Sunday 14 August, the U-20 Japan Women's National Team had their 6th day of the training camp. 

In warm sunny weather, the squad started their morning session with passing & control. After the agility workout which included a short-sprint exercise, they had possession training with the idea of 'collaborating the movement of the players with the movement of the ball.' In the 6-on-6 (plus the goalkeepers) intra-squad scrimmage, the players paid attention to the ‘physical toughness around the ball’ and they sometimes tried to get the ball very aggressively.  

The team started the afternoon with a ‘break-the-ice’ exercise with kick-ups in group of 6 players. Then, they practiced on their side attacks, focusing on ‘responding to crosses.’ It was followed by an intra-squad scrimmage to end the training. 

On Monday 15 August at 19:00. (local time), they will have a match against Borussia VfL Mönchengladbach. 

Players' Comments

KITAGAWA Hikaru (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies)
In the training today, we had sessions focusing on defence, closing down the opponents when they try to break through the tight defence and responding to crosses. When you play against foreign teams, defending crosses becomes very important. Since Japanese players are shorter, thus having the height disadvantage, we have to clarify marking and positioning. Otherwise, opponents can find open spots and score. Tight marking and not allowing the opponents to score freely are always important. In doing so, we worked on communicating and collaborating amongst each other on the pitch.

During this camp, we have been working on offence also. We need to improve our quality of play, which has been the primary issue for us in the training and in the previous match. Heading to the next day match, we will be united as a team.

MIURA Narumi (NIPPON TV BELEZA)
In this morning, we focused on breaking through opponents’ defence, while, in this afternoon, we focused more on our defence especially how to respond to crosses. In regards to crosses, how we prepare against the opponents with height advantage and mark tightly will be important. In addition, we will need to anticipate what the players are going to do and position ourselves not allowing them to be unchecked. 

In the tomorrow’s match, the quality of our play and our creativity against the physically stronger and speedy players will be pertinent. There were issues that we need to sort out from the last match. We will be making the necessary adjustments in order for us to feel that we made progress throughout this camp, both as individual and as a team. We have limited time until the World Cup, so we want to do as much as possible to improve ourselves.

Schedule

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