U-22 Brunei National Team had its training camp in Gotemba, Shizuoka prefecture from 11-20 May to get ready for The South East Asian (SEA) Games which starts from 5 June in Singapore.

This training camp was one of the ASEAN cultural exchange projects that were funded by Japan Foundation Asia Center. Japan Foundation Asia Center works for the “WA Project” which enhances cultural interexchange between Japan and other Asian countries with several collaborating organisations including JFA (Japan Football Association).

U-22 Brunei National Team had three practice matches during the 10 days of training camp and worked very hard to get ready for the SEA Games. After this camp, 20 of the 24 players who joined in this camp will be selected as the squad which will represent Brunei in the SEA Games.

During the camp, the team visited JFA House, JFA Museum and watched some J. League matches. The players also had some chance to experience Japanese culture through joining in a “Japanese calligraphy class” which was organised by Japan Foundation Asia Center.

Results of Practice Matches (90-minute game)
Thu. 14 May in Tokinosumika:   vs. JFA Academy Fukushima U-18      1-0 (1st 0-0)
Sun. 17 May in Ryutsukeizai University:   vs. Ryutsukeizai University   0-7 (1st 0-5)
Tue. 19 May in Yamaha Stadium:     vs. Jubilo Iwata U-18                  0-1 (1st 0-1)

U-22 Brunei National Team’s Comments

Stephen Ng Heng Seng, Head Coach
Throughout this camp, we could see what are our advantages. As we expected, we could prepare ourselves for the SEA Games and also strengthened ourselves as a team. We do have issues, but we will adjust more to become one of the top 4 teams in this SEA Games and will do our best. We appreciate Japan Foundation Asia Centre and Japan Football Association for allowing us to experience the matches against high-level teams at such nice football facilities in Japan.

Pg Mohd Amirrizal bin Pg Mahmud, Team Manager
I feel grateful for being able to play the practice matches against excellent teams in this camp. I also appreciate everyone who supported and welcomed us to have the training camp with such nice pitch condition as that in Tokinosumika. We had good training sessions without any stress since training staff and supporters responded to what we wanted very well. After this camp, the players will head to the SEA Games and I expect them to do their best until the very last moment of the matches; that is one of the things they learned from this camp. I would like to express my gratitude to Japan Foundation Asia Center and JFA for supporting us in this opportunity.

Mohd Azri bin Zahari, Player
We could get ready for the SEA Games in this opportunity. We got to know that all Japanese teams we played against are speedy but they still keep their level of play; they are not just roughly speedy. Since I am DF player, this is what I kept paying attention to throughout this camp. In the SEA Games, I want to be consistent not only in skill but also in mentality to stay as one of the top four teams.