On Friday 21 June, following the completion of the group stage of the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019, the Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team) made their ways to Rennes, where their match against the Netherlands Women’s National Team at the round of 16 will take place.

Before leaving for Rennes, the team held a training session in Nice, where the players were seen working up a sweat in a session that lasted about 90 minutes. For their first match of the knockout stage, Japan will face Netherlands, an opponent coach TAKAKURA Asako described as, “A familiar team who we have played in the past.” With the session being their fist full-squad session since the match against England, coach Takakura gave a pep-talk while her players huddled up on the pitch, mentioning, “The small details will play a key role in our next match. I want you to focus on each play during the training session. The work you put in during the trainings will show in the match.”

The team was seen conducting separate menus based on the players’ position, as each player went through drills that covered different tasks. The players were eventually gathered as one to conclude the session, but each player was given the opportunity to work on their own tasks following the team session.

From Nice, the team took a flight to Rennes in the afternoon. The team had already played a match in Rennes, when they faced Scotland in their second group stage match on Friday 14 June, so the players knew their way around, as they returned to the same hotel they have stayed before.

The Nadeshiko Japan will face the Netherlands Women’s National Team on Tuesday 25 June at 21:00 local time (Wednesday 26 June at 4:00 Japan time).

Players’ comments

DF #3  SAMESHIMA Aya (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
Netherlands is a team with great speed and power. They have some extremely fast players, so we must be careful how we position ourselves against them. During the 90 minutes of the match, there will be scenes where we allow our opponents to take advantage of their speed, so we must take a collective approach to cover ourselves. We must focus on not allowing the opponents to utilise the width and create numerical advantage in case the ball is played in the flanks. We must also stay persistent to deny the opponents from sending the crosses freely, and make sure to tightly mark the players in the box. There are many steps we must cover, so we hope to go over each step as a team. We are in the knockout stage where the losers go home, and we are feeling the pressure more than ever. We will focus on what we can do within the remaining four days and see how the match will play out.

DF #16  MIYAGAWA Asato (Nippon TV Beleza)
I personally have never faced the Netherlands, so I will watch their match films and prepare ahead of the match. I will be matching up with a very good player in the flank, so I will do my best to stop her from sending crosses and taking shots. I am actually looking forward to play against players like that. We have been able to communicate very well within the team, so I feel like the team is getting more united as we play the matches.

MF #7  NAKAJIMA Emi (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
We have played against the Netherlands before, and we know their play style, so we will work hard within the four-day interval to prepare ourselves. We all know that we cannot afford to lose anymore at the final round. The team is surrounded with a relaxed atmosphere, but each player is thinking of what they need to do and giving their best efforts towards the match. We have four days to work with, and during that time we can share our tasks as a team. We will implement what we learned from our previous match and work on the tasks to improve ourselves.

Schedule

Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team) Squad, Schedule

FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019

Tournament Dates: Fri. 7 June - Sun. 7 July 2019

Knockout Stage Round of 16:
Wed. 26 June 2019 04:00 (Japan Time)

vs Netherlands Women's National Team

Tournament Information