The third day of the National Training Centre U-14 Kanto had a match against U-15 Singapore National Team on Saturday 24 May. The result was a 3-0 win for the National Training Centre U-14 Kanto.

Comments

KIMURA Kokichi, Chief Coach of JFA National Training Centre Kanto
We had an offer for a match against U-16/U-15 Singapore National Team, and we decided to play against U-15 Singapore National Team, because we wanted our players to experience a match against another country.
We thought this was a good opportunity to show what we worked on last two days of the training. Before the match, we reminded our players of our team concepts which are always getting involved either in offense or defence, always trying to shoot, attacking the space behind defenders and putting early pressure on the opposition’s ball.
The match had forty minutes in each half, but we wanted as many players as possible to experience an international match. So we added three U-13 players to our twenty U-14 roster, divided them all into two squads, and let each squad play each forty-minute half. Our players always kept it in mind that we try to win as a team. They also followed what was discussed in the meeting. They showed a good performance overall.
I thought there were still things that we needed to keep working on including the quality of every single pass and how we position ourselves depending on each game situation, but we got this 3-0 win with everybody playing as a team. This gave players added confidence. I could see that in their faces after the match.