Monday 10 August

U-18 Japan National Team began their training in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture ahead of the SBS Cup International Youth Soccer 2015 getting underway on 13 August. On the first day of their training, the squad spent a longer time than usual for making sure right poses of stretching and working on trunk training in a warm-up session under conditioning coach OGAI.

After that, they were split into offence and defence and had a 3-on-3 game on a half-sized pitch. The training went on in a promising mood as there were a lot of moments where the players threw their body on a 1-on-1 situation in front of goal.

Tuesday 11 August

The second day saw the squad workout in the morning and afternoon.

In the morning session, they went through offensive training including how to build up, start attacking and finish their attack in an 8-on-8 intrasquad game with goalkeepers.

The afternoon session consisted of a 6-on-6 with goalkeepers, a 6-on-5 with goalkeepers and an 8-on-7 with goalkeepers, as they trained collectively adjusting positioning in defence, winning the ball and initiating offence from there. 

U-18 Japan National team face U-18 Spain National Team in their opener on 13th and Shizuoka Youth on 14th before they play the final match of the tournament against U-18 Croatia National Team on 16th.

Players' Comments

KUBOTA Kazune (Kashima Antlers)
We had offensive training in the morning and defensive training in the afternoon. On offence, I passed the ball to a player who was pausing, and that resulted in giving away the ball easily. On defence, I communicated with my teammates well not to allow the opponents to feed a vertical pass easily so that we were able to rob the ball on a challenge in a collective defensive effort as a team. 

We still have a lot to improve coordination-wise so will improve them in tomorrow's training to play a good game and win the opener against Spain.

KUNIMOTO Takahiro (Avispa Fukuoka)
Today we had a two-a-day training in the morning and the afternoon. We mainly worked on an 8-on-8 in the morning. We focused on collective defence and attacking quality. I found I haven't got enough coordination with other players. 

In the afternoon, we played 6-on-5 and 8-on-7 games with the offensive side getting one more player than the defensive side. The offence was outnumbering, so there was supposed to some open space to attack. But we failed to connect passes and build up openings toward goal. Because there were a lot of players who stopped running and looked for teammates, we weren't able to connect passes. 

Tomorrow, we will try to play more collectively more than today, and get ready for the competition starting on 13th.

ITAKURA Ko (Kawasaki Frontale)
Today we went through defence and offence. We all tried to see shared understanding on team's ideas and had training in a good mood. We will take pride in standing on the pitch with Hinomaru (Japanese national flag) on our back and go all out for the SBS Cup.

ICHIMI Kazunari (Otsu High School)
In the morning, we had shooting drills from cross balls, as we were required to improve quality of timing to start moving and quality of crosses. And in the hot temperature, we were required high concentration. We will continue to make a good preparation tomorrow for the match on 13th.

Schedule

SBS CUP International Youth Soccer 2015 Participating Teams

U-18 Croatia National Team, U-18 Spain National Team, U-18 Japan National Team, U-18 Shizuoka Selection Team