U-18 Japan National Team have been on an international trip. The squad just began training after arriving England. The training on the day when they arrived in England was composed mostly of running to remove their fatigue from the long trip. The following day saw the boys work out both in the morning and afternoon.

As there are some players who were called up to the U-18s for the first time, coach UCHIYAMA spent time instilling his team tactics on both offence and defence by halting players' moves at times. Japan will play against the Birmingham City U-18 on 12th and the Liverpool FC U-18 on 13th, followed by a friendly against U-18 England National Team on 15th. The team finally went into training for the AFC U-19 Championship to be held next October.

Coach and Players' Comments

UCHIYAMA Atsushi, Coach
After getting through the AFC U-19 Championship 2016 Qualifiers atop in Laos in October, I'm glad to have a preparation opportunity here in England for the AFC U-19 Championship in October next year. There are a lot of players who weren't able to be the part of this squad for the qualifiers, and I want those players to play aggressively without fear of mistakes. And as a team, we can play against teams who we can't face in Japan. We will figure out what we need to improve and what we have accomplished through matches.

NAGANUMA Yoichi (Sanfrecce Hiroshima Youth)
There are three matches even in a short period of time in this trip. I'm looking forward to having an experience in playing against European players, who we can't usually face. Even in a limited time of training, we've communicated well between players as a team as a whole and individually, and we are playing in a good atmosphere. Not wasting this precious time in this trip, we try to experience football outside of Japan and we will take advantage of what is good about our team and what is good about myself.

KATO Yuki (Omiya Aldija Youth)
I'm happy to join this England trip. In the training, I tried to have more individual options to make better judgements and play while predicting what happens the next. From tomorrow, we will have actual matches. I will be aware of what the team expect me to do and I will contribute to team's win. I will take care of myself to stay in shape like through dietary and play in perfect form. Thanks for your support in advance.

ITO Hiroki (Jubilo Iwata U-18)
We had training both in the morning and afternoon. We had some fatigue because of a long trip, but we had concentrated, quality training. Training matches are scheduled starting from tomorrow. We will communicate a lot not only on the pitch but also off the pitch, share each one of decision-making and get prepared to have a good match.

Schedule

Note: All training, training matches and friendly take place with doors closed.