International Friendly Match vs U-17 Uruguay Women's National Team
Mon. 13 August 2018 Kick-off time 17:00 (Local time) Match duration 90mins (45mins x2)
Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici, Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

U-17 Japan Women’s National Team 1-0（1-0, 0-0）U-17 Uruguay Women's National Team

Scores
28' OSAWA Haruka (U-17 Japan Women's National Team)

Starting Line-up
GK: OHBA Shu
DF: TOMIOKA Chihiro, NAGAE Ibuki, GOTO Wakaba, ITO Sara
MF: OKUMA Tamaki, MATSUDA Shino, NAKAO Momo
FW: TANAKA Tomoko, KAMIYA Chiina, OSAWA Haruka

Reserves
GK: FUKUDA Shiori
MF: TAKIZAWA Chise, YAMAMOTO Yuzuki
FW: MIZUNO Fukina, YOSHIZUMI Warai

Substitution
HT OSAWA Haruka → YOSHIZUMI Warai
HT NAKAO Momo → YAMAMOTO Yuzuki
63' KAMIYA Chiina → MIZUNO Fukina
69' OKUMA Tamaki → TAKIZAWA Chise

Match Report

On this day, the match was held at the Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici in the Colonia Department, where the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be held this November.

Although Uruguay is in its rainy season, the match was conducted under a pleasant weather, as it kicked-off at 16:55.

Japan tested the waters in the early minute, but soon created an opportunity in the 12th minute, when TANAKA Tomoko received the ball in the right flank, before delivering a cross towards the goal. KAMIYA Chiina connected with the ball, but her attempt was blocked by the opposing defender. Four minutes later, this time Kamiya carried the ball in the right flank, feeding a pass to the over lapping OSAWA Haruka, who then dribbled up into the penalty area to strike a shot, but her effort was saved by the goalkeeper.

The persistent efforts made by Japan finally materialised in the 28th minute, when ITO Sara received the ball at the right side, before sending a cross towards the centre. Osawa delivered a direct shot to capture the opening goal. Japan continued to attack the Uruguayan goal but failed to extend the lead as the first half ended with a score of 1-0.

In efforts to score more goals, Japan kept their pressure on, but couldn’t create a goal scoring opportunity. Conversely the match saw Uruguay threatening the Japanese goal, but with the superb efforts made by their goalkeeper OHBA Shu, Japan managed to keep a clean sheet to finish the match with a 1-0 lead.

Their second international friendly match will take place on Wednesday 15 August at 17:00. The match will be held at Estadio Domingo Burgueño Miguel, the venue for the group stage of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Uruguay 2018, as the Japanese side will once again face the U-17 Uruguay Women’s National Team.

Players’ Comments

GK #1 OHBA Shu (JFA Academy Fukushima)

Today we played in our first match since arriving to Uruguay. Since arriving to Uruguay, we have only trained on artificial turf, but today we played on natural grass. The grass was very deep, and it kept on shedding the speed of our passes, so we had to adjust our positionings accordingly and respond differently to the long balls. However, there were scenes where we mishandled the long balls and gave up opportunities for our opponents. There were also times where our passes were too weak and allowed our opponents to apply pressure to the receiver of the ball. After all, we are given the opportunity to train and play matches at the site of the World Cup, so we must utilise this opportunity to the fullest to get used to the daily meals and turf condition, while building our image ahead of the World Cup.

DF #3 NAGAE Ibuki (Fujieda Junshin High School)
In the morning, we spent our time watching the match between Japan and Paraguay at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup held in France. Our match against the U-17 Uruguay Women’s National Team followed right after we finished watching the U-20 match. It took us a while in the first half to get used to the pitch condition, but we managed to score a goal from our signature ball movements, so that was good. We created many opportunities in the second half by moving the ball around, but we lacked accuracy in the final third and eventually lost our concentration in the last 10, 15 minutes of the match. We could have conceded during that stretch and our coach told us after the match that we must communicate more during the match. We need to express our emotions and encourage or discipline our teammates in certain situations or else we will keep on making the same mistakes. It reminded me that these aspects were something we were taught since the beginning of this team, so I will go out and communicate more with my teammates from now on. We will face the same opponents in two days, but we will maintain our focus for the entire 90 minutes and strive to earn another clean sheet victory.

DF #5 GOTO Wakaba (Nippon TV Menina)
Today was our first match since arriving to Uruguay. Compared to the usual natural grass we play in Japan, the grass here is very long and we must exert more pace to our passes to get it through. We made many mistakes in our match today, and it reminded us that we must train harder to obtain techniques that will not be influenced by the environment. Our opponents showcased great speed in fifty-fifty situations, which is a strong characteristic of foreign players. That is an aspect we can manage to cover by making the right prediction and preparation, so we must keep our intention to adjust to them. We only have three months until the World Cup. We are given the opportunity to play matches at the actual match venue, so we must not waste this experience and implement what we learnt from our first match, while communicating with our teammates to improve ourselves, to earn another victory in our second match.

MF #10 NAKAO Momo (JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies U-18)
Ahead of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in November, this tour provides us with a precious experience to face foreign teams. The turf on the pitch was very long and it took us a while to get used to. The ball lost its momentum many times during this match and we had to keep in mind to make an extra step towards the ball when receiving a pass. We managed to showcase combinations involving two players in various occasions, but we lacked combinations that involved three or four players, so we must get more players involved in our plays. In our next match I would like to focus on how to receive the ball while heightening the quality of my movements to support the players up front and contribute to our team’s victory by utilising my abilities. How we prepare ourselves within the next three months will determine how we play at the World Cup, so we will give our best to prepare ourselves to leave no regrets.

Schedule

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

International Friendly Match

Dates: Thu. 9 - Wed. 15 August, 2018
Venue: Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici、Estadio Domingo Burgueño Miguel, Uruguay
Tournament Information