The Japan national beach football team played a training match with a combined squad of Sol Mar Praia and F.C. Uruma in order to confirm what they worked on in the training camp.

In the training match, which was played in irregular rules with four 15-minute running time periods, it was the Japan team who carried the momentum for much of it. Japan head coach Mendes checked on things as whether his players could properly us their 2-2 and 3-1 systems depending on the situations and whether they composedly possessed the ball to look for scoring opportunities, throughout the actual game.

In the contest, Moreira struck the game’s first goal and Oba added another in the first period, and Matsuo netted another in the second as Japan went on to win 3-0.

Not just playing quickly toward lateral directions, the team was able to play a modulated beach football, in which they returned the ball to the goalkeeper when their offense is stuck in the middle while they’d go to score straightaway.

All the players got to play in the match. They were able to score off a corner kick, which was something they had worked on, and it ended up being a valuable training match for the Japan team.

Comments From Head Coach

Marcelo MENDES, Head Coach
As we wrapped up the training camp, which was the second time for myself on this team, I could reassure that we were going toward the right direction in terms of the team development and finding new talents. We called up four new faces this time, and I am satisfied with their performances. It was good to see that the players were trying to have competitive mind-sets so they could be listed for the next training camp, and we could observe that they showing their fighting attitudes in fair manners. I know that we have so many players on this provisional squad, the players understand that there is no guaranteed spot for anyone.
I am not going to present particular names, but it is true that we have some new faces who could raise the level of the teams and challenge our veteran players with full of experiences. I think that the competition will give enormous positive effects on the team.
Considering that we have 20 players on the provisional roster, I will have to make the best efforts to select the best members equitably. That will be a challenge for me and you cannot forget that we still have chance to hold clinics in so many different places in the future. I hope to find a few more new talents from this point on.