Mon. 20 June

“00 JAPAN”, the U-16 Japan National Team has launched their activities for the U-16 International Dream Cup 2016 which will kick off on 22 June. Japan will play against strong countries from 3 different continents such as the U-16 Hungary National Team, the U-16 Mali National Team, and the U-16 Mexico National Team. Japan is aiming to win all of these matches and winning the title consecutively after also winning it last year. “00 JAPAN”’s final goal is the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017, by going through the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016 in this September. For the team, this competition is a very good trial to check their level before the U-16 Championship India 2016 3 months from now.

In the opening meeting, the team’s Coach MORIYAMA Yoshiro stressed the importance of playing full of fighting spirit, making the most of Japan’s advantages as well as individual strengths against any teams. The team keeps improving their quality of play even through the match experiences against physically stronger teams, by trying to perform better with their advantages. 

For the first match against Hungary, they went straight to the training sessions after arriving at the venue in the evening. They had routine sessions of “00 JAPAN” such as pass & control, 4-on-4 + freeman, 1-on-1, 7-on-5 + goalkeeper, and 8-on-7 + goalkeeper. The players kept a good level of concentration during these sessions. The condition of each player was different due to the different schedule of their home teams, but there were effective sessions prepared for them to make most of their limited time to get ready. 

At the end of the training, they had 3 sets of 15 minutes training matches with a cooperation of Gainare Tottori U-18. Japan won 4-0, but there were also many issues found such as line control in defence, improving their risk management, improving scoring accuracy and quality of final passes before making shots. The good thing was that the players discussed well during the intervals and they gradually managed the matches better. In a good level of tension and concentration, the players finished the first training. On the next day, they will have 2 training sessions in the morning and afternoon. 

* "00 JAPAN" is the nickname of the U-16 Japan National Team that consists of members who were born after 2000.

Players' Comments

DF #2  KIKUCHI Kenta (JFA Academy Fukushima U18)
I am happy to be called up again after the recent trip to India and Vietnam. I want to make the most of this precious experience. In this competition, we can play against the U-17 World Cup class teams Hungary, Mali, and Mexico. I am very much looking forward to playing seriously against them. Their advantages are fitness and consistency in any intense moments, but I still believe that “00 JAPAN” has the strength to deal with them well, so I am looking forward to winning with our good teamwork. Today, there were some players who looked tired, but all of us did our best and could win in the end. Tomorrow, we will carry on working very well for the upcoming competition. 

DF #3  KUWAHARA Kaito (Avispa Fukuoka U-18)
I want to see what we can do well and what not by playing against the strong countries in this opportunity. My issue is to improve pass quality, so I want to pay more attention to every pass I will make. I think I could make better passes in terms of speed and quality than those in the previous trip in India and Vietnam. In the training match, we got ourselves into difficulties since we didn’t communicate well, so I will try to communicate more actively and I want to improve when to communicate and what to say throughout the upcoming matches. I want the title with my teammates again this year.  

FW #14  TANAHASHI Akito (Yokohama F・Marinos Youth)
I am happy to be called up after a long time. I am good at playing in front of the goal, so I won’t miss the given chance and I will score goals. Yet I know that I have issues to sort out, so I will do what I have learned from the training. What we are aiming at is to make good results in the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016, and the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017, so we will share individual advantages with each other and strengthen the team. This is such a rare opportunity for us to play against these strong countries, so we are enjoying this level of tension. We will try our best to get the title. 

Schedule

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