Day 2 (2/23)

U-20 Japan Women’s National Team short-listed squad entered the second day of their training camp. Under heavy rain, they began from possession training and then moved to some offensive practice such as 1-on-1 and 3-on-2 with the offensive players outnumbering. They trained for about an hour and a half.

In the afternoon, they worked on their core and muscle training at an inside facility, with the objective to not get behind physically against the world's powerhouse teams. They moved back onto the field and played a pair of 20-minute intrasquad games to wrap the day up to prepare for their training game on the next day.

Players' Comments

SHIOKOSHI Yuzuho (Urawa Reds Ladies)
I've been chosen as the U-20 Japan Women’s National Team short-listed squad for the first time this time, so I had a lot of jitters in myself, but I was able to enjoy our practice both yesterday and today. The level of the entire team is so high, so while I feel happy to play on this team, I get a lot of positive inspiration. I've been particularly working on my accuracy of my plays.

In tomorrow’s training match, I would like to eliminate issues and things I need to reflect on from yesterday's training match, and want to win the game capitalizing on what I learned through the training. I would like to play aggressively and absorb as much as I can.

MATSUBARA Shiho (Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies)
We did some man training like 1-on-1 during our morning practice. That time, we came up with so many issues like we need to pressing tighter against the opponents shorten the distances with them to not give them a chance to take shots. In the afternoon, we learned so many different training ways through the physical training. As we will have our battles from now on, I think we need to get stronger, so I would like to continue to work on it when I go back to my team. In tomorrow's game, I would like to do my best so I can eliminate the issues I had in today's training as much as possible.

Day 3 (2/24)

Training Match vs Hooh High School (Men's)
2016-2-24 (Wed.) - 14:45   Playing Time: 30min.×3
Ibusuki Iwasaki Hotel (Kagoshima, Ibusuki City)

U-20 Japan Women’s National Team　2-1 (1st 0-1, 2nd 2-0, 3rd 0-0)　Hooh High School (Men's)

Scores
13'　Goal against (Hooh High School)
35'　SHIRAKI Akari (U-20 Japan Women’s National Team)
41'　MOMIKI Yuka (U-20 Japan Women’s National Team)

Line-ups
GK: HIRAO Chika
DF: SHIMIZU Risa, YOSHIDA Nagisa, ICHISE Nana, SHIMAMURA Yukiko
MF: SUMIDA Rin, OKUBO Mai, HAYASHI Honoka, MOMIKI Yuka, SHIOKOSHI Yuzuho
FW: SHIRAKI Akari

2nd
GK: MATSUMOTO Mamiko
DF: KOJIMA Miku, DOKO Mayo, MINAMI Moeka, MATSUBARA Shiho
MF: MIURA Narumi, SUGITA Hina, NISHIDA Meika, HASEGAWA Yui, TORIUMI Yuka
FW: KAWANO Juri

3rd
GK: ASANO Natsumi
DF: KOJIMA Miku, DOKO Mayo, MINAMI Moeka, MATSUBARA Shiho
MF: MIURA Narumi, SUGITA Hina, NISHIDA Meika, HASEGAWA Yui, TORIUMI Yuka
FW: KAWANO Juri

Match Report

The team played a training match (three 30-minute periods) against the Hooh High School (Men’s) on the 24th. They pressed the opponents to get the ball from early and played the game in their own pace. On 13th minute, midfielder SUMIDA Rin fed a long pass to midfielder HAYASHI Honoka in the right side. Forward SHIRAKI Akari reacted to Hayashi's through pass, but wasn't able to connect it.

In the 15th minute, the team made a passing mistake allowing the opponents to have the ball in their own territory. A Hooh High School player found a space behind the Japan defensive line and scored a goal. Trying to tie the contest, the U-20 Japan Women's National Team put more emphasis on their attacking. Following a throw-in, midfielder OKUBO Mai connected a pass to midfielder SHIOKOSHI Yuzuho, and then forward MOMIKI Yuka fired a shot turning her body. But the shot was saved by the opponents' goalkeeper.

In the 35th minute, Momiki, who intercepted a throw-in of the opponents, passed it to Shiraki. Shiraki netted it into the goal. In the 41st minute, Japan once lost the ball after a corner kick, but Hayashi retrieved it in their own territory. She fed it to Shiraki and Momiki had a loop shot into the upper left corner of the goal to give the team a 2-1 lead.

In the third game, in which all the members were changed, Japan tried to attack from the left side, but it didn't work as the game finished 2-1.

Coach and Players' Comments

TAKAKURA Asako, Coach
Having reflected on our game against Kagoshima Joho High School, we entered the game against Hooh High School with our issues of our collective defensive plays and timing of the line controlling in mind. As the whole team, we saw the ball situations, and each player attempted to take her own position and we were able to create some offensive plays from good defence. We won 2-1, but in terms of the quality of our plays before the opponents' goal, moves and accuracy of our passing and shooting, we left issues. To raise the accuracy of our shots, we would like to work harder with that as our issue.

MINAMI Moeka (Urawa Reds Ladies Youth)
We were able to play, being aware of our collective defensive plays and defensive line controlling, which we left as our issues from our training match on the 22nd. We still had some bad time during the games as we weren't really able to play collectively on our defence and struggled to decide who our first defender should have been, so we would like to be even more aware of the details as the entire team. Tomorrow will mark the final day of our training camp this time, but we would like to keep our focus so we will finish our job on a high note.

SHIRAKI Akari (Urawa Reds Ladies)
Having capitalized on our training we had during the morning, our shooting impact and awareness before the opponents' goal improved more than our previous training match. Individually, I thought that I needed to improve the timing and quality of pursuing and when to start moving on the defensive side of ball. As we've trained as the team, we've gotten to know each other's plays and have been able to communicate with each other and play collectively. So it's been a really useful training camp. We still have one more day left, so I would like to showcase myself so I will be selected for the next training camp.

Schedule

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