U17 World Cup: Japan coach believes working as a unit will help team against England

Ritabrata Banerjee

U17 World Cup: Japan coach believes working as a unit will help team against England image

Japanese coach Yoshiro Moriyama knows just how good England are, as his side prepare to take them on in the round-of-16 tie. 

Moriyama though believes that his side have what it takes to challenge the English contingent if they stick together and operate as a collective unit. 
"In the England team, many of the players play in Germany and England's top leagues. They are already training with the top teams or playing for them. Thinking of market value of the English players it's 20 billion and maybe 1 billion for Japanese players. In football, though things do not work like that. We can work as a group."

"Thinking of our offence and defence tomorrow, there are things we can do on the pitch. Sometimes we just have to be a bit realistic. Our players can decide what they need to do depending on the situation. We are looking forward to the game" he said.

The coach backed his players' performance against the New Caledonians. The challenging conditions made it hard for his squad to play but they managed to do just about enough to qualify. 

"We will try to do our best against England. Against New Caledonia, in that match, there was high humidity and heat and it was very difficult for players to breathe. It was a great experience playing in front of so many people and such a big crowd. Football is a sport where mistakes can happen and thus the 1-1 draw against New Caledonia"

The coach when asked about England's performance in penalties stated that he did not pay much heed to that detail.

"If it's a draw within the ninety minutes, we have no extra time and we can use the three substitutes within the 90 minutes. Depending on the situation we can think of penalties. I can't talk about that much. Let's see things like that might happen."

The coach lauded the growth of young players from academies back in Japan and said how they work alongside the national team in grooming the future stars of Japanese football.

"The JFA and J-league are working together. Most of the players are from club academy. The clubs have very high standard of coaches. Our job is to find the best players and give them chance to the national team. After national team action, we share info with the clubs. We work together" he said.

 

Ritabrata Banerjee