It was the fourth day of the training camp for U-16 Japan Women’s National Team preparing for the upcoming AFC U-16 Women’s Championship.

Today’s training started with an ice-break game. Since the team played training matches on previous two days, this day’s workout started light and slow.

In the afternoon, the squad went on and practised side attacks and other attacking plays. With paying attention to passing quality, they tried to improve how to take advantage of space created in front of goal with one player after another joining the attack.

After dinner, KANNO Oto’s 15th birthday was celebrated by all. She spoke of her renewed enthusiasm, saying "(Being 15 years old) I want to be able to play a bigger role in the team. First, I want to help Japan to win in the AFC Championship."

Players' Comments

ONO Nana (Nippon TV Menina)
Today our practice was centred on set-pieces and passing game for breaking down opponents’ defence. It made me realise it’s important to make sure every single pass is accurate and all the shots are good. Especially when we play against other countries in Asia, every single play needs to be finished well. We don’t have much time left for practice, so I want to keep focusing on it. The communication among the team was better today than before, so we want to keep doing that, too.

TAKARADA Saori (Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies)
Today we worked on defending set-pieces and breaking down opponents’ defence in front of goal. I want to use those plays in real matches. In the evening meeting, we watched the final match of the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship. It was inspiring that they all kept running until their legs cramped up. We realised once again that we want to keep playing until the very end, never giving it up in order to win the championship. I want to use every single day left wisely.

TAKAHIRA Miyu (JFA Academy Fukushima)
In the set-piece drill, we mainly worked on tricky free-kick plays. In those tricky plays, we tried to improve by discussing together between plays things like how to deceive opponents and what kind of passes we want from each other.

When we worked on breaking down defence, I tried to pay attention to the speed of each pass. I think we will have tough matches from beginning to end in the AFC Championship. Looking back at the practices we have done so far, I think there are still more we can do. So I will try to remember every lesson learned in each practice when we have following practices and matches. Then I will try new things as well.

USHIJIMA Riko (Hinomoto Gakuen Senior High School)
When we worked on moving the ball from build-up to shots, I thought I should run more in matches, although there were some occasions I had to run more than usual. Talking about defence, simulating more powerful and quicker opponents such as China, Korea Republic and Korea DPR, we want to keep working on covering each other and defending tenaciously in every single practice session.

ICHINOSE Chisato (JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies U-18)
Whatever drill we do, we always ask ourselves whether this play can be effective against Asian rivals. We still have imperfections, so we want to use our time left wisely to win the championship. We want to finish the tournament with everyone smiling, and also give something back to the people who have supported us.

Schedule

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

AFC U-16 Women’s Championship China 2015 

Japan is in Group B. Group A includes Chaina PR, Thailand, Iran, Korea Republic.
Top two teams will qualify for FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Jordan 2016.