One day before their match against the Netherlands Women’s National Team at the round of 16 of the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019, the Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women's National Team) held a training session on Monday 24 June.

Ahead of the session, the players huddled up as usual and listened to coach TAKAKURA Asako’s directions to play a simple game. Coach Takakura told her players to make a ring with their left hand while pointing their right index finger into the ring made by their adjacent player. When the coach says “Catch!” the players were supposed to squeeze the ring made with their left hand while removing their right index finger out of the ring. It was a game to stimulate their brain by forcing the players to conduct two different operations in a split second, and while some players had no problem playing this game, some struggled dearly to respond in the correct way. The game allowed the players to relax their minds and help brighten up the atmosphere surrounding the team ahead of the pivotal match. The training session followed this activity, where the players went through their tactics for the match against the Netherlands during the one-hour session.

The official press conference attracted enough media reporters that nearly filled the seats, showing the high anticipation surrounding the knockout stage. Coach Takakura took the podium and mentioned, “I want my players to really feel the responsibility and weight on their shoulders to represent a country, while showcasing their best performance on the pitch.” SHIMIZU Risa also appeared in the press conference, as she shared her aspiration for the match, “The Netherlands has many talented players. We will enter the match with the intention to stop them as a team.”

Six out of eight fixtures of the round of 16 have already completed, as five teams from Europe claimed their ticket to the quarterfinals. From Asia, Korea Republic and Thailand were eliminated at the group stage, while Australia lost at the round of 16 against Norway. On Tuesday 25, China PR will play against Italy, while Japan faces the Netherlands.

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

Players’ Comments

ＭF #15 MOMIKI Yuka (Nippon TV Beleza)
I have been following the matches at the knockout stage, and all matches were very close, and it felt like every team had their chance to advance through. I saw Marta’s interview following the match between France and Brazil, and she made me realise that if you give all you’ve got, you are still a winner regardless of the outcome of the match. We are all striving to win this match, but more than anything, we would like to give our utmost efforts in the match to leave no regrets.

FＷ #9  SUGASAWA Yuika (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies)
I would like to help the team win this match and advance through to the next stage. We showed some good attacks in our match against England, so we just need to convert those opportunities in tomorrow’s match. I just need to keep my composure and take shots as if I am passing the ball into the net. As long as I can keep my poise at the final third, I feel like I should be fine. The Netherlands has many players with great skills, so it will certainly be a tough match for us, but we will give our best efforts to showcase our usual possession football to seek for our opportunities. We will play with persistency tomorrow.

FＷ #19  ENDO Jun (Nippon TV Beleza)
I am looking forward for the knockout stage. Our tournament life is at stake and I am feeling a good amount of nervousness right now. I personally felt like I need to do a better job in defence, and the result shows that compared to England, we weren’t critical enough at the attacking end. We will learn from our match against England and improve on our performance when we face the Netherlands. It is important that we keep a challenger’s mentality in our next match.

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