Sat. 10 September

The U-16 Japan National Team, dubbed “00JAPAN,” went through recovery training for less than an hour to get rid of their fatigue from their training match they played on the previous day. They loosened their bodies with running and stretching, and then had passing drills with their staff.

After the training, they had an exchange event with a total of 31 boys and girls who play football in Mito. From a ball feeling to a mini game, it was a short time, but they spent a valuable moment with the children. The players were heartened by the children's smiles, while they received words of encouragement. It was an occasion for the players to inspire themselves toward the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship in India.

Sun. 11 September

Via a 20-hour travel including transit, the team arrived in Goa, India - the site for the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship.

Mon. 12 September

Because the team got to Goa past midnight on the previous night, they had a late breakfast and ran at the beach before the hotel in the morning. In the afternoon, in order to improve their physical condition, they had interval dashes and some exercises to polish their battles before the goal.

The team had prepared for the time difference since their domestic training camp, and the players looked sharp at training. Getting used to the pitch in India, they had 4-on-4 drills plus one neutral player, shooting practice from crosses, 3-on-2 exercises from crosses with a goalkeeper, and 5-on-5 trainings with two outside men in a good atmosphere in the team.

This time, they occasionally saw players from other participating countries (Vietnam, Austria and Kirghiz), and it made the Japanese players to feel the actual tournament getting closer. Japan are determined to create an atmosphere to get into their games with confidence involving all the staff and players by putting up the best possible preparation overwhelming the opponents.

Players' Comments

GK #12 AOKI Kokoro (JFA Academy Fukushima U18)
We've finally arrived in Goa, India, which is the site of our battles to earn a spot in the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. We already experienced the circumstances in India through our simulation trip in the end of May, so things are kind of familiar to us. We would certainly like to capitalise on that experience. We have some fatigue from the travel for sure, but we still were concentrated in our training today. We have been able to make the final tune-up in good mood for the tournament. In terms of our issues in collective plays, we've improved them by communicating more. I feel positive about that. This is a tournament we need to attain certain results. Therefore, we need to maintain our good mood going into the tournament and keep preparing for our first game.

MF #8 SUZUKI Toichi (Cerezo Osaka U-18)
We have some fatigue from the long travel, but it'll be important for us to raise the quality of our training with the image for our first game in the remaining three days. In today's practice, we focused on communicating proactively. I think that we are going to struggle unless we raise the accuracy of our crosses and improve the ability to score, so we want to work on those in training. In order to contribute to the team's victories, I am going to tune up, including my mental aspect.

FW #13 NAKAMURA Keito (Mitsubishi Yowa SC Youth)
Compared to our simulation trip in the end of May, it's cooler and we can prepare under better circumstances. We had intense training session today. Having still the travel fatigue, I felt tired after practice. Starting from tomorrow, we need to be even more focused during two-a-day practices in preparation for our first game. Only four days left, we still have a lot of things to improve including the quality of our shooting and collective plays with our teammates. We are going to work on those issues every day.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.
*If India, the hosting country of 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, advances to the semifinals, the playoff matches will be held on 29 September and 2 October deciding the fifth place among the four losing teams in the quarterfinals.

AFC U-16 Championship India 2016

2016-9-15(Thu.)～2016-10-2(Sun.)
More Information