After the victory over Palestine in the first match of their AFC Asian Cup 2015 campaign in Australia, SAMURAI BLUE fine-tuned in New Castle in the following morning on 13 January and travelled to Brisbane for the next match in the afternoon.

In the heat of the summer sun, starting members from the last match repeated stretching and running drills to recover from fatigue. Meanwhile, substituted players and three goal keepers worked on more intense training for over an hour. The substitutes went through conditioned passing drills and running workout to warm up their body, goalkeepers worked on saving drills for shots from various distances and angles.

In a shooting practice against goalkeepers, the squad shot on goal with various conditioned passes and dribbles. When forward Kobayashi Yu of Kawasaki Frontale scored a sharp goal, his teammates and head coach Javier Aguirre gave applause and called out “nice!” In the end, they worked on four-a-side game-style practice in a small area.

The Japan national team flew from New Castle to Brisbane in the afternoon ahead of the second match against Iraq on 16th. A number of fans saw off the squad in the airport.

SAMURAI BLUE stand on top by a goal difference with three points along with Iraq in Group D as of the end of the first match.

The matches in Group A were held on the same day in Canberra and other cities. While the host country Australia cruised past Oman 4-0, Republic of Korea beat Kuwait 1-0. Both teams added points to six to seal a top-two spot in their group and claimed a quarter-final berth. Oman and Kuwait were eliminated from the group stage with two straight defeats.

Comments

FW MUTO Yoshinori (FC Tokyo)
(Speaking of playing from the second half in the first match) I’m not satisfied at all. I wasn’t able to play how I wanted, so I’m disappointed at my poor performance. Because it was the first match of the official tournament, I failed to get into the match and to become integrated into the team. I tried to push myself to score a goal a little too much, I unexpectedly found myself unguarded, and all those things made me feel a little too uneasy. But it was good in the sense that I found I needed to show what I have by playing the first match. I had lots of situations where I was brought down with a foul by opponents, but if I show what I have, more situations are coming up. If it ends up opponents get a card, that’s not too bad. (Speaking of being kicked by an opposing player in yesterday's match) I’m fine. There is no problem for the next match.

GK KAWASHIMA Eiji (Standard Liege)
We had a good start in the match yesterday although we didn’t have so much information on the opponents. The result was satisfactory. Even so, we’re already thinking about the next match. The next will be more important and tougher, but yesterday’s win was a good opportunity to brace up ourselves. Iraq will get more intense in defence unlike yesterday’s Palestine and have players who can break through our defence, so if we open a small gap, that could end up with getting beaten. The next will be different from yesterday. We’ve got to get well-prepared and play accurately.

MF HASEBE Makoto (Eintracht Frankfurt)
(By having a meeting before the first match) I don’t know if it influenced our performance, but I decided to do it to bind ourselves together because I didn’t want to regret not doing it later. We had lots of things to work on at the last tournament. I told my teammates not to change what we’re supposed to do and to carry it out. That’s not only because of the learnings from the last tournament but also because we’ve got to remotivate ourselves as a team.

MF KIYOTAKE Hiroshi (Hannover 96)
The wind was strong yesterday, so it was difficult to figure out where the (floating) ball was falling down. If we played on the ground level, there could be no problem, though. Personally there wasn’t a positive side. I could’ve done better, and I should’ve played with the better combinations and rhythm, but it was tough. It’d been a while since I played with those players. I groped for how we could play well together in the yesterday's game, but the next will be better if I have a chance to play. A tournament like this is an all-out battle. Substitutes should play well, so I will try to keep in shape. We will refresh our mind and win the match against Iraq for a consecutive win.

JFA-TV

Click Here For The Photo Gallery