The U-23 Japan National Team had their activity on the eighth day since they entered France for the 44th Toulon Tournament. 

As they did one day after their first game, they had recovery menu while preparing for their third game, which will be played on the 25th. IWANAMI Takuya and KAMEKAWA Masashi, both of whom were hurt in the first game, again didn't participate in the practice.

Upon the start of the practice at 10:30, they began with running. After that, a total of 11 players, which consisted of the field players who played in the Portugal game and NOTSUDA Gakuto, who came in as a late substitute in it, went through the recovery. ASANO Takuma and MINAMINO Takumi refrained from running to prepare for the next days.

Five players who worked on training menus using the ball were: MAEDA Naoki, TOGASHI Cayman and KAMADA Daichi, who came in from in the second half as substitutes in the previous day's Portugal game, and HARAKAWA Riki and KIDA Takuya, who didn't play in it. They did a passing and controlling drill and a possession drill, in which they needed to play in limited spaces, and then checked on their plays from combinations to shooting. While the players work on offensive plays coach TEGURAMORI Makoto, they also added their own ideas in those. Seven other players, including both goalkeepers of KUSHIBIKI Masatoshi and NAKAMURA Kosuke, practiced hard for an hour.

After the session, it was announced that Iwanami would leave the team. Also, on the same night, it was revealed that Kamekawa would depart from the squad. Both played would leave on the 25th. It was the decision by the team to give them a chance to begin their rehabs so they could return to action as soon as possible.

Japan have not posted a win with a 0-2 record, but they keep their spirit high. They are rather paying attention to get better in this valuable opportunity. 

Japan will take on Guinea for their third game of the tournament at 17:15 (24:15 in Japan time) on the 25th. The young samurai will get to work on their another challenge.

Coach and Players' Comments

TEGURAMORI Makoto, Coach
Our players didn't get cocky because they became the champions in Asia, but they are working on their practices and games with humble attitudes. And they are devastated right now. I'm telling them that it's happening because they need it. We've been able to work on our project against the world, and we don't have to lose our confidence because we are losing. We are a team that came up to this point having overcome adversities, and I've realized that we need to develop the mind-set that we will prevail again from this point on.

MF #7  HARAKAWA Riki (Kawasaki Frontale)
We lost both in the first and second games, but we take them as necessary defeated to win at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. We are doing the right things and our issue in this tournament is just scoring some goals. Personally, in our game against Paraguay, I had chances to make assists for three or four times. As a defensive midfielder, I think that we need to do other things intentionally, mixing up with some other ideas, so we will really be able to do what we want to do. I feel that we would be able to play more easily then. When you can score, you can score, so each one of us doesn't have to put his head down, but he needs to stay focused and have good preparation.

FW #16  ASANO Takuma (Sanfrecce Hiroshima)
Both in the Paraguay and Portugal games, I don't think that my timing to start moving, the way I see where the passers are seeing and the way I feed passes aren't so bad. There have been occasions that I got off-sided or I couldn't have my passes get through, but those qualities will have to be improved in actually games. How many times I made mistakes, it's important I keep challenging with confidence. Sometimes I can't score and get frustrations as we take a loss, but there's no option for me to lose my confidence. I had hard times scoring goals in January's U-23 championship, but I kept playing thinking "the next." I've been able to play with the mentality, so I will not change that.

Schedule

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