The Beach Soccer Japan National Team started their 2015’s practice in the never-ending summer of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. It took approximately 29 hours for them to get there after leaving Japan, changing planes. After the players arrived at the airport at 7:00 in the morning and moved to the hotel, they quickly got ready to hold a morning training session. They did some stretching, jogging and Footvolley in order to recover from their long trip. Even though they were light exercises, it seemed to be tough for the players due to the 11-hour time difference and the heat at over 30 degrees C.

In the afternoon practice session, the players had a practice match after basic training. They finished the first day of their South America tour, checking the sand condition at Copacabana, which was slightly different from the usual sand for them in Japan.

Comments

Marcelo MENDES, Head Coach
This South America tour is vital for our team before the qualifying round of the AFC World Cup in March. As only 12 players - three fewer than the number of players on this tour - can play in a qualifying round game, I’d like them to be competitive during training sessions. I’d like them to have a good experience, playing against strong teams on this tour.

AKAGUMA Takuya (Dorsole Kitakyushu)
As it was my first time to travel for so long on planes, I felt exhausted when I arrived in Brazil. It was physically tough to have two practice sessions today, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, but I had a brilliant first day of the tour.
I’d like to get used to the time difference and the temperature here. I’ll practice hard, so that I can get myself into good condition.

HARAGUCHI Shotaro (TOKYO LEQUIOS BS）
Today we practiced at an excellent location – the never-ending summer of Copacabana beach with the temperature over 40 degrees C. I’d like to continue getting myself ready both mentally and physically from tomorrow, so that we’ll have a productive tour, practicing hard to give something back to the people who support me.

Schedule

*Local time