On Monday 8 August, the U-20 Japan Women’s National Team departed from Narita Airport and arrived to their destination Düsseldorf in Germany in the evening of the same day.

This will an important training camp prior to the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea in November.

Training started at 9:30 of the following day (Tuesday 9 August) of their arrival. In order to recover from the fatigue from the long-distance travel, they started off their practice session with 10 minutes of free running. Then, in groups of six players, they practiced keep-away drill resembling a ‘bird cage,’ where five players pass around the ball while one player in the middle tries to intercept it. After a series of recovery exercises, similarly in groups of six, they moved on to possession training, followed by shooting practice, ending the morning workout. 

In the afternoon, they started with pass and control drills. Under the heavy cloud and occasional rain, they practiced three-on-threes with two neutral players. Then, it was followed by a six-a-side intra-squad scrimmage, ending the afternoon session. 

During this trip, the U-20 Japan Women’s National Team will play against the U-20 Germany Women's National Team on Friday 12 August and Borussia VfL Mönchengladbach on Monday 15 August.

Players' Comments

DF #18  MATSUBARA Shiho (CEREZO OSAKA SAKAI LADIES)
In Germany, the temperature is approximately 20 degrees Celsius and it was quite comfortable to play. Today’s practice focused on offence. I would like to improve on passing and ball control, while collaborating the timing of plays amongst teammates. I felt the need to further improve the accuracy of final pass and shots, thus enabling us to capitalise on the limited scoring opportunities we might have during the match. This is an important training camp for myself to sort these issues out.

MF #6  SUMIDA Rin (NIPPON TV BELEZA)
Today marks the beginning of the training camp in Germany. We have a practice game against Germany in three days and World Cup in three months. During this trip, it is important to for each one of us to understand the current level of football as well as that of the team. In offence, we need to improve the quality (and accuracy) of each play, including passing and shooting. Furthermore, we need to work on ‘breaking down the defence’ near the goal line.

Schedule

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