The third day of the Kagoshima camp started with a meeting where the squad watched video footage of offence to share the same image before working out. The training was held in scorching heat just like yesterday, but the players were focused to go through ball handling exercises and 3-on-2 and 5-on-4 plus-the-goalkeepers drills.

On offence, there were numerous occasions where both the ball holder and the receiver were on the same page and collectively made the decisions. The players showed impressive battles both offensively and defensively. While attackers broke through with aggressive, skilful moves around the penalty box, defenders tried to win the ball by putting intense pressure and using their physical strength, keeping the opponents from scoring.

The young boys wrapped up their training with an intra-squad scrimmage that was whistled by international referee Mr. TOJYO Minoru. Later, he gave a lecture on the key points in the new competition regulations. Furthermore, they were advised on the things that referees are specifically looking for. For "00 Japan" these were the specifics they needed to understand ahead of the AFC U-16 Championship 2016.

Thanks to Kagoshima Football Association’s efforts, after the training, the players interacted with third and fourth grader football kids from the host city Kagoshima. In an environment full of smiles, it was a cheerful and memorable moment playing football together.

After dinner, national training centre coach TEGURAMORI Hiroshi shared inspiring stories including the Great East Japan Earthquakes to end the day.

They will face Kagoshima's top-notch high school teams, Kagoshima Josei High School and Kagoshima Jitsugyo High School, on Thursday 25 August.

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

Players' Comments

GK  KOKUBO Leobrian (Kashiwa Reysol U-18)
Ahead of the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016, we have been able to train productively as a team. But I still have a lot of issues to be sorted, so I will work hard and improve as much as possible. 

Today, we learned a lot from international referee Mr. Tojyo. There are salient regulation changes regarding the positioning of the goalkeeper. The video footage reminded me that we need to be aware of them.

We had an opportunity to interact with local elementary school students. We were still tired because it was just after training, but the fatigue went away by seeing their smiles and playing football with them. We will work hard to become somebody they can look up to.

MF  KUMASAWA Kazuki (Ryutsukeizaidai Kashiwa High School)
Compared to the training of the past two days, today we worked out in much better form. Until yesterday, we made passes unable to convey any message, but through the advice of our coaching staff, we were able to improve the quality of passing. As a result, our overall play got better.

Making swift transitions from defence to offence and attacking facing the opponents’ goal, we made significant improvements in offensive combinations. Further trying to improve on the things that we have been working so far and working on image training repeatedly, I will try to go head-to-head against the opponents demonstrating my strength.

The interaction with local elementary school students was a new experience and I enjoyed it. I remembered my childhood and found out how fun football is. I will continue to enjoy playing football. I learned a lot from international referee Mr. Tojyo. We learned about competition rules, but above all referees are working hard on their job. So we also need to work hard like them.

MF  MATSUMOTO Nagi (Cerezo Osaka U-15)
I'm very happy to be called up to Japan National Team again. I felt every one of my teammates was strong on the ball and had high quality of passing skills and great awareness toward scoring goals. I still lack the ability to prepare and look around myself when receiving the ball. I found it important to talk right after making a mistake with my teammates and figure out what we were supposed to do.

I really enjoyed playing and interacting with local elementary school students. The scene where the students were chasing the ball to their very best reminded me that we have to work even harder. From international referee Mr. Tojyo, I learned a lot of competition rules that are relevant, so I want to make use of them for my future performance.

Schedule

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