SAMURAI BLUE had training at Wuhan Football Association's training centre in the run up to their second match against Korea Republic in the EAFF East Asian Cup 2015.

As the squad had only a two-day interval after the contest against Korea DPR, they will need to play the next match without fully recovering from fatigue. But for SAMURAI BLUE looking for the back-to-back title, it is going to be a must-win. The team trained well in a two-hour session before going out for the match on 5th.

The photo above shows JFA president DAINI Kuniya along with Xinhua Lu Stadium.

42 years ago, Daini played against a team from Hubei Province as a player of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' football club at this stadium.

As the JFA president has visited Wuhan to watch SAMURAI BLUE and Nadeshiko Japan matches and communicated with staff of the East Asian Football Association and Chinese football, he came to remember his playing days at Xinhua Road Sports Centre and met new people through the match this time.

Now the venue has the office of the Hubei Football Association. One employee of the association travelled from another city to watch the match at the stadium, and another employee's father played against Daini as the opposing player. The match led to a new meeting and turned out to be an opportunity to experience the depth of football.

The Hubei Football Association president Sou presented Daini a shield featuring Wuhan's symbol Yellow Crane Tower before Daini left the stadium. His visit made us feel that football is not only played on the pitch but also brings many things through connections between people who are involved in it.

The next report will feature Japan's second contest against Korea Republic in the EAFF East Asian Cup 2015.

Coach's Comment

Vahid HALILHODZIC, Coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
Because the players who played in the opening match are tired, we took a different approach today. I haven't decided who to play tomorrow. We all will get together to prepare for tomorrow's match. Some of the players are very tired, so other players may get a playing time.

I believe Korea Republic are the best team in this tournament. They seem to be well ready physically as well. We will go out to play against them with hopes. Yesterday, I spent a lot of time watching video footage of the opening match with my players. We've got a lot of learnings from the loss.

We should show the better one next compared to the first one. Especially unless we improve the finishing accuracy, we won't grab a win. We will make a good preparation and go out for it.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

Schedule

EAFF East Asian Cup 2015

Sun. 2 August - Sun. 9 August
China/Wuhan

More information