1 day before the first match of the AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016 against Yemen, the official press conference of the Group C was held at mid-day on 14 October, and coaches from 4 countries, including Japan’s Coach UCHIYAMA Atsushi, attended the conference. All coaches talked about the importance of the first match and each of them expressed their passion towards their first matches on the following day.

The U-19 Japan National Team had the final training sessions from 4pm just like they did on the previous day. In the meeting they had prior to the sessions, Uchiyama told the players: “Get yourself ready perfectly in all aspects of your mentality, skill, and physical condition.”  In the sessions following his words, the players seemed well concentrated on checking their set plays for the match tomorrow, to get ready in the best way.

The battle to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017 is kicking off tomorrow. For the U-19 Japan National Team, this World Cup has been their target since they launched the team in January 2015.

* In case that Korea Republic will qualify for the semi-final, the 4 teams which lost in the quarter-finals will compete against each other to decide the 5th place.

Coach's and Players' Comments

UCHIYAMA Atsushi, Coach
My image of Yemen is that Yemeni players have good skills and speed. In the competition which has shorter length of time, the first match is very important. Every team has the chance hence we really want to get a good momentum by winning the upcoming matches. Since we launched the team 2 years ago, we have prepared very well so what we can do now is just to face the matches with confidence.

MF #10 SAKAI Daisuke (Oita Trinita)
Finally we will play the important match tomorrow. I have joined in the squad team as one of the 23 players in the AFC U-19 Championship, and as a training partner in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, but the team lost the first matches in both competitions. Therefore, I understand deeply about the importance of winning the first match in the competition with shorter length of time just like this championship. I believe that we can definitely get a good result if all of us including staff look in the same direction and be united well. Each of us has different approaches to begin the match, but we all will get ready well for tomorrow.

DF #3 NAKAYAMA Yuta (Kashiwa Reysol)
I think we have prepared well in a positive mood as a team to get a good momentum for the championship by winning the first match. We have just had the final sessions prior to the first match today, and all of us kept a good level of concentration and I felt that now we understand each other much more deeply. I have another type of nervousness which is different from J. League, but I am very much looking forward to the match tomorrow. It will be the beginning of the whole process to be the Asian Champion; we will definitely want to beat the U-19 Yemen National Team.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.
*The Championship's top four ranked teams will then fly the Asian flag at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017. If Korea Republic, the hosting country of 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, advances to the semifinals, the playoff matches will be held deciding the fifth place among the four losing teams in the quarterfinals.

AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016

2016-10-13(Thu.)～2016-10-30(Sun.)
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