JFA Elite Programme U-14 Training Camp was held from 15-20 October in Korea. This camp is part of the JOC Japan Korea Joint Sports Project for Enhancing Playing Skills, and the series of training camps with Korea has been held since 2010.

Being linked with the National Training Centre U-13/14’s activities provides a good training environment including coaching for talented players and enables them to improve their capabilities and skills in this JFA Elite Programme. Through a variety of activities, the programme works for "individual development" and for "players’ personal independence."

The second camp of the programme took place in Paju, Korea Republic. The camp is continued from a series of activities for U-13 and the players have gained in experiences since then.

The camp looked toward the future such as the U-15 squad team which will be launched next year. Considering the performances of the players who joined in the previous camp in Iwate in June, some new players who have grown up recently were invited from 9 regions.

The main activities of this camp were 2 friendly matches against U-14 Korea Republic National Team, and the players also checked what they can do and issues to be improved. Korea on the other hand, they launched the national team when they were U-13 and showed their fitness advantage in the previous camp held in Oita last year. However, the gap has decreased and Japan was able to take advantage in 1-on-1 situations and some other techniques in this time.

The Japanese players did well in some plays that required movement and they tried well to get involved in plays as much as possible. However, they must have experienced difficult moments which had been caused by their not moving well to be involved in the plays. Even though it is obvious that their set plays need to be improved, each of them understood clearly about their achievements and issues for the future.

During the camp, they had mini-game sessions and group presentations with Korean players. The camp also had an off the pitch programme and the Japanese players visited National Museum of Korean Contemporary History to learn Korean history. Their next activities will be U-14 regional competition in November and a domestic training camp in December.

Players' Comments

ASANO Taro
I joined this camp with two motivations; one was an excitement "I can play against foreign players", and another one was a passion "we will definitely beat them since we lost the match last year." In the camp I had a couple of players whom I hadn’t seen before, so I communicated with them as much as possible.

Against the Korean team, we lost the first match and we could beat them in the second one. It was good that we could finish the second match in a good mood. I will focus on making good long-passes which I learned in this camp, improving the quality of every pass, making good and clear coaching to move my teammates on the pitch, and keeping a good motivation even in my local team.

OHORI Ryonosuke
I wanted to check my level of play by playing against the Korean players in this camp. In the match, I got to understand their strength in set plays and in intensive moments. The biggest thing I felt was their strong passion to win. In the second match, I was very happy that I could score the decisive goal and both substitute players and the teammates on the pitch ran to me. All of us shared the joy of the goal together at that moment.

In the matches, I got to know that my sense of timing to get the ball and fitness can compete with Korean players, but I couldn’t always be strong enough to beat them in intensive moments so I want to work hard day by day to improve myself and to keep wining against our rival Korea.

TANABE Kohei
When I was invited to this Elite Programme U-14, I was very excited to play against Korea Republic National Team. What I felt after playing against them were: "Strong in intensive moments", "Speedy", and "Strong in set plays." I had some plays which were successful so I want to improve these plays and I also want to work hard on improving some issues found in the friendly matches. I know that Korea will always be our rival even in the future, so we will keep beating them whenever we have matches.

Schedule