Friday 20 marked the fourth day of the training camp in Costa Rica for the Japan National Beach Soccer Team as they made the final preparation from 11 a.m. for the training match against Costa Rica tomorrow.

After running and stretching, the squad worked on passing drills starting from the goalkeeper and finishing with a shot before holding a game-simulated practice for about an hour. They went through a series of combination plays in the scrimmages to work on the issues that came up during this camp.

The whole team paid a visit to the Japanese Embassy in Costa Rica in the afternoon. They met Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Costa Rica SHINOHARA Mamoru for 30 minutes. Ambassador Shinohara discussed about Costa Rica and Japanese Football and gave them encouragement: “I hope you can capitalise on what you’ve learned in this Costa Rica camp and I wish you the best of luck for the March’s World Cup Qualifiers and the World Cup.”

Japan Coach Marcelo also showed his enthusiasm, saying “the climate and training environment in Costa Rica is wonderful, and we are having an excellent camp here. I am looking forward to showing you enticing matches (against Costa Rica) starting from tomorrow.”

Japan will play a training match against Costa Rica National Team on Saturday 21 from 11 a.m. at Costa Rica Football Association Beach Soccer Field.

Players' Comments

FP GOTO Takasuke (Fusion)
We are staying at the Costa Rica Football Association’s national training centre, so it’s a bit unfortunate that we do not have much time to experience the country of Costa Rica. But we have been going though training focusing on beach soccer every day in a perfect environment. Our team including myself are getting in better form.

I want you to expect good performance and results in the matches scheduled tomorrow and the day after tomorrow against Costa Rica. Today, we visited Costa Rica’s Japanese Embassy. Tomorrow’s training match is not just a practice match but an important country-to-country match. By winning these training matches, I hope we can make the Japanese people staying in Costa Rica proud of themselves at the same time making their stay more comfortable.

GK TERUKINA Shingo (Sol Mar Praia Okinawa)
With only two days left in our USA and Costa Rica trip, we went through tactics in game-simulated training for the coming Costa Rica matches starting tomorrow. Some new variations were added to the formations and tactics we have been working on so far, and we were trying to refine them while trying them out.

Talking about myself, I have been trying to envision myself winning even difficult matches, thinking ahead of the AFC championship. We will try to win the remaining two matches as well.

Schedule

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