Training　Match
Monday 7th April 2014  17:30 Kick Off　20 minutes half
（Spain/Santiago De Compostela)

Japan National Futsal Team　1-4（1stHalf 1-0、2ndHalf 0-4）　Santiago・Futsal

Scores
19min  NAKAMURA Yusuke（Japan National Futsal Team）
24min  Goal Against（Santiago・Futsal）
26min  Goal Against（Santiago・Futsal）
38min  Goal Against（Santiago・Futsal）
39min  Goal Against（Santiago・Futsal）

Starters
GK：KAWAHARA Hisamitsu
FP：WATANABE Tomoaki、TAKITA Manabu、MINAMOTO Akira、NIBUYA Kazuhiro

Substitutes
GK：FUJIWARA Jun、SEKIGUCHI Yushi
FP：INABA Kotaro、OSODO Nobuya、SATO Toru、HOSHI Shota、NAKAMURA Yusuke

All players played except GK FUJIWARA and SEKIGUCHI

Players not listed on the game roster
NISHITANI Ryosuke、YOSHIKAWA Tomoki、UCHIMURA Shunta

Match Report

The team made a honorary visit to Santiago City Hall today.
Santiago de Compostela is a very popular sightseeing site both domestically and internationally, as it is famous as the final destination of Catholic pilgrimage starting from Jerusalem.

Today's training match, the fifth in this trip, was against Santiago Futsal in the division one of Spain League. Japan created many chances to score, but the goalkeeper, who is on the Spanish National Team, repeatedly saved their goal. Finally just before the end of the first half, Nakamura scored his first goal on the national team and helped Japan to finish the 1st with 1-0 lead.

Although Japan came out for the second half reenergized not to make the same mistake again as the match against Lugo, when Japan lost goals and the lead early in the 2nd, they again lost two goals in the 24th and 26th minutes and gave away the lead.

Japan tried to come back with more attacks, but ended up in allowing two more goals in the last 5 minutes of the match while Japan tried their powerplay. The game finished 4-1 to give Japan the second loss in a row.  

Coach & Players' comments

Head Coach: Miguel Rodrigo
The game was just like the game against Lugo yesterday. We ran and moved well in the first half with full of energy and played aggressive offense and defence. We had many shots, but it was certainly not easy to score against a national team goalkeeper. How we start the 2nd half was not good again. Santiago didn't miss the opportunity and turned the match around. But what was better than yesterday was that losing the lead didn't affect our plays too much. We got tired and slow somewhat, but still we could show what we learned from yesterday's match. When we started our powerplay, we were already tired both physically and mentally, so it didn't create many chances. But this game convinced us we can play against Spanish division one clubs as long as our condition is good and fresh.

MINAMOTO Akira(Fuchu Athletic F.C.)
Offensively and defensively we were not very bad throughout the match. We were better than them for a long stretch, too. But the result shows that we lost because we didn't take care of details of plays. That's the difference between Spanish players and us. It seems a small difference, but really a big one. Not just to play well but also to win, we have to be better at reading the momentum and particular situations of the game and taking advantage of it when a good opportunity arises. Of course we have to be better in other skills and tactics, but if we keep learning these things, I believe we can be a much better team.

HOSHI Shota(Bardral Urayasu Futbol Sala)
We came out to play this match with the mindset to work on our missed assignments from the last match. I personally didn't play in the last match, so it took time for me to get my rhythm. As a team it was like yesterday's game. We dominated offensively and defensively for long period of the match and created good chances. But when they changed their tempo in the 2nd, we couldn't adjust to it and lost goals. That's the disappointing part. But even during that stretch, we could keep playing our style of futsal. So in order to go to even a higher level, we need to be able to figure out when to change our tempo and when to keep it going.

NAKAMURA Yusuke(Vasagey Oita)
Every match is a learning experience as we play against different teams and different players. I am not tall, so I try to watch and learn from short players of the opponents. As I watch Spanish players, I think they are very good at changing pace. I have to work on that area, too. It was good for me personally that I scored my first goal on the national team, but it's nothing but disappointment after we finished the match with a loss. We have only one more match left. We will keep playing with getting a win as our most important goal.