Young Samurai Blue take on tough J.League clubs

The U-19 national team had a taste of tough opposition as they lost 1-0 to FC Tokyo on Wednesday. The goal against them was scored on 36 minutes which the team could not equalise despite efforts in the second half.

The day before, they were downed 2-1 by Omiya Ardija with the club leading the proceedings with a goal on nine minutes. The U-19 squad entered the second half and made some substitutions but they were loose defensively and allowed another goal by the opponents from a set play.

Being down by two, the Japan U-19 national team attempted more attacks from the sides and finally cut the deficit as Ryota Aoki netted a goal from a corner kick on 76 minutes.

“We got very good experiences as we played superior teams in this training camp,” Japan Football Association’s website www.jfa.jp quoted Suzuki as saying after the second training match.

“We are going to share on good players we had in these two training matches, so we can take advantage of those in our further national team activities. We would like to have good preparations toward October's AFC championship.”

The Young Samurai Blue will be polished even more as they take part in the SBS Cup, an international youth football tournament, in August on home soil and then the ASEAN Football Federation U-19 Youth Championship in Vietnam in September.

They will have another domestic training camp from late September until early October before their AFC U-19 Championship campaign kicks off in Myanmar.

Japan, who crashed out during the quarter-finals of the previous edition in 2012 in the UAE as they lost to eventual champions Korea Republic, will face the Koreans again along with China and Vietnam in Group C of this year’s edition.

The top four finishers in the competition will represent Asia in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand next year.

Photo: JFA