On Wednesday 19 October, the Japan National Beach Soccer Team held afternoon practice session in preparation for the first match against Brazil in the Super Cup of Nations in Santos, São Paulo.

Similar to the previous day, they held a training session starting from 16:00 in the tournament venue for one-and-a-half hour, focusing on game tactics.

After the warm-up, the squad had a five-a-side intrasquad scrimmage, checking on their offensive and defensive strategies. Coach Marcelo occasionally interrupted the game, giving specific and detailed instructions to the individual players. Compared to the previous day of training, each member had a better feel of the local sand and there were plenty of goal scenes from well-executed combination plays.

In the last part of their training, they worked on free kicks, since in beach soccer many goals are scored from them. Also, they were given the chance to get the feel for the tournament ball, which is different from what they are used to playing.

The practice session will be held from 11:30 tomorrow, and the Japanese squad will face Brazil in their first match of the tournament the day after tomorrow on Friday 21 October.

Players' Comments

GK #2 KAWAI Yusuke (Sol Mar Praia)
From today’s training, we used the tournament ball and practiced trying to get the feel for it. In the game-format training, we talked over the team tactics, focusing on how each player should move when defending or attacking and understanding what each player should do on the pitch. I believe we had a fruitful practice day. In this tournament, we will be competing against top beach soccer teams in the world, Therefore, we will be facing each opponent as a challenger. I will focus on creating scoring chances and lead the team to victory.

FP #8 OBA Takaaki (Dorsole Kitakyushu)
This was our second training session after arriving in Brazil. Compared to yesterday, we felt less tired and we are getting in better form to play in the tournament. Today's game-format training focused on tactics, and we proactively communicated with one another. We will be brushing up our quality of play in tomorrow’s meeting and practice and make the best preparation possible for the first match.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.