Ahead of the second group stage match of the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 against the Scotland Women’s National Team, the Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team) started their trainings at Rennes.

After making their ways from Paris, the team did not have a field to train on the first day at Rennes, making this day’s training session the first one in Rennes. The session was held under inclement weather, where heavy rain scorched the field. The match held at Roazhon Park, the match venue for the Scotland match, featured a match between Sweden and Chile on the previous day, but the match had to be temporarily suspended due to inclement weather, showing just how harsh the weather can be at Rennes.

The players were seen conducting their routine drills of passing, ball control, possession, and shots taken from combination plays, showing that the team remains unchanged of their team concept. During the two-hour session, the players focused on the pace of their passes, their approach to close down the gap when applying pressure and taking decisive shots when given the opportunity.

Under “a must win situation,” the second group stage match against the Scotland Women’s National Team will be held on Friday 14 June at 15:00 local time (22:00 Japan time).

Players' Comment

GK #18  YAMASHITA Ayaka (Nippon TV Beleza)
We had to win our previous match, and after drawing the match, we are definitely feeling impatient about the situation, especially when looking at the remaining two teams we are going to face. The team was surrounded with a negative atmosphere after the match, as if we have lost the match, but we seemed to manage to bounce back in our training session today. While we had complete control over the ball possession, we had to calculate backwards in order to score goals. For our next match, we must keep a clean sheet, so I will focus on risk management in defence. We will prepare ourselves so that we can create the action even from the defence line.

DF #3  SAMESHIMA Aya (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
It felt like we positioned ourselves away from the goal. We spoke as a team on what we must do to improve ourselves, so we hope to implement that in our next match. Scotland has the impression of applying aggressive pressure from the start of the match, and especially after losing their first match, they will most likely come out even more aggressively. We will probably be forced to spend more time in defence, and I will be in charge of marking the opposing flank player who has great speed. We all understand that we are in a must win situation, so we hope to showcase our commitment in our next match.

FW #9  SUGASAWA Yuika (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies)
The quality of our plays at the final third must show improvements and whether or not we capitalise on the crucial plays will determine the outcome of the match. In our match against Argentina, it would have been better if we took more shots and tried taking shots from distance to draw the opposing defence out of their comfort zone. We are still disappointed from the result, but our next match against Scotland is fast approaching, so we will reset our minds in order to earn three points. It is expected that Scotland will be taking a more aggressive approach compared to Argentina, and they have the height advantage over us, so it will not be an easy match, but we hope to penetrate the flanks and create opportunities at the goal area to score goals.

Schedule

Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women’s National Team) Squad, Schedule

FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019

Tournament Dates: Fri. 7 June - Sun. 7 July 2019

Group Stage:
Tue. 11 June 2019 01:00 (Japan time)
vs Argentina Women's National Team

Fri. 14 June 2019 22:00 (Japan time)
vs Scotland Women's National Team

Thu. 20 June 2019 04:00 (Japan time)
vs England Women's National Team

Tournament Information