The Japan men’s national team, or SAMURAI BLUE, who took off from Japan on 2 January, landed at the Sydney international airport in Australia on the 3ed as scheduled. The team then moved to Cessnock, which was the site for their final training camp, on the ground.

The Japan team arrived at the hotel before noon. The members rested their bodies and then had training at the Cessnock Sports Ground in the evening. YOSHIDA Maya, who had been late to take part in their activities, joined the team and took no time to show his nimble plays. The Japan team was scheduled to play a training match against powerhouse Australian club Oakland City FC and their training on the 3rd was closed to the public. Head coach Javier Aguirre’s instructions were heated and it felt like the team’s substantial training wrapped up quickly.

Beside Yoshida, SAMURAI BLUE added another person that would help the team from that day on.

It’s Mr. NISHI Yoshiteru, an exclusive chef for the team who’s experienced so many international tournaments in the past. He began supporting the team from the lunch with his live cooking. The dining was full of smiles and energy as the members had meals made Mr. Nishi.

We will report on the match against Oakland City FC tomorrow.

Comments

NAGATOMO Yuto (FC Internatzionale Milano, Italy)
It’s a totally different climate, so we want to adjust to it first.
We have a training match to play tomorrow, but we want to get used to this condition and be on the same page between us players. We’ll focus on the first game. For the first game, we want to prepare ourselves well. I have the feeling that the Asia Cup is going to be a tough tournament to play. But if we keep the challenger’s mindset, positive outcomes will follow.

YOSHIDA Maya (Southampton, England)
There’s a temperature gap that’s over 20 degrees with England, so I do feel there’s a difference from the climate stand point. But we still have a week until the first game, so we want to tune up well. The game schedules between the league game and this tournament are different, so we need to have better recovery to have better conditions first, so we will be able to keep putting up better performance throughout the tourney. In the last tournament, we won it because of our senior players, so this time we want to build the fundamentals and contribute to the victory.

INUI Takashi (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
I feel hotter than I expected. I would like to get used to this weather first.
I’ll get to play in a tournament like this for the first time, so I’m excited. We are going to play in the tournament as a team, and complete the consecutive title.

JFA-TV

2 January  Wrap up domestic training, travel for AFC Asian Cup Australia

3 January  Hold first training in the host country

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