On 10 January, Japan National Team, nicknamed as SAMURAI BLUE, took on a light conditioning workout in New Castle, the match site, en route to their first match against Palestine two days later and their back-to-back AFC Asian Cup title quest.

The sunshine was milder than that of the past few days because of clouds in the sky, and the team spent time for workouts including ball movement drills and foot volleyball.

In four-a-side foot volleyball games, players such as forward Okazaki Shinji (1.FSV Mainz 05) and Honda Keisuke (AC Milan) enjoyed playing in a relaxed and yet competitive setting and shared laughs with head coach Javier Aguirre and others.

Later on, the players went on their own to take on passing drills, free-kicks, running and stretching while midfielder Kiyotake Hiroshi (Hannover 96), forward Toyoda Yohei (Sagan Tosu), Okazaki and a few more worked on their shots with coach Aguirre watching right behind the goalkeeper in the goal. Also in the penalty kick drill by forward Kobayashi Yu (Kawasaki Frontale) and others, the bench boss was right behind the kicker again to observe every move by the players.

When asked about his conditioning, defender Yoshida Maya (Southampton FC), who just joined the team in Australia due to his club matters, said “I’m doing OK. There is a temperature difference (from England), so I don’t know how I can react until I actually play in a match. About our plays, it’s no problem because I ask the coach and discuss whenever I have a question.”

At the end of the session, midfielder Endo Yasuhito (Gamba Osaka) practiced free-kicks together with Yoshida and Honda. He said “this team have a good chemistry and are coming together well. The tournament has just begun, so I think every player will naturally get motivated and pumped up more and more.”

Having wrapped up the practice in the early afternoon, the team are scheduled to stay at the team hotel until the last practice before the first match in the afternoon of 11th to get prepared for their match one against Palestine on 12nd (Kick-off at 6 p.m. local time, 4 p.m. Japan time).

Comments

DF OTA Kosuke (FC Tokyo)
The atmosphere has been good among the team, and I can feel that the first match is coming right up day by day. I watched Australia’s first match on TV yesterday, and was amazed by the four goals by Australia. Kuwait were very defensive after getting their first goal, so I thought the first goal would certainly be important. Feeding cross balls is my specialty, so I believe I have to show a good performance there. This national team have players who have different strength and play styles, and sometime I feel like “they can get that ball, too!?” So there are many new discoveries and I feel good about having them as my teammates. I enjoy playing with them. I think I can take advantage of my cross balls even more with them. The key is how aggressively I can play in matches, so I will keep getting good preparation. I think as we keep winning in the tournament, the team keep improving to their best. So I want to help that process as much as possible.

GK KAWASHIMA Eiji (Standard Liege）
To stay well-focused in matches, I have been doing some tough workouts as well. We relax when we are supposed to relax, and I think we have been able to carry out good practices. We are in the middle of the season in Europe, so I don’t have a big concern with my conditioning. We had a good camp in Cessnock, too, so we have been able to picture how we play. We don’t really have meetings among the team, but we communicate very well, and in practices we talk to each other and make sure the details. It’s important that every player does what he’s supposed to do, and I think everyone has that kind of mind-set. In matches there are some unexpected things happening and we may allow the opponents to score first, but it’s important to stay calm and deal with it. I want to keep showing my attitude on the pitch to utilise the experience we have.

MF ENDO Yasuhito (Gamba Osaka)
In the last Asian Cup, we got into the tournament without much time to figure things out after assembling the team. This time, every preparation hasn’t been perfect, either. I hope, as we play matches and win matches, we can get better understanding of our coach’s thinking, get unshakable confidence in ourselves, and improve as a team just as we did four years ago. I watched the video of the Palestine team a little bit. They have a quick player up front, so we have to be careful of him. I think we can maintain the ball possession, so we need to pay attention to how we lose the ball when we lose it. The most important thing is to start the match calm and focused, and we play how we are supposed to play from the beginning. This is my fourth (Asian Cup), so I want to give the team the calmness and stability that we need. I will help our captain off the pitch, and on the pitch, I think I am expected to play accordingly to the course of the match, do necessary match-making and get involved in scoring. So I want to meet those expectations with good performance.

DF UEDA Naomichi（Kashima Antlers）
I am playing as side back in the national team different from center back position I usually take in the club but I am going to prepare whenever head coach appoints me. Having been in the U-22 squad for Thailand trip recently and went through the program for dealing with the heat, I found the heat in Australia is not that bad and should be no problem for getting on this camp without taking a rest in between. I was told no game in AFC Asian cup is easy. I think we should put all our energy together and get ready for the game, I hope to play the game carefully one by one.

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