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Teen Ayuyus face champion Japanese HS team
CNMI Boys U18 National Team players jog around one of the pitches at the Changnyeong Sports Park in South Korea during their training session last Sunday.
(Contributed Photo)
The CNMI Boys U18 National Team had a champion high school squad as an opponent in its first training match in South Korea yesterday.
Assistant coach Jershwin Angeles, in an email sent to Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, said that the Teen Ayuyus were scheduled to challenge Kunimi High School yesterday to start their series of games in their five-day training camp at the Changnyeong Sports Park. Results of the game were unavailable at press time.
Kunimi High School is located in Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan and is known for its strong football program. Several of its graduates moved up to J1 League and others played in junior leagues in Japan. One of Kunimi’s proud products was FC Tokyo’s Yoshito Okubo, who also played for the Japanese national team in the 2014 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
The school won back-to-back titles (2001 and 2002) in the National High School Soccer Championship and a perennial contender in the Takamadonomiya U-18 Cup Prince League Kyushu, Japan High School Soccer Tournament, and Inter High School Championship.
Meanwhile, Angeles said the Teen Ayuyus had a light training last Sunday afternoon a few hours after they arrived in South Korea.
“We had a light training on one of the fields at Changnyeong Sports Park and it was just 10-minute walk from our hotel. Coach Mita (Michiteru Mita) stressed on the positioning of players when defending and some attacking options. We headed back to the hotel at 6pm and had lights off at 10:30pm after the boys did their laundry,” Angeles said.
The Teen Ayuyus will continue with their daily activities today until Thursday, starting off with a morning training session and then a team meeting early afternoon before playing in their second training match. The CNMI players are in South Korea to prepare for the AFC U19 Championship 2018 Qualifiers that will be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8.
