On the night of 7 November, 11 SAMURAI BLUE players who had just finished their respective J1 league contests assembled at a hotel. On the next day, they started their team activity in preparation for playing against Singapore and Cambodia as the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers Round 2 AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Preliminary Joint Qualification.

As the J.League is also getting into the most competitive weeks of its season, the players centred the next morning training session on recovering from their fatigue. With light rain falling, coach HALILHODZIC gave his players the objectives of this camp as well as welcomed HAYASHI Akihiro and KANAZAKI Mu, the first time call-ups under his reign.

In the training, they jogged for 30 minutes and went through a long period of stretching before wrapping up the 60-minute session.

After getting back to the hotel, finishing lunch and resting in each room, the squad headed for the airport in the early evening to take a flight to Singapore. Staff members of Japan Airlines, the team’s supporting company, were sincerely present as always to wish the best of luck to the players at the site.

The seven-hour flight was long enough to bring the team to Singapore after passing the midnight. Right after landing, they all went straight to their hotel room to get ready for the next day.

From 10 November, we will report from Singapore how the team prepare for the two fixtures.

Players' Comments

KASHIWAGI Yosuke (Urawa Reds)
I hope we can keep getting good quality out of each other and getting each other better. In the October camp, my main focus was to stay on the squad, but now that I am still on the squad, I want to do my best to get to play on the pitch. My strength is building and controlling the tempo of the match and being the starting point of attacks. So I will try to show those things as much as possible and play in a way that other players can’t play.

It’s true that we don’t know much about how the opponents come out of the match, but we want to maintain a good balance between the middle and the sides and build up effective offence. This is what I want to keep in my mind if I get to play. We want to come back to Japan being satisfied with two wins.

MAKINO Tomoaki (Urawa Reds)
I joined the team last night, had dinner together, and had time to communicate with my teammates, so that was good. We want to play together to put up good results. In the meeting before the training, our coach made jokes and welcomed new guys, Hayashi and Kanazaki. The mood among the team has been very good. I think it’s very difficult to build up offence against opponents who sit back deep.

The players who go forward and join attacks from the second and third lines will be important as well as the quality of the player movements without the ball. We want to make sure that we play according to the expectation from our coach and to the assigned role of each one of us among the team. I think we will have a long period of possessions, but we defenders want to without mistakes manage risks while we are attacking, be ready to get the ball as soon as we lose it and make sure that our goal is defended.

KANAZAKI Mu (Kashima Antlers)
I think I was called up based on their evaluation of my plays with my club. So I am thankful to my club teammates. Hopefully I can effectively show what I have done for my club.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

Schedule

2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers Round 2 AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Preliminary Joint Qualification

11-12 (Thu.) - kick off at 20:15＜Japan Time＞ (subject to change) 
Singapore/National Stadium
Singapore National Team vs SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
More information

11-17 (Tue.) - kick off at 21:14＜Japan Time＞ (subject to change) 
Cambodia/National Olympic Stadium
Cambodia National Team vs SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
More information