Thu. 21 April

The Europe trip began for U-15 Japan National Team. While the Delle Nazioni Tournament has been held with Italy, Austria and Slovenia every year, the regulations changed and this year’s 13th annual tournament is for the U-15 generation, which gave U-15 Japan National Team a chance to participate for the first time. The team are consisted of the players who were born in or after 2001. 

This fresh-faced squad include 10 players, the half of the entire squad, who have never been listed on a national team before this. As well as “00 Japan”, U-16 Japan National team, the players on this team target to join the future national team for the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016 to be held in September this year. 

As the opponents in the group league of the tournament are U-15 National Teams from Norway, Mexico and Austria, it is very interesting to see how far Japan’s young squad can go against such good teams around the world.  

For the tournament to kick off on Sunday 24 April, Japan’s U-15 team arrived on Thursday 21 April in Austria where the tournament is held. After the arrival, they did not waste any time and went out for walking around the hotel, enjoying the scenery around wonderful enough to let the players and team staff be amazed and forget the fatigue from their long trip.

In the evening, the players listened to the lectures by doctor IKEGAWA Naoshi on ideal athlete meals, conditioning and importance of medical perspective and by trainer NAKAJO Satoshi on the movement preparation concept which Japan’s young national teams have been focusing on recently. 

To wrap up the day, Coach MORIYAMA Yoshiro in the end explained the vision of this national team and shared the certain type of plays he expects from the players with using highlight videos of European leagues and “00 Japan”*.

Fri. 22 April

The second day of the trip had two training sessions, one each in the morning and afternoon both at the field to be used for the tournament matches. While they confirmed the pitch conditions, in the morning the squad engaged mostly in attacking drills and scrimmages in the end. The atmosphere among the team was very welcoming as even the first-time invitees were vocal during the workout. The afternoon session involved a local club team interacting with the Japan side including playing small-sided games together. Another two-a-day workout is scheduled for 23 April. 

"00 JAPAN" is the nickname of the U-16 Japan National Team that consists of members who were born after 2000.

Coach and Players' Comments

MORIYAMA Yoshiro, Coach
First I would like to express my deepest condolences to the lives lost in the earthquake that hit Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. I cannot stop wishing that betters days will come as soon as possible for the people who have lost their home, are forced to live a very inconvenient life at shelters or in their car, and are frightened every time there is an after-quake. Also I am so full of appreciation and respect to our self-defence forces, medical staff and volunteers who work hard days and nights. 

Every time I see the footage of what my beloved home of Kumamoto is experiencing now, it breaks my heart. I would like to help and be part of the effort to rebuild beautiful Kumamoto no matter how many years it takes, and I believe in the grinding power by people in Kumamoto to move forward. Before I came here, I kept contacting my parents and friends there and sending the things they need at the moment, and I felt bad to stop it to come here.  

I said to my players. “There are many people who unfortunately lost their lives in the disaster and who are hurt mentally and physically during their lives at shelters. I want you all to have in your mind deep thoughts for those people, and at the same time I want you all to appreciate this great opportunity to play football you love at this beautiful place. If any of you can’t do your best in these circumstances, that player should quit playing football.” I hope they will grow as a player and as a person to become able to give joy, excitement and courage through football to people around them and also give dreams and hopes to children.

This trip is the first team activity for this U-15 Japan National Team and we have only a short period for preparation. But we want to challenge great teams here with our very best and with fair plays, and yet with fierce fighting sprits.  

DF  KUMADA Shuto (Kashima Antlers Youth)
In this trip, I want to see how much my trademark cross balls can be effective against good foreign teams. I want to join attacks aggressively and get better in terms of reading the timing to attack and staying ready for it. Joining the national team for the first time for an international trip, I experienced how hard it is to travel for long hours. We had many meetings and reviewed videos of our offence and defence. Coach Moriyama taught us the ideal plays we should aim at and we shared that among the team. So until the tournament, we want to keep communicating with each other actively. If we get united as one team, I think good results will follow. So we will stick to the win-loss results. I feel the joy and appreciation to get to play football that I love, and I want to get good results to send as much courage as we can to people in Kumamoto and Oita. 

FW  YAMAZAKI Ryosuke (Shimizu S-Pulse Junior Youth)
Coach Moriyama talked about the earthquakes in Kumamoto and Oita. I want to keep appreciating getting to play football and we want to work hard in order to report good results in the end. In today’s training, we were instructed in detail the timing to receive passes and how to move to create space. In this trip I want to further learn how to compete against physically-better players and how to predict next plays. I am a forward, so I always stick to scoring goals, and I want to help my team win. 

Schedule

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