On 6 July, their fifth day in the host city Espinho, the Japan national team moved from the hotel they had stayed at to the designated hotel prepared by the tournament organiser. The team had had training for all the past four days but did not have it on the day and instead spent the time for removing fatigue to get prepared for the following day.

As all the 16 participating teams stay at the same hotel and have meals in the same dining room, they will spend the tournament spell facing players and staff members from various nations every day.

The following day on 7th started with everyone taking a walk around hotel and stretching at open space. In the afternoon, the Japan squad held an official practice session for an hour at the match venue Espinho Stadium. 

The first 30 minutes saw the players working on fundamentals such as passing and shooting drills to get used to the stadium atmosphere and the touch of pitch's sand, where they will actually play tournament matches.

In the rest of 30 minutes, they had an intra-squad scrimmage to check up their tactics they had been working on in the past few days ahead of the opening match against Portugal.

During the time frame when they did not have training, the squad had still image and video shooting session for the tournament use. Although such a session was unfamiliar to the players, the session went in a friendly manner.

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Portugal 2015, finally getting underway on 9th, is scheduled to be broadcast on Fuji TV NEXT and NEXT smart as the Japan national team matches air all live as well as semi-final and final matches of any matchup.

Players' Comments

TABATA Teruki (TOKYO LEQUIOS BS)
We had an official practice session today at the Espinho Stadium, and I felt again the World Cup is now opening. The stadium has deep sand, but we are getting used to it and able to play without caring it because it's been a while since we started our training in Portugal. 

The mood in the team is good and we had good passing moves in today's intra-squad game. We will do what we have done and take advantage of it in an actual match. Tomorrow we have the final training session before the opener. We will review each player's moves and go out for the match on 9th.

MAKINO Shinji (LEON FUKUOKA)
With the official practice at the stadium, I became more aware of the World Cup finally beginning. Coming this far, there is nothing we can change dramatically.

The place where we show off the completion of our work with head coach Marcelo is here the World Cup. Because for some players this is their first World Cup, I will give enough support as a veteran to let them play in a comfortable manner. 

To me, this is the seventh World Cup. I want to put up the best result ever and go back to Japan. To achieve that, we need to brace ourselves up in tomorrow's training and make a good preparation for the important opening match.

Schedule

*Local Time

Japan's Record for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

7 World Cup Appearances: 26 games played for 6-2-18 / 71 goals, 113 goals conceded

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Portugal 2015

Thu. 9 July - Sun. 19 July 2015
Group Stage 1st Match
Thu. 9 July - 22:30 (Japan Time)
Portugal Beach Soccer National Team  vs.  Japan Beach Soccer National Team

More information