On Friday 25 October, the U-17 Japan National Team visited the match venue, Estadio Klever Andrade, where their three group stage matches of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Brazil 2019 will take place. Coach MORIYAMA Yoshiro and team captain HANDA Riku also appeared in the official press-conference held on this day.

With the team facing one of the tournament favourites, Netherlands, in their first group stage match, coach Moriyama stated, “We consider ourselves lucky to face them in our first match. It will allow us to play the remainder of the tournament with confidence.” The coach also mentioned of his team tactics, “We hope to keep the ball moving and utilise our speed to find a hole to break through.” Handa also shared his take on the match, “Our defenders are capable of playing tenacious defence, while our offence can exploit the open space upfront.”

The team held a training session before visiting the stadium, as the team went through various drills to prepare for the big match against the Netherlands.

This is the first time the U-20 Japan National Team and the U-17 Japan National Team have both appeared in back to back World Cups (2017 and 2019). With his eyes set on the future Olympic games and World Cups, coach Moriyasu shared his thoughts on this achievement, “By playing in a higher level competition with greater intensity, the players will be able to heighten their standards.” The players of the U-17 Japan National Team have shown great excitement ahead of the world stage, as they are highly inspired by players like KUBO Takefusa and SUGAWARA Yukinari, who played before them at the same stage.

The FIFA U-17 World Cup Brazil 2019 will kick-off its action on Saturday 26 October. The U-17 Japan National Team will hold another training session in Vitoria before facing the U-17 Netherlands National Team on Sunday 27 at 20:00 local time (Monday 28 at 8:00 Japan time).

Coach and Players' Comments

MORIYAMA Yoshiro, Coach of U-17 Japan National Team
With this being our first match of the tournament, it will be a very important match for us, but we will try not to get too worked up about it. We have prepared ourselves well, so we hope to enter the match with great confidence as the Asian Champions. The Netherlands has enormous attacking threats and they are also capable of possessing the ball. However, their attack-minded formation should give us plenty of opportunities to exploit the open space. We have many players with great speed, so we hope to keep the ball moving and utilise our speed to find our chances to break through. We consider ourselves lucky to face one of the tournament favourites in our first match. It will allow us to play the remainder of the tournament with confidence. We will enter the match with great aggression and showcase our usual performance.

DF #3 HANDA Riku (Montedio Yamagata Youth)
The Netherlands is a very organised team with great attacking threats. They are capable of creating opportunities both as a team and as individuals. Facing such team, we hope to take a collective approach to cope with them. Our defenders are capable of playing tenacious defence, while our offence can exploit the open space upfront. If we can keep our opponent scoreless for a long time, we can make them frustrated and force them to lose their composure.

MF #16 YAMAUCHI Kakeru (Vissel Kobe U-18)
We have just two days ahead of our first match of the World Cup. The team has been able to train well, and we are all feeling excited for this big tournament. With the team facing a strong opponent like the Netherlands, we are expecting a tough match, so we hope to play hard as a team to win the match.

MF #19 TAMURA Souki (Kashiwa Reysol U-18)
I feel fortunate to be given such wonderful opportunity to play at the World Cup in my third call-up to the national team, so I hope to make the most of this experience. The Rugby Japan National Team has shown us the importance of team unity and in order to achieve our team goal of reaching the semi-finals, we must work together as a team. I will give my best efforts to help the team make a deep run.

Schedule

*JFA Technical Director SEKIZUKA Takashi will attend team from Sat. 26 October to Sun. 3 November.
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.

FIFA U-17 World Cup Brazil 2019

Tournament Duration: Sat. 26 October - Sun. 17 November 2019

Group Stage:
Mon. 28 October 2019 8:00 (Japan Time)
vs U-17 Netherlands National Team

Thu. 31 October 2019 8:00 (Japan Time)
vs U-17 USA National Team

Sun. 3 November 2019 8:00 (Japan Time)
vs U-17 Senegal National Team

Tournament Information