As part of their preparation for the final Asian qualifying for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics (from 29 Feb. to 9 Mar. in Osaka), the Japan Women's National Team short-listed squad are having a training camp on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, the third day of which, Wednesday 20 January, included game-style drills.

Coach SASAKI lists "Making improvement on the missed assignments in the World Cup" as one of the themes of this camp. Both in the morning and afternoon, they reviewed the remaining issues at video meetings before heading for the practise field. In the morning, after going through passing and controlling drills, the squad engaged in scrimmages including a 10-on-10 smaller-pitch format and another one on the full-sized pitch. The afternoon session welcomed 15 high school boys to work together on 4-on-5 ball movement drills and another set of scrimmage. 

It is not unusual for Nadeshiko Japan to work out with and against high school and college male players, designed to get the players used to superior physicality, quickness, and timings and how to deal with those differences as a team. Defender ARIYOSHI Saori looked back at the workout, saying "even when opponents are faster, we paid attention to moving the ball effectively and controlling the match with players in the back keeping communicating toward up front. Our decision making is still rather slow time to time, so we have to raise our performance in that regard."

Midfielder UTSUGI Rumi, who has been late for joining her teammates due to flight transits, showed up on the island on the day. "It’s refreshing and comforting at the same time to see some of the teammates whom I hadn't seen since the World Cup. It was good to see their faces again," said the veteran with a smile. Meanwhile, a left knee strain forced defender OSAFUNE Kana to leave the camp. She is planning to spend time with her club, recovering and getting ready to be back with the national team in February. 

Players' Comments

MF  SAKAGUCHI Mizuho (Nippon TV Beleza)
We are still at the stage that we have to get in better shape later on, but I take it positively that we can practise against physically stronger and faster high school players at this point of time. I may have played defensively rather than offensively in the past, but I want to start playing more offensively as well. The first thing I have to care about is to get selected onto the qualifiers squad. So I want to keep showing what I can do.

MF  UTSUGI Rumi (Montpellier HSC/France)
There are no players here that I have never played with before. So the important thing is to keep doing what we have been doing. In the Netherlands trip in last November, we focused on playing well as well as winning the matches. Not to waste what we did there, we want to materialise those efforts as we keep having team meetings. We want to make this camp a meaningful one. The players playing domestically are just got out of the offseason and the ones playing in Europe have still some fatigue left from the season, but hopefully we can come together as one team mentally and physically.

Schedule

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

Women's Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016 - Asian Qualifiers Final Round

29 February 2016 - 9 March 2016
Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team)/Australia/Korea Republic/China P.R./Vietnam/DPR Korea
Round robin tournament 15 Match（Top two team will earn Olympic berth）

Mon. 29 February  vs  Australia Women's National Team
Wed. 2 March  vs  Korea Republic Women's National Team
Fri. 4 March  vs  China P.R. Women's National Team
Mon. 7 March  vs  Vietnam Women's National Team
Wed. 9 March  vs  DPR Korea Women's National Team
All competitions are held in Osaka/Kincho Stadium -19:35 kick-off (tbd)
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