Mon. 8 May

U-16 Japan National Team “00 Japan” launched their trip to China. Their current aim is to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup next year by winning the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016, which will be held in September.

In this trip, the team is joining in the “Jiangyin Zhouzhuang Cup CFA International Youth Football Tournament 2016” which is organised by Chinese Football Association, and will play against U-17 China PR National Team, U-17 Iran National Team, and U-17 Uzbekistan National Team. This tournament is very important for Japan since Japan has possibility to play against Iran and Uzbekistan in the mentioned AFC U-16 Championship India 2016.

“00 Japan” players arrived at Haneda Airport in the early morning and flew to Shanghai. Then they moved to their accommodation in Jiangsu which is 3 hours away by bus from Shanghai Airport. They had core muscle training right after arriving at their accommodation to get ready for the training starting from the next day.

Tue. 9 May

1 day before the first match of the tournament, the team had 2–a-day training in the morning and in the afternoon. Prior to the first session, the team’s Coach MORIYAMA Yoshiro told the players that the theme of this trip as a team is “to increase tactic variations.” They will try hard for this training theme while detailed tactics will be given to them.

In the training, they had 4-on-4 + freeman, and 6-on-6 sessions in the narrower area. In the other sessions of 3-on-2 + GK, and 6-on-6 +GK, all players worked very intensely and the goalkeepers were taking risks to save their goal.

In the afternoon, Moriyama attended the press conference at the match venue. After the conference, the team was going to start their official training, but the stadium was unavailable to use due to heavy rain. They moved back to their training venue from the morning time and had one hour training.

Although the training was only for one hour, the players had such an effective time from warming-up session and to tactic session. The pitch condition was not ideal with rain, yet they looked highly prepared for the match on the next day.

Tomorrow, the competition will kick off and Japan will play against U-17 Uzbekistan National Team.

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

Players' Comments

GK  KOKUBO Leobrian (Kashiwa Reysol U-18)
I am happy to be called up to the squad team after one year, it was surprising to me. I want to show off all of what I can do in this opportunity. I think there are a lot of things that a goalkeeper can do during the match; I will keep raising my voice to direct the defenders and play consistently in every single matches.

DF  TAKAHATA Keita (Oita Trinita U-18)
I am very happy that I was called up to the U-16 Japan National team for the first time. I want to utilise my advantages in this chance and to see how much I can do against strong Asian teams and to see which plays can break through these teams. In the first training, I found it a bit hard probably due to my nervousness, yet it was good that I could find out what I should do to improve my play.

There are many issues such as improving quality of pass, pass speed, and getting ready for receiving the ball, but observing my teammates’ play has helped me a lot. Making communication positively with them, I want to understand this team’s concept as soon as possible and to be called up for the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016.

MF  SEHATA Gijo (JFA Academy Fukushima U18)
I am glad that I was selected for this trip being followed by the previous U-15 Japan National team’s trip in Europe. In the Europe trip, I learned how to receive the ball with high accuracy, this time I want to pay even stronger attention to improve it more. I can make more shots in the recent matches, but my scoring accuracy is not good enough. I want to be more consistent in every single play and pass, and to be the one who controls the game. I always want to try my best to contribute to the team; it doesn’t really matter if you will be the one of the starting players or a substitute.

Schedule

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