On Monday 27 August, the Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team) held a training session one day ahead of their semi-final match against the Korea Republic Women's National Team. The session was opened to the media for the first 15 minutes, as the players were seen conducting a thorough warmups, followed by tactical walk through that took place behind closed doors. The team then went over their set-plays and concluded the session with the players given the final 10 minutes to work on their own, where some took shots, while some jogged around to loosen their body. Some players were also seen talking over the clip board to go over their tactics. The players will head into the semi-final match with their mind, body, and soul prepared.

During the video session that took prior to the training session, the team went over the key players and tactics of the Korea Republic Women's National Team. With the two teams clashing against each other at the Women’s Asia Cup this April, and with many players playing with and against each other at the Nadeshiko League, the players will be facing familiar faces in their next match.

On this day, an official press-conference took place for the first time during the tournament. Coaches of the four teams advancing to the semi-finals took the podium and shared their aspirations ahead of their match.

The semi-final match of the Asian Games will take place on Tuesday 28 August, where Japan will kick-off against Korea Republic at 18:00 Japan time.

Coach and Players' Comments

TAKAKURA Asako, Coach of Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team)
First of all, I am proud to be in the semi-finals. We will face our arch-rival, Korea Republic, who has many talented players on their squad, making it a tough match for us. We must be very careful in this match. However, regardless of who we face, what we must keep our focus on ourselves and play our usual game.

DF #4 MIYAKE Shiori (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
I am glad we advanced through the quarterfinals to make it into the semi-finals. In the Korea Republic side, there are players I’ve played with before and players I currently play with, so I know exactly how good they are both individually and as a team. But for us to win the title, we must beat them sooner or later. We will keep our composure and play persistently to showcase our style of football.

MF #7 NAKAJIMA Emi (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
With just two-days rest, it is tough on our bodies, but we’ve done everything within the time frame to recover our conditions. In our meeting before the training session, we kept a mutual understanding on our defence and put that in action during our training. Korea Republic’s key player, JI Soyun is really good at passing the ball and she can also take shots to threaten our goal, so we must find ways to contain her. Also, their number eight, CHO So Hyun has strong physiques, so we must fight hard to win the ball against her.

Schedule

*Local Time, Japan time indicated within the parentheses
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.

The 18th Asian Games 2018 Jakarta Palembang

Tournament Dates:Sat. 18 August - Sun. 2 September 2018

【Women's】Semi-final
Tue. 28 August 18:00 [Japan time] vs Korea Republic
Live broadcasting on NHK BS1

Tournament Information