toward August's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The next activity for the U-23 Japan National Team will be a training camp in Shizuoka, which will begin on 11 April.

Coach and Players' Comments

TEGURAMORI Makoto, Coach
It was a good training match for us. Against the second team of Sporting Clube de Portugal, we had to trail and it gave us opportunities to possess the ball, so it ended up being a good offensive training. It would've been great had we come on top in the end, yet we tied and it's good for us to be able to come home as losers. The best thing was our in-game mentality. We weren't rattled and have gotten tougher mentally, so we will proceed developing our team not having to worry too much on anything.

Sporting asked us to put some water on the grass before the game. Japan warmed up on a dry grass, so we thought it would be a good experience and we accepted it. It was good that we adjust to it, reducing our mistakes in the middle, to have some advantage, but we made too many mistakes on attacking third. But each individuals understood what they would have to work on. We had some accidents when we came over here, but I told our players that we executed our training and games as planned and it wound up being a good trip.

MF #7  HARAKAWA Riki (Kawasaki Frontale)
I have not failed a penalty kick so far, so I was calm mentally. The ball rolled over to me and my teammates didn't want it, so I kicked it myself. But I had some other chances to make and I have got to earn the strength to make them. In the flow of the game, we have got to be able to see differences and our offence have got to be more greedier for scoring goals. Individually, I lost in competing for the ball for a few times, while I made some mistakes in kicking into the right places, so I have got to pursue to reduce those mistakes. Sporting had more techniques and strengths than the U-23 Mexico National Team. It was a good opportunity for us to be able to feel it in the first hand.

GK #22  SUGIMOTO Daichi (Tokushima Vortis)
Personally I allowed them to score and it wasn't a performance I can be satisfied with, but as the team, we didn't get rattled trying to score and dominated the game as we tried to resume from our defence, not trying to give them further goals, after we gave up the goal. Also, we were able to eliminate their plans with our defence, and I felt our growth as the team. I think that we have become tougher as we'd competed through our battles in Asia. I came in the game with responsibility as the captain, but as a goalkeeper you have to have it whether you have the captain mark or not. I was told by coach after the game that there was an intention to let me know about it.

DF #15  KAMEKAWA Masashi (Avispa Fukuoka)
Sporting had floating passing and were a different team than Mexico. It was great for us that we played against different types of teams during this trip. It was a good experience for us to play against the defending Olympic champions and the win against them gave us confidence. But I believe that it's going to be different in a more tense game like in the Olympics, so we should not be content with winning, and each one of us has his own issues to fix, so we want to be aware of it.

Schedule

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