Nadeshiko Japan took on the Italian women's national team in the 2015 KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP on 28 May (Thursday) at Minami-Nagano Sports Park Stadium, which was their final official contest before the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. The tickets were sold out and a total of 14,453 fans assembled at the stadium.

Japan changed four of the starting members from their previous game against New Zealand on the 24th (Sunday), forming their defensive midfielder duo with SAKAGUCHI Mizuho and SAWA Homare while putting UTSUGI Rumi in the left side back spot.

A minute into the game, Japan earned a scoring chance from a corner kick by MIYAMA Aya, but weren't able to connect it. Japan took a counter attack by Italy right after, but managed to defend it. Japan were threatened by Italy afterwards as well, but protected their own goal with the entire members. Japan made some opportunities as the players run a lot and move the ball well and create their own offensive ways from their rhythmic passing works, but weren't able to take advantage of them.

Japan sent SUGASAWA Yuika onto the pitch for KAWASUMI Nahomi. And then Japan were finally able to get on the scoreboard when Ogimi put a cross from Utsugi into the next on 52nd minute. Japan had another chance on 78th, when Sakaguchi headed a corner kick kicked by Miyama from the left, but this time it didn't get into the goal. Japan had a better opportunity in the last minute. Sugasawa broke into the right side to get near the goal and SAMESHIMA Aya fired a shot, but couldn't net it. Japan still managed to maintain the sole lead and wrapped up their final World Cup warm-up contest with a victory.

“I'm afraid that we are going to give you fans a lot of jitters this year, too, but we are shooting for the second straight title,” Japan head coach SASAKI Norio told the assembled supporters at a send-off ceremony after the game. “We are going to prepare our team as perfect as we can and get in the tournament, being united as one. So hopefully, we are going to receive some warm support.”

Match details (Japanese version only)

Head Coach and Players’ Comments

SASAKI Norio, Head Coach (Nadeshiko Japan/Japan Women's National Team)
Italy is a very good team and we were able to play a hard-fought one-goal game until the very end that we felt intensity. As we could retain our lead for the win, it gave us some boost towards the World Cup. We were performing what we tried to do both offensively and defensively, and our players played a game that they can capitalize on it going forward, including their easy mistakes and accuracy on their plays.

One of our issues that we have to reflect on was that we should have taken more shots. We better look at the goal rather than people. Those players who can opt to pass the ball easily should aim at taking shots more. If you can threaten opponents with your shots, then that will make your through passes more effective, so we take it as a big issue and will try to improve it.

MF #8   MIYAMA Aya (Okayama Yunogo Belle)
I think that we got into the game in a better way than in our game against New Zealand. But in any games we play, we always leave the pitch with a lot of issues, and that said, it was a good preparation for us that we could assume things that could take place in the World Cup. Offensively, which was our theme, for me we still have a long way. We have been able to catch our opponents off balance, but haven't been able to capitalize on the space behind them. Partially, the opponents played defensively playing in their territories, but we still have to manage to find ways to attack.

Antonio Cabrini, Head Coach (Italy Women’s National Team)
In terms of preparations, while the season is getting near the end in Italy, Japan are in a phase that they are developing towards the World Cup, so I had an impression that they were in very good condition. Thus, they had better rhythm with their body moves and I think that is why they could have a lot of different plays. But I think that we played with some rhythm as well. We played not giving up the game until the end. We had a few chances and I'm very satisfied. We made some mistakes and weren't able to force our opponents into dangerous situations, and we also gave them some goal chances from our own mistakes, so we would like to work on those as our issues going forward.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2015

Nadeshiko Japan(Japan Women's National Team)  vs. Italy Women’s National Team
Thu. 28 May    Kickoff 19:20 
Nagano / MINAMI NAGANO SPORTSPARK

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015

Information