On Tuesday 12 July, Japan Football Association (JFA) announced the squad of the U-20 Japan Women's National Team for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Costa Rica 2022™. Chairman SASAKI Norio of the JFA Women's Committee and Head Coach IKEDA Futoshi of the U-20 Japan Women's National Team attended the press conference held at JFA House.

The squad was selected from the players who took part in the training camp held at Prince Takamado Memorial JFA YUME Field until the previous day, including NISHINO Akane (Mynavi Sendai Ladies), NAGAE Ibuki (AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies), IWASAKI Kokona (Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza), and YAMAMOTO Yuzuki (Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza). Players who have played key roles in the WE League, SUGISAWA Mihoshi (Omiya Ardija VENTUS), YOSHIDA Riko (Nittaidai SMG Yokohama), and FUJINO Aoba (Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza), were listed on the team, while TABATA Haruna and KOYAMA Shinomi were selected from Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies, who are competing for the title in the Nadeshiko League Division 1.

Coach Ikeda revealed that in selecting the players, he focused on “players who can demonstrate 100% of their abilities on the pitch and who can also draw out the strengths of their teammates, given the team's concept of fighting aggressively.” He also shared his confidence towards the team, “We were able to hold a series of training camps since May, which allowed the players to build on top of the previous experience without losing sight of what they had built up. They have always shown a high level of understanding, so the speed at which they built up was very fast.”

The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™ will be held for the first time since the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup France 2018™, which Japan won, with the last tournament being cancelled due to the pandemic.

The tournament opens on 10 August and Japan, who are in Group D, will face the Netherlands on 12 August (5am Japan time), Ghana on 15 August (2am Japan time), and the USA on 18 August (8am Japan time), where the top two teams in the group advance to the knock-out stage. The U-20 Japan Women's National Team will be competing to become the first team to win back-to-back titles in the history of the tournament.

Comments

SASAKI Norio, Chairman of JFA Women's Committee
The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Costa Rica 2022™, in which the U-20 Japan Women's National Team will compete, is about to begin. With Japan aiming to defend their title, the players are in good condition and the team has been improving through a series of training camps. Japan have won titles in three categories - FIFA Women's World Cup™, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™, and FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup™, and have players with great potential in the younger generation. If Japan were a land-locked country, we would be able to play many international matches, but because Japan is an island nation, we must find ways to overcome this disadvantage, and we have high expectations for coach Ikeda's leadership in that regard. Nadeshiko Japan is also led by coach Ikeda, so we hope that this will lead to next year's FIFA Women's World Cup™ and the Paris Olympics.

IKEDA Futoshi, Head Coach of U-20 Japan Women's National Team
The U-20 Japan Women's National Team was launched last year and, despite various restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, we have worked with the players to build the team, and after a series of training camps, which ended yesterday, we have finally selected the members for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™. As the Asian qualifier (AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022) was cancelled, results from the AFC U-19 Women's Championship Thailand 2019, which Japan had won, led us to the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™. In this sense, I have shared with the players at the camp that we should fight on behalf of the players of the previous generation. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, in which the SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) will compete, and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup India 2022™, in which the U-17 Japan Women's National Team will compete, are scheduled to take place this year, so I am looking forward to competing with the players in this tournament, which marks the start of the year of the World Cup.