With the newly-announced head coach KUSUNOSE Naoki, who was introduced earlier this month, the Japan women's national Under-16 team have officially inaugurated with their first activity. The team, who will compete in the 2015 women's Under-17 NTC invitational championship in the United States, assembled at Narita international airport on 8 February. ''From the moment you put on the Japanese jersey, you are the national team players,'' Kusunose said. The players and staff headed to the U.S. The squad entered in the morning of the day and started training at 3 p.m. under the strong sunshine of California. By being instructed by athletic trainer Yamaguchi, the players took the stiffness of their bodies that they gained from the long-hour trip with moving stretching and core training.

After that, they went through other menus, such as step works, training using the ball, lifting and passing, and wrapped it up with a mini game.
They went back to the hotel to have dinner and then held a meeting. "There were a lot of players who couldn't make it on this team this time,'' Kusunose told the members. ''We want he 20 members who were chosen to have confidence and responsibility, and put out your own opinions about a particular thing, instead of asking for the right answers. Let's do anything in active attitudes. This trip to the U.S. is the start of this generation, so let's build up our own ways and organization. I don't know if these members will eventually be the members for the AFC and World Cups, but people outside will come to see us this is the Japanese women's national Under-16 team, and it's up to us what kind of plays we can showcase. It's nobody else but us who have to play, so we want you to work positively and actively.'' The players listened to the speech with serious looks.

*Japan women's national U-16 team is a squad that seeks to earn a spot in the 2016 FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan; The top two finishers in the AFC Under-16 Women's Championship in Wuhan, China, in November will clinch berths in the World Cup.

Comments

KUSUNOSE Naoki, Head Coach
In order to compete in next year's FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan as the defending champions, this team is going to aim at finishing within the top two in the AFC Under-16 Women's Championship in November. Because we won last year's FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup, we have taken a fresh start to develop players who can eventually play for the Nadeshiko Japan, not just we are looking to repeat the championship in it. We are going to play exhibitions this time, but it's still important for us to go back to the country with the title.

And it will also be important what our players will be able to bring back home and share what they get here with their teammates and communities. We believe that if we put on a better performance than last year, it is going to leave better impact for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. We came to America to win, growing victorious mentality in international stages. We want our players to be particular about the results, as if they have their backs against the wall.

At the beginning, maybe because of their nervousness and jet lag, I had an impression that the players were calmer than I thought. Yet you are not able to move people's hearts just by kicking the ball. To stand on the summit of the world, Japan need to play games with the momentum in their hands. National teams begin with this generation, so we certainly want our players to have the pride and confidence that they are members of Nadeshiko on the court, and we want them to be aware of that off the court as well.

HAYASHI Kaoru(OWLET FC U-15)
I've participated in a foreign trip for the first time this time. We were on the plane for nine hours and it was very difficult in terms of when we should get sleep, and we would up understanding the importance of sleep and how tough it was to have jet lags during our training after we arrived in America. In our training on the first day, we has fundamental things like moving stretching, core training, agility training, and then played a mini game, and finally went through physical training in the end. I felt my body was heavier than I thought, and it gave me a hard time running. We are competing in a four-team tournament, but whenever I get to play, I would like to showcase myself as much as possible while I feel the world standard so I can take advantage of it going forward.

TAKIKAWA Yume(Kusunoki Club Ladies)
I came to America for the first time on this trip, and I wasn't able to get much sleep in the airplane and got tired a little. But once I saw the scenery of outside upon arrival, it took a lot of fatigue away from me. In the afternoon training, we were divided into four groups and played mini games. Our team had good passing and were able to score with good rhythm for a win, but in the second game, our defence got loose a little bit and ended up losing. Through today's training, I felt that we still need to improve on our communication part and that I lacked my stamina. Through this trip, I hope to do what I can do for now as much as possible and learn a lot of things so I can step up when I go home.

KICHIMA Karen (Tochigi SC Ladies)
I was uneasy and nervous because the US is in the different time zone and took a flight after a long. I realized it takes so many steps to go overseas for taking various checks and preparation before I get on board. I was trying to figure out the time difference of the U.S. for me to get to sleep and nine and half hour flight seemed to me very long. I arrived in the US after long hours and that was back in the morning of 8th and I participated in training in the afternoon. It was valuable experience for me in a way to feel a long day. In the beginning, I worked on the training program on limber up my body and enhance trunk and agility for leaning move which would be fundamental of football players.

I learned for the first time the importance of trunk and lower the balance when switching step to keep my body firm and that will lead to speed and agility. To keep my body axis firm when I encounter physical contact and I am going to care about trunk and agility for every training program. And I want to improve the quality of ball-lifting, pass, control, etc. which were held in the training afterwards. Having finished today’s training program, I think I have to deal much aggressively with anything. As I have no intention of ending this trip with the word “experience”, but with the words “result” and “product” to make this eight day trip productive.

KANEKATSU Rio(Urawa Reds Ladies Youth)
Since it was my first overseas trip, I was nervous but I could talk to other members and staffers easily. I had quite a good sleep on the flight, from one to two hours after a takeoff to the meal time 90 minutes before the landing. Soon after arriving in the US I didn’t feel like I am in the foreign country at all but I gradually becoming to realize I am in America for feeling temperature and sceneries different from Japan. We had training in a good atmosphere calling each other in day one of the trip. I am going to keep it going for training tomorrow and start a game with good atmosphere and want to win all the games.

Schedule

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

Further Schedule