Mon. 21 September
U-18 Japan National Team has started its training camp in Shizuoka prefecture. The team will take part in the AFC U-19 Championship 2016 Qualifiers which will begin on the 2 October. For the first day, the players had running and stretching exercises since many of them had had club matches in the previous weekend. The team’s Conditioning Coach OGAI Tomohiro led the sessions using heart rate monitors to check the players’ physical condition.

Tue. 22 September
In the morning of the second day, they had a circuit training session using the ball. They did 8 sessions which were divided into 3 sets; 2 sets of 40 second sessions and 1 set of 20 seconds. It was a hard fitness training but the players completed all of the sessions while maintaining a positive and encouraging atmosphere.

In the afternoon, they played short 3-on-3+GK games which were only 90 seconds long and were played on a 40m × 35m pitch for a number of times. Even though each game was only 90 seconds long, this is very physically-hard training since the players had to keep playing with good thoughts to quickly switch between defence and offence, and to predict what will happen next. The players off the pitch kept encouraging their teammates on the pitch.

U-18 Japan National Team will have two practice matches against Jubilo Iwata on the 24th and against Shizuoka Sangyo University on the 26th. The team will depart for Laos where the qualification match takes place on 27th.

Players' Comments

SAKAI Daisuke (Oita Trinita)
The final training camp for the qualification in Asia has started. As a team and as an individual player, we want to prepare well for the first match. We have a good mood aiming at a common goal, so we want to keep this good atmosphere amongst ourselves. We would like your support.

NODA Hiroki (Otsu High School)
Today we had fitness training in the morning and in the afternoon we mainly had 3-on-3 sessions in front of the goal. We have had a good atmosphere in the training so we expect that all of us have got ready well for the first match on 2 October.

HIROSUE Riku (Aomori Yamada High School)
While each of the players has different condition, we have been able to keep a good level of concentration during the training prior to the first match of the qualification. However, we couldn’t make strong and consistent defence in the critical situations in front of the goal so I want to improve my coaching to make my teammates move more.

During the 3 up-coming qualification matches, we have only 1 day breaks in between the matches. Conditioning will be important, so I will prepare well to face the matches in a perfect condition.

Schedule

Note: Training and Training Match held in Japan are opened to public.
Note: The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.