The JFA Elite Programme U-14 Japan Women's Selection team have entered their second activity of the year, the first since March. The 18 selected members, who will compete in the AFC U-14 Girls Regional Championship 2016, departed from Tokyo and arrived at the hotel past 22:00 on 15 May.

It took 12 to 15 hours for the players between their home and the hotel, so following their late dinner, they quickly went to bed.

They started their training from the next morning. Because of the long trip and lack of enough sleep, some of the players showed their fatigue. But they had an official training at the tournament site, playing an intra-squad game, in the afternoon.

“At international tournament, especially when you have to play in a tough one in which you have to compete in three games in three day for the group stage, you need to get off to a good start,” coach YODOKAWA told his players at their night meeting. “There are only 18 players in this generation who can experience this international tournament from Japan. You might get nervous because this is your first international tourney, but let’s enjoy this previous moments. You can’t enjoy by going easy. When you go desperately, then you will have some joy out of it.”

The team took on the Northern Marianas in their first game in the tournament on the 17th. It was the memorial international debut for the players. KATANODA, one of the players, crafted good-luck bracelets and they were distributed to all the players and staff at the end of the meeting. They declared to bring good outcomes to Japan and their friends in Kumamoto by playing as a team at the full strength.

Coaching Staff Comment

TODOROKI Natsuko, GK coach (JFA National Training Centre Coach/Cerezo Osaka)
For our games that will begin tomorrow, we had training both in the morning and afternoon today. While our players had some fatigue form their traveling, they worked on things like a passing and controlling, 2-on-1 plus a free man, 3-on-3 plus two serves. They warmed up, checking the grass condition and their passing strengths.

In the afternoon training, they began with warming ups and passing, and then played an intra-squad game at the pitch that will be the game site. While they checked on the pitch size and field condition, they worked being aware of their passing strengths and taking better positions as they did in the morning.

Off the pitch, they had little volumes at meals earlier, but it’s gotten bigger gradually. So we saw our players were trying to have better preparation for their consecutive contests that will start from tomorrow. In order to become the champions in this tournament, we will need to become one and continue to battle, preparing ourselves well.

Players' Comments

SHIROWA Reina (JFA Academy Fukushima)
We had our first training since we got to China this morning and afternoon. I felt a little stiff with my body because of the travel, but as I warmed up, I got better. The natural grass were longer than we use in Japan and our passing speed were slower. I tried to make it faster, but I wasn’t able to have the best spot for have my foot on and the strength to push the ball, so it gave me some hard times getting my passes completed. But I take it positively as I found some issues that I need to fix before the games begin.

Also, in terms of the meals, there were menus that you don’t really have in Japan like some spicy stuff. We are going to have to play in consecutive games, so we are going to have to eat a lot and will do our best being united as one to beat any opponents we will take on. Meanwhile, players from so many different countries are coming here, so I would like to actively take communications with them as well.

NOGUCHI Akari (JEF UNITED ICHIHARA CHIBA LADIES U-15)
I had two things that I thought of during today’s training. One was the difference in the pitch. This is the first time for me to experience grass overseas. The lengths and softness are different from one that I usually practice in Japan and I was so surprised. It made me think that we are playing on the pitch that are well taken care of.

The other is that, because the pitch was different, the slickness of the ball was completely different and it made it more difficult to feed passes that I can usually do or my passes were too short. But as we are going to compete, it’s only an excuse that things are different. If my passes are too short, then I need to kick harder, and I thought we need to make adjustments like that. I believe I am going to get a little nervous in the games from tomorrow, but I would like to take advantage of it even to have some fun out there. We will play our game and enjoy - having the two in mind, we are going to compete with the whole team and keep winning.

KAWAGISHI Emika (Cerezo Osaka Sakai Girls)
We got to China late last night, and we had training both in the morning and afternoon today. The pitch size and grass condition were different from the ones in Japan and it gave us hard times. The grass lengths are longer than in Japan and you are required to have faster passing speed, so I tried to have my feet deeper and kick stronger than usual during the training.

In the games that will begin from tomorrow, we will try to have faster passing and like to win playing in our Japanese way. Also, we had so many meals that we’ve never had in Japan at the meals. We are going to have to play in consecutive games, so in order to preserve our energy until the championship game on the 22nd, we are going to have to eat well.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.