NEWS

Following a productive training camp, Japan coach Takeshi Okada is hoping to make a good start to 2010 by beating Venezuela in a Kirin Challenge Cup friendly match – their first warm-up game ahead of this summer’s World Cup – on Tuesday at Kyushu Oil Dome in Oita.

“Our players have largely got their game instincts and physical conditioning back,” Okada said of his players after the weeklong training camp in Ibusuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, which ended on Sunday.
“But I heard that our opponents have prepared hard for the game, so I don’t think it will be an easy match tomorrow. But this is our home game and we should win it with a good performance.”
“It has been a while since we last played, and tomorrow I want to see to what extent our players can produce the things we’ve worked on and show some improvement.”
Okada added: “Venezuela is a good team. But we will play stronger teams than them in the World Cup, and we should bear this in mind in tomorrow’s game.”
Venezuela, who failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup, are currently competing in the qualifiers for the 2011 Copa America while trying to develop young players for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Venezuela finished eighth in the 10-team South American qualifiers, two points behind fifth-place finishers Uruguay.
“Japan have qualified for the World Cup in the last few tournaments and we are looking forward to playing against them. I hope that the game against Japan can help us find our game,” Venezuela coach Cesar Farias said.
As part of their preparations for Tuesday’s game against Japan, the Venezuela coach said he had his players eat their meals on Japan time before heading to Japan. Venezuela is 13.5 hours behind Japan.
“Since I thought the time difference would be a key factor in the game, I made preparations to give us a chance of competing against Japan.”
“I’m sure Japan know us, but I know their strong points as well, especially their speed. We would like to prevent them showing their strengths as much as we can and score against them. We would like to play with our style of football, which is different from theirs.”
The Japan-Venezuela match is to kick off at 7:10 p.m. on Tuesday.