The U-19 Japan National Team, who had played an international friendly against France on Saturday 3 September, flew to the UAE in the evening, arriving early in the morning of Sunday 4. It was extremely hot with temperatures over 40 degrees (Celsius). The players focused primarily on running and stretching in order to acclimatise to the heat and recover from their journey. 

The team held a meeting at a hotel, reviewing once again the team’s achievements and problems in the second game against France, prior to a training session on Monday 5 September. During a session at five in the evening, the players shared the team’s tactics both in offence and defence. They especially worked on keeping possession longer after intercepting the ball and supporting teammates at the right moment in order to initiate effective attacks. 

The team will attend another training session on Tuesday 6 September in preparation for a friendly against the UAE the following Wednesday.

Players' Comments

MF #17 ICHIMARU Mizuki (Gamba Osaka)
We had our second day of the UAE trip. As we found many issues in the game against France, we must work on them during practice sessions. I think there is still room to improve our stamina and speed. Personally, I need to become stronger around the ball and to improve defence. So I’d like to overcome my problems during this trip. It’ll be the last match abroad before the final qualifiers, which is an important opportunity for us. I’d like to practice hard in the remaining two days, so that we can raise the level of the team.

DF #16 IWATA Tomoki (Oita Trinita)
We held a meeting to share the team’s concept after the game against France. I learned during today’s session that we needed to bring more of that concept into our daily performance. I’d like to show what we’ve been practicing on this tour in our final game against UAE.

MF #22 KOGA Taiyo (Kashiwa Reysol U-18)
We had the second day of our UAE trip and reviewed our second match against France in video prior to a practice session. During the session, we worked on our problem in defence, which we found in the second game, so that we could share the same vision as a team in preparation for the coming match. Despite sharing the common understanding, we still struggle to perform as well as we want to. So, we’d like to practice hard in the remaining time, learning from the first and the second game against France, prior to the match against the UAE.

Schedule

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