One day after their Uruguay match under their new head coach Javier Aguirre, SAMURAI BLUE (Japan national team) had a deliberate practice mainly with the players who did not see action in the previous day's contest in the final day of their training camp in Sapporo on 6th September.
Although Japan failed to earn their first victory under the Aguirre system with a 0-2 defeat to Uruguay in their first game in the 2014 Kirin Challenge Cup on the 5th, many fans came to the practice field to observe the players work.

After the team checked its whole moves with all the 23 members, the field players became in pairs and went through passing practice in which they had some variations. And after that, the players who started in the match a night before worked on their recoveries by jogging and stretching.
The other players were divided into two groups and went through some patterned menus, including passing drills and shooting off cross balls. In every menu, they were asked for accurate control and speed.
While Aguirre did not put his eyes away from his players and their moves, he occasionally exchanged words with some of the players and in fact he had extended discussion with some of them. But overall, he showed mild smiles on his face throughout.
''I get motivated and feel like it's worth being here, so I thought I wanted to keep showing better performance no matter where I get to be used,'' said Tanaka Junya, who started in the Uruguay game in the midfield and conversed with Aguirre.
The national team left from Sapporo for Yokohama, the site for their next match, in the afternoon. They are scheduled to play against Venezuela in their second Kirin Challenge Cup match on the 9th.

Comments

DF NAGATOMO Yuto（F.C.Internazionale）
We have to humbly take the defeat, assuming that was where we were right now. But it's not been long since we have had coach Aguirre and not that we've done all his tactics, so it was a difficult match for sure. I thought that we would be more apart, but I think we did better than we thought. Especially, our defense made blocks and give Uruguay have hard time attacking opportunities thought they had that good of a squad, and those were positive things for us. But we lacked punches offensively after we took the ball, and we need to have more guys who run past the guys in front of them. Otherwise, you can't attack with just three men and it's not going to work against the world's stronger teams. We have to have more attacks with the side backs involved. If we don't do it, we are going to have tough times. Coach says that he wants to use more players, and I think that we can examine a lot of different things.

FW KAKITANI Yoichiro（FC Basel1893）
It would have been better to win the debut match for our coach, but it's disappointing that we came up short doing it. Representing Japan, it's only an excuse that you didn't have a chemistry because it was your first time. You have 90 minutes of play and you can win a match making one chance, so I would like to be particular about winning. But at the same time, our coach tells us that we are going to take the Asia Cup first and we are going to proceed, and I want to help this team make better, not over-rejoicing or over-disappointed every time. Of course, you can't win all the time, but at least I want to go not making the same mistakes over and over.

MF TANAKA Junya（Sporting）
Coach told me that I played well and I get motivated and feel like it's worth being here, so I thought I wanted to keep showing better performance no matter where I get to be used. But we lost the game and I'm not satisfied and I think that there's so many things I've got to do. During the game, I was playing thinking it was important to ran up the pitch with better timings. I want to give the team more offensive options so I can be a help for the team.

JFA-TV

KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2014

Tuesday 9 September　vs. Venezuela National Team
Kanagawa／Internatioinal Stadium Yokohama
Kick Off at 19:20 (estimate time)／Open 16:20 (estimate time)
Nationwide Live Broadcast on TV Asahi Network
More Information