“00 Japan”, U-15 Japan National Team led by players born in 2000, cancelled its training camp which was planned from 5 to 11 June in South Korea due to cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus were found in the country. Instead, the team has a domestic camp mainly in Tokyo until 8 June.

On 5 June, the draw for the Qualifying Round of AFC U-16 Championship was held and Japan will play against Hong Kong, Brunei, and Mongolia. The team firstly aims to come through this qualifying round in this September and then to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 in the Final Round of the mentioned Championship.

The 23 team members have been selected from the series of past activities such as the large group training camp held in east and west Japan in February, “SPORT FOR TOMORROW Japan-Central Asia U-15 Football Exchange Programme”, the training camp in Indonesia, and the domestic training camp held in Ichihara, Chiba last month. Head Coach MORIYAMA Yoshiro told the players at the arrival meeting “It is a shame that we couldn’t have the camp in South Korea this time, but let us switch our mind and concentrate on this training camp to make it very effective. I expect you to have strong passion at the match against one of the strongest senior teams this Sunday”.

In the morning training, the players had passing exercise and then spent time for 1 vs. 1 practice. Their motivation seems very high and they played intensively encouraging each other throughout the training time. At a half-pitch 4 vs.4 session including GKs, the players paid attention to how to create good shooting opportunities in offense, and how to block any shooting opportunities in defense. Training staffs were very passionate in their coaching and they let the players repeat some plays when they found some issues, and they shouted to the players once they saw any negative plays.

In the afternoon training, the players had an 11 on 11 practice match for the match planned for the following day. The afternoon training ended with a session in which they repeatedly checked positioning at corner kicks and free kicks which they were shown by SATO Yohei, the team’s GK Coach in the lunch time meeting.
In the night time meeting, KIMURA Kokichi,Youth Development Director explained the concept of Japan National Teams’ activities by using some video clips. Mr. MORIMOTO shared good plays of U-15 National Team found in the previous activities. On the 7th, the team will play against Kashiwa Reysol U-18 in the morning and Yokohama F. Marinos in the afternoon. Both of them are leading teams in the Kanto area.

Players’ Comments

FW YAMADA Hiroto (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
Tomorrow, I just want to head towards the goal once I got the ball and I will try my best to contribute to scoring. However, it would be difficult to get the ball freely so I want to try good positioning like disappearing from defenders’ vision and moving behind the opponents’ DF line. I will keep myself highly motivated especially in some issues I found today such as how to move the ball well from crossings and miss-shots.

MF HIRAKAWA Rei (FC Tokyo U-15 Musashi)
At the 12th Delle Nazioni Tournament which I joined for the U-16 Japan National Team, I learned a lot about what to do especially in building up physical strength and high motivation. I still found some advantages in technique compared to foreign players, so I want to keep brushing up my advantages to keep winning. Tomorrow, I want to test myself how much I can do in terms of intensity and technique through playing against physically strong teams. I see everyone in the squad is concentrated with high motivation to perform well. The team is in a good condition so I’m looking forward to the matches tomorrow.

FW NAKAMURA Keito (Mitsubishi Yowa SC Sugamo Junior Youth)
In my everyday training, I particularly practice how to receive the ball better and this is one of the things we have learned throughout the series of activities as a team. In defense, I need to improve more since I haven’t been able to steal the ball well with a good combination of play. Tomorrow, I will challenge well to see how much I could improve my issues and hopefully I can contribute to the team’s victories.

DF SHIRATO Daiki (Urawa Reds Junior Youth)
In this training, I mainly build up my strength in challenging situations, passing accuracy and making a quicker switch between defense and offense. Personally I always play with high motivation that I don’t allow anybody to make shots in front of the goal and I just keep myself highly motivated, challenging things eagerly tomorrow. I have learned a lot from staff members and my teammates in this camp, I want to keep good communication with them to win the tomorrows matches.

Schedule

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