Moriyama wants a good beginning in World Cup

Japan do their first workout at Nehru Stadium

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 4:Japan U-17 coach Yoshiro Moriyama  on Thursday said that that first game of his team in the U-17 FIFA World cup is very important and they will try to finish it with three points. He also felt that good beginning is essential as it can boost the morale of the team for the entire competition.

The 33-member Japan team arrived in the city yesterday. The side is placed in group ‘E’ along with France, New Caledonia and Honduras and will begin their campaign on October 8. The last two teams arrived in the city today to take part in the competition.

Japan, that spent nearly two hours at Nehru stadium this evening, will play two of their group matches in Guwahati and later the side will fly to Kolkata where they will face New Caledonia on October 14 in last group game.

Talking to the media persons just after their first practice session at Nehru stadium Moriyama today said,” We want positive start in the competition and it will be nice if we get three points from the first game against Honduras on October 8. The result will motivate the entire team for the rest of the competition.”

It will be the seventh appearances for Japan in this competition. On earlier sixth occasions the team maged to enter quarter fil twice in 1993 and 2011.

The young Samurai Blue qualified for India 2017 by reaching the semi-fils of the AFC U-16 Championship 2016. On the way, they scored 46 goals and conceded none, notching six wins in as many games, including qualifiers, of which the most emphatic was a 17-0 victory over Mongolia. However, Japan’s progress was halted with a 2-4 defeat in the penultimate round by eventual champions Iraq. The side altogether played 25 matches in the U-17 World Cup and won 10 of them.

Meanwhile, Japan coach today made it clear that  local weather will not be a problem for his team. “The temperature of this city is almost same like our country. So it wouldn’t be a problem for us to accustom the local condition quickly,” said the coach.