Today’s training started at 9:30 am with offensive players and defenders separated into each group. Players on the offensive end confirmed how each position moves and attacks from initiation to finish. By confirming their sets of team offence, they try to attack effectively not only individually but also collectively.
Defenders worked on their heading drills and moved on to confirmation of positioning to get the ball up high before they worked on defence against opposition’s various feeds into the middle including cross balls from both flanks.
The temperature was over 32 degrees as the humidity was also high, but players kept communicating each other to maintain their focus throughout the practice.

In the afternoon, all the players and team staff visited Tay Ho High School, a public school in Hanoi, instead of having another practice session.
The visit was made possible thanks to Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE), which helped realising this Vietnam Trip. As part of their youth exchange programme called JENESYS 2.0, JICE proposed the idea of the Japan National Team spending time with local students through playing football together.

As soon as the team arrived at the school, students and teachers warmly welcomed players and staff with a welcome ceremony. Gifts were presented by the principal, and Vietnamese songs and dances were performed for the team. Since Vietnam has wide varieties of local songs and dances originating from its regions, the costumes and rhythm of the music displayed were something the players cannot experience often in Japan.

After the ceremony, they went out to the school yard and started playing football together. Okugawa and Kaneko started by showing off their outstanding ball juggling skills and then 20 students selected joined in the juggling and passing game. Lastly they played 6-a-side friendly game together and finished the fun. Although the temperature remained very high in the afternoon, hundreds of students were out to take a look at the Japanese players. They took pictures with the players and certainly seemed happy with the day. Local media was also present and broadcasted this exchange event locally. It was only two hours spent together, but surely very meaningful both for Tay Ho High School and the national team.

After the event, the team left the school for sightseeing in downtown Hanoi. They visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature to learn a little of Vietnamese history and strolled around in the Old Quarter of Hanoi to enjoy the city life.

Tomorrow on 6th September, the team will have a warm-up practice starting at 4 pm at My Dinh Stadium where the match against Australia will be played on 7th.

Comments

FUJITANI So（Vissel Kobe U-18）
Today in the afternoon, we had an international exchange event with a high school in Hanoi. I am happy that we could have a very good experience we can’t normally experience. I also realised again that it’s very important to make friends through playing football together.

OKUGAWA Masaya（Kyoto Sanga F.C. U-18）
In the practice, we are getting into a better shape and our attacking rhythm is coming together. In the afternoon, we visited a school and did sightseeing. It was a good experience to learn some Vietnamese culture. We will have a good warm-up tomorrow for the match day after tomorrow.

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