A day after the 1-0 victory over New Zealand women’s national team in the MS&AD Nadeshiko Cup 2015, Nadeshiko Japan entered the eighth day of their training camp in Kagawa Prefecture on Monday 25 May as the squad played a closed-door practice match against New Zealand.

The players who did not play 24th's match and backup members went through three 25-minute scrimmages. Head coach SASAKI Norio looked back the match and players' performance, saying "That went really well."

The opponents New Zealand are drawn into Group A in the FIFA World Cup Canada 2015 and have their first group stage match on the tournament's opening day on 6 June (Japan's opening day is 8th). As well as Nadeshiko Japan, the scrimmages seemed to be a great opportunity for New Zealand.

Nine players including Miyama Aya who got a long playing time had a recovery session to get ready for training resuming on 26th.

Head Coach and Players’ Comments

SASAKI Norio, Head Coach, Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team)
It was a practice match divided into three 25-minute scrimmages, and that went really well as we moved around the ball in our favour. The players who played today also wanted to try out what they had piled up, so the match turned out to be an opportunity to move forward for us.

Considering the playing time of yesterday's New Zealand match, some players played for only a short period of time. In a meeting, we discussed what part to improve by looking back the match. Today they kept that in mind and were enthusiastic to play. For the Kirin Challenge Cup 2015 against Italy women's national team on 28th, I will send the best squad, considering players' combination and condition.

MF #9   KAWASUMI Nahomi (INAC Kobe)
In today's practice match, we created an attacking pattern that enables us to run forward. We will take advantage of it in the next Italy match, including learnings as a whole. Looking back yesterday's match, we still need to improve how to end (the match) after getting a goal. I realised again Sawa's goal, when we want a goal, brings more momentum to us. Each player used her whole body to defend. We will go through the stretches when we changed our system during the rest of the camp.

MF #6   SAKAGUCHI Mizuho (Nippon TV Beleza)
Today we had a good match, and because I'm in good shape, there is no worry. Yesterday, the opponents grabbed the pace from the start, so today we went out to improve that from the beginning. We got off to a fairly good start. In yesterday's match, defensive midfielders Sawa and Kawamura Yuri showed great defence and completely won the ball. I learned something from them. The goal was just what you'd expect from Sawa. Especially, the defensive midfield has lots of good players and has been more competitive. I'm working on everyday training with a picture I can show a good performance whoever pairs with me.

MF #22   NAGASATO Asano (1. FFC Turbine Potsdam/Germany)
Looking back today's practice match, I'm individually more disappointed than any. Depending on the position we play at, we need to change slightly what to do, so I'm trying to sort them out. I'm ready to play a match at any position.

The difference between overseas football and Japanese football is how well you keep the right distance with other teammates. Though Japan's strength is to keep a close distance between players and connect short passes by supporting each other, overseas players try to solve that with long balls, individual plays or passing speed. I was baffled in the difference before, but now I got used to it. If I can get a chance to play the Italy match, I will try to contribute to our team's shooting situations. As well as taking shots aggressively, I will try to constantly show my strengths both in practice and real matches.

KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2015

Nadeshiko Japan(Japan Women's National Team)  vs. Italy Women’s National Team
Thu. 28 May    Kickoff 19:20 (subject to change)
Nagano / MINAMI NAGANO SPORTSPARK
Ticket Information (Japanese version only)

Shuttle bus information
Access information (Japanese version only)

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015

Information