Japan Women’s National Team short-listed squad has been in the training camp since 18 January and on 24 January, Day 7 of the camp, the players had the last internal practice match. Even though the weather had been expected to be worse due to the cold spell hitting Okinawa, the team has managed to follow the training plan without any weather disruption.

The team had a training matches which had 3 mini games of 25 minutes each, trying various positions. Forward OGIMI Yuki, and forward TAKASE Megumi scored in this situation.

"It worked very well that we had shared the idea about what we need to improve amongst team mates. I appreciate the players for trying to correct and improve their play with high motivation," the team’s Coach SASAKI evaluated the past 1 week. He told the young players, "you have been familiar with this camp atmosphere and you showed me a lot of possibility. I encourage you to improve your basis to push yourselves to the next step." 

While he reviewed the camp positively, he has already started considering what to do in the next camp: "However, this is not the completion level including the players’ condition. We will have another camp in mid-February having more practical experiences to improve their accuracy and basis of play." In the meeting before dinner, he explained again to the players about the plans up to the final Asian qualifying for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics which will be held from 29 February in Osaka, and stressed the importance of improving their conditions even after going back to their teams.

In the player’s accommodation, there was another surprise for MIYAMA Aya; the players planned to celebrate her birthday which is on 28 January. It was bit early, but it made her happy and they had some relaxing and cheerful celebration time.

The camp is ending next day, 25 January.

Players' Comments

MF  KAWAMURA Yuri (Vegalta Sendai Ladies)
I want to understand the team’s characteristics more to express my advantages more in it. Towards the end of the camp, it is good that I can do that more in various moments. This year, I want to be included more in the matches. Being selected as a squad player is also very important, so I want to grow up as a player by joining the squad team every time. I have experienced the Asian Cup and the EAFF Women’s East Asian Cup 2015, and what I felt was the general level is getting higher and there was no easy matches. The most important at this moment is to qualify for the Olympic Games. If I will be selected, I want to contribute to the team’s victory.

FW  YOKOYAMA Kumi (AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies)
This is a good chance for me so I want to learn from the senior players as much as possible. After the training session, I watched the video of my play and got to know that I can do more with dribbling so I want to be more aggressive with heading up to go forward. The playing style of this team is different from my local team, but I have to catch up gaining experiences in this team. It is meaningless if I can’t gain numbers of approaches after being selected for this training camp, so I want to maximise the time here.

Schedule

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

Women's Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016 - Asian Qualifiers Final Round

29 February 2016 - 9 March 2016
Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team)/Australia/Korea Republic/China P.R./Vietnam/DPR Korea
Round robin tournament 15 Match（Top two team will earn Olympic berth）

Mon. 29 February  vs  Australia Women's National Team
Wed. 2 March  vs  Korea Republic Women's National Team
Fri. 4 March  vs  China P.R. Women's National Team
Mon. 7 March  vs  Vietnam Women's National Team
Wed. 9 March  vs  DPR Korea Women's National Team
All competitions are held in Osaka/Kincho Stadium -19:35 kick-off (tbd)
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