U-17 Japan National Team started its training from morning on the first day in Belarus, as if they were not bit tired after long travel. The condition there was totally different from that in Japan and it was still dim at the starting time of its training at 10 a.m. as well as a temperature reached sub-zero. Players did 2 sets of running for 12 minutes at a pace made by a coach Saito in the running course in front of their staying hotel. Their paces were getting fast naturally in the end, showing energized motivation of them.

The team made another practices from the afternoon at the game venue, Football Covered Arena Minsk. They did a exercise of possessing a ball with a formation of 4-4-1 and 6-6 as well as a mini-game style one in the end of training. A head coach Moroyama instructed players loudly with words such as "watching carefully!" or "switching your mind quickly!". The team will confirm its strategy through full-day practice to prepare for a game against Finland on Jan 18.

Comments

DF ITO Hiroki（Jubilo Iwata U-15）
All of us were engaged in tough and severe trainings even on the first day of the tour, though we were a little bit tired due to a long travel. As an approaching speed to a ball possessor was so fast that we were required to judge the situation quickly. I believe we made a quality training to compete well against the opponent when trying to gain a ball. Though we still haven't gotten over jet-lag and adjusted ourselves to such a
cold weather, trying to maintain our conditions in tomorrow's training to make a full performance from the beginning of an opening game.

MF TANAKA Riku（Kashiwa Reysol U-15）
We played soccer for the first time with members of this team and we still did some plays that our images for them weren't fully synchronized. I thought that we could synchronize our images for our plays and get stronger by accumulating more experiences of practices and games, as we are now coming to know character of performances by each player. What I tried to be aware in today's training to find spaces for securing appropriate positions, but I failed to do so because I couldn't see the opponent's moves accurately. I aim to seek improving my performances more and more during this tour. I will try to commit to a victory for the team by getting involved with scoring points lively in an opening game on Jan 18.

Schedule

※The schedule may be subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.