U-22 Japan Game

Hey Everyone,
Hope all is well. The past couple days of have been great. Very low key and a lot of hanging out around the hotel in preparation for our game. We went yesterday to the stadium that we played in today. The stadium is very nice.. looks great from the outside and seats just over 30,000... we trained for only an hour, did some shooting and final preparations. Today we took it easy most of the day, resting and eating to prepare for the game. We played at 7pm, the stadium and atmosphere was great. I started the match, and played 70 minutes... the first half was a little shakey for everyone.. trying to settle into the tempo and get a touch on the ball. I struggled a little to hold the ball up and get dangerous. The second half was better i held the ball up and set two guys up for shots.. I didnt get any shot opportunities but we did very well as a team and had them on their heals for a good 20 minutes. We ended in a tie 0-0... the game was fairly even. I think they had the better of the chances, they hit the cross-bar and post in the second half. Both scary moments but we held strong and all ended well. The coaches were very pleased with the performance and happy with the way the team is coming together. The Japanese team has been together for much longer and they are preparing for qualifying very soon so it was good that after our first camp together that we are making progress rather quickly. The attendance for the game was 15,000, and it was really fun playing in that environment. We have a lighter day of training tomorrow and then play a game against the local J-league team who is in the second division but trying to move up to the first soon. Should be another great experience in a packed stadium. Until then...