U-23 Japan Women’s National Team started preparations on Sunday 28 February for the coming La Manga International Women's U-23 Tournament in Spain. 

The team left Japan at midnight on 28 February Japan Time, and arrived in Spain at 20:00 on 28 February local time. The trip took longer than 24 hours.

The team started their training session from 11:00 on Monday 29 February. In the morning, they did some jogging and stretches in order to recover from the long flight. They communicated with each other even more during the ice-breaker, and moved onto shooting practice.

In the afternoon, the players focused on practice matches to finish off their training session.

The La Manga International Women's U-23 Tournament is an annual event at this time of the year. Japan will play against the U-23 Norway Women’s National Team on 2 March, and meet Sweden and Germany after a one-day break in turn. 

Players' Comments

HAYASHIZAKI Mei (AC NAGANO PARCEIRO LADIES)
Although we haven’t got much time before the game, I’d like to share our vision as much as possible during practice sessions to prepare well enough for the first match. I hope we’ll win all the games by doing what we’re supposed to do.

TAKAHASHI Miyuki (Niigata University of Health and Welfare)
It was the first practice session in Spain. We practiced 1-on-1 and keeping possession, followed by a intrasquad game. I found that we needed to improve our appreciation of the situation, the pace of pressure, and the quality of passing and receiving the ball. Though we got together momentarily to assemble the U-23 Japan Women’s National Team, I’d like to communicate with each other well to get in a good condition before the games.

Schedule

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