The U-18 Japan National Team have arrived in Slovakia and started training for the upcoming Slovakia Cup 2014. 

In the morning, the team started the practice with light workouts centred on stretching and running to recover from the exhausting long trip on the previous day. After that they went on to passing drills before finishing the morning session with 7-on-7 games. The players had been expected to be sluggish due to the long trip, but they actually never showed a sign of fatigue. The trip started off its first set of practice on a high note.

Before the afternoon practice, they had a team meeting.

The team’s head coach Suzuki explained the purpose of this trip. “In this Slovakia trip, winning matches is of course important. But not only that but this trip is also about selecting players for the AFC U-19 Championship 2014 roster. I want you all to know that. Above all, I want you to understand our style of football, have fun playing on the pitch and show some good hustle.”

The afternoon practice was targeted to remind the team of playing defence. At first, they worked on moving the ball in 3-on-2 situations in a small restricted area. Then they moved on to 5-on-5 mini-games in a half pitch. The last was 6-on-5 with the offence players strictly working on attacking and the defence working on defence. In every drill, Coach Suzuki stopped the flow every time he needed to correct positions of players on defence and to let the players know the importance of making a good decision and anticipating the next play.

The Slovakia Cup will kick off on 28, while Japan’s first opponent will be the Russia National Team.

Comments from Players

IDEGUCHI  Yosuke (Gamba Osaka)

I am happy to get back to the national team after a while. In this tournament, winning is important, but I will pay attention to how we win, too. I will show my strength and do my best to help my team. I will do what a national team player is supposed to do on and off the pitch, and always show my 100% even in practices. As for the matches, I will try to show an entertaining football for the audience, and play hard collectively as a team. 

MIZUTANI  Takuma (Shimizu S-Pulse Youth)

The first training of this Slovakia trip started today. It was very uplifting and I also felt everyone is now starting to focus on the direction where this team should be headed. I will work hard together with my teammate as a team to achieve good results. 

KAWASHIMA  Daiki (Avispa Fukuoka U-18)
We started training today, and we had practices with good atmosphere both in the morning and afternoon. We still have things that are not going well yet, but we want to keep sharing game plans as a team, other players’ strength and each other’s mindset. Tomorrow I want to play with a high level of concentration again, and I also want to show what I am good at. We will keep getting our conditioning level ready to play well in the matches starting from 28. 

Schedule

SLOVAKIA CUP 2014