On Saturday 29 June, the U-16 Japan Women's National Team played a training match against the local side, DZC'68, as their final training match of the Netherlands tour.

The match started with NEBU Momoko scoring the opening goal to give Japan the initiative. INOSE Yuko followed in the 18th minute, when she converted a cross delivered by NISHIO Hanon to make it 2-0. IKUTA Nanasa broke through the opposing defence line to score a goal in the 24th minute, before scoring another goal in the 30th minute with the assist coming from OIKAWA Sae. Two minutes later, Nebu responded to a through ball delivered by Ikuta to score her second goal of the half to make it 5-0. Before the end of the first half, Nebu and Ikuta both scored their third goal of the match in the 37th and 39th minute respectively to send the match into halftime with a score of 7-0.

The goal spree for Japan continued in the second half, as Ikuta converted a through ball sent by Nebu in the 44th minute, followed by ASAKURA Kanako’s header scored in the 49th minute. IDE Hinata registered the team’s 10th goal in the 55th minute. Second half substitute, FUJINO Aoba added two more goals, while Inose and Fujino also scored a goal each, as the match ended with a final score of 14-0.

Coach and Players' Comments

KANO Michihisa, Coach
With the fixtures of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship announced in late May, this Netherlands tour served as our final tour abroad ahead of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, and this tour gave us a precious opportunity to face the U-16 Netherlands Women's National Team. We were given the opportunity to focus on playing football under a wonderful environment and beautiful weather. Following our tour to Italy in late April, our team has focused on heightening the quality of our fundamentals and to polish on the precisions of our plays. We entered this tour with the intention to strengthen our defence, while improving the transitions, and to heighten the quality of our direct plays and combinations in our offence.

One day ahead of our international friendly match against the U-16 Netherlands Women's National Team, we watched the Nadeshiko Japan play against the Netherlands at the knockout stage of the FIFA Women's World Cup France, and the match gave us extra motivation ahead of our own match. Despite scoring the opening goal, we conceded two goals in the early minutes of the second half. However, our defence showed great resilience while our offence displayed wonderful combinations to retake the lead and win the match. The team still needs to improve on their ability to read and adjust according to the game flow, especially in terms of winning the initiative of the match, but the fact that we were able to play with great intensity throughout the match to come from behind gives us great confidence moving forward.

In August, we will hold a training camp in Hiroshima, where we will strive to heighten the overall level of the team. We would like to thank the Royal Dutch Football Association, the teams we played in the training matches, staffs of the training facilities and accommodations for allowing us to conduct this training camp. I would also like to thank the teams for allowing their players to join this team for such a long period of time. Thank you very much.

MF SATO Chihiro (Osaka Gakugei Senior High School)
In today’s match, we were able to showcase what we have been working on during this training camp. I was very disappointed of the fact that I wasn’t able to play in the match against the U-16 Netherlands Women's National Team, and it gave me more motivation to work harder in my future activities. The best I can do for the team is to give my utmost efforts, so I will continue to work hard for the team.

FW IKUTA Nanasa (Okayama Sakuyo High School)
Compared to the previous matches, the combinations between the two forwards have gotten much better. By staying vocal throughout the match, we were able to stay connected with our teammates and make improvements on our plays. In today’s match, it was great to see our offence initiate the action to score many goals. However, our passes and shots tend to lose quality when we’re playing with high intensity, so we must work to heighten the quality through our daily trainings.

Schedule

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

Upcoming Schedule

*The schedule is subject to change.