20 October, one day to go to the Final of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Jordan 2016, U-17 Japan Women’s National Team had their final training prior to the match. Under the good sense of tension, the team started stretching and pass & control. In the 9-on-9 possession training, the players raised voices to each other on the pitch. They then checked set-plays and had a building-up offense from defense training. After the series of sessions, they wrapped up with a mini-game. 

After the training, an official press conference was held in Amman International Stadium, which is the venue of the Final, and Japan’s Coach KUSUNOSE Naoki and Captain NAGANO Fuka attended to express their passion for the match.

Japan will play against U-17 DPR Korea from 20:00 (26:00 in Japan’s time) on 21 October. 

Coach's and Players' Comments

KUSUNOSE Naoki, Coach
We have done the best preparation as usual to win the title which has been our target. I am happy that we can face with U-17 DPR Korea in this opportunity. I am also happy to know that the Coach of DPR Korea also feels just like me. When we played against them in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship last year, we could not win, so I think this is important for us to check how much we can be closer to them and to shape our future play. DPR Korea is a good rival that we have played several times, so tomorrow we want to play well and to get the victory. 

MF #10  NAGANO Fuka (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Youth)
I have been looking forward to the match tomorrow. I will work hard to show my best performance on the pitch just like I do all the time. I was very happy when we could beat Spain and I was also very happy to know that U-17 DPR Korea Women’s National Team qualified for the final. In fact DPR Korea has beaten us in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship last year, but I believe that we have grown up since then and we want to beat them tomorrow. If we can win tomorrow, we will get the second consecutive title which is wonderful. Now, what is important is how much we can do with what we learned from our series of activities. I want to do my best of best throughout the 90 minutes. 

MF ＃8  MIYAZAWA Hinata (Seisa Kokusai High School Shonan)
We have worked hard for these 2 years just for the Final tomorrow. There were many hard and difficult experiences during these 2 years, but we could come here to this point by overcoming these challenges together with my other teammates. We will be the top team of this World Cup by beating the DPR Korea tomorrow. They were teams that we could not beat in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship last year. DPR Korean players have speed and power but we just want to challenge them with our pass-work to get the victory. I trust my teammates and will keep running as much as possible; in the end I want to raise the World Cup with all team members including staff, they are the best buddies. Personally, I will do my best and hopefully I can contribute to the team by being a part of scoring goals. 

DF ＃3 WAKISAKA Reina (CEREZO OSAKA SAKAI Ladies)
Tomorrow will be the last day of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. We have passed such a meaningful month and we have come up to the final keeping a good mood as a team. It has been 2 years since we launched the team. Tomorrow, we will do our best with what we have done for this final match to win the title by beating the U-17 DPR Korea Women’s National Team. For many of our supporters in Japan, I really want to finish this World Cup with our biggest smiles. 

Schedule

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