SHIMIZU, Shizuoka Pref. -- Japan coach Philippe Troussier on Wednesday night attempted to defuse the pressure on himself and his players by saying that his current training schedule for the national squad is like "testing a Formula One car."
To conclude his team's three-day training camp, Troussier divided his players into two teams -- Blue and White -- for an intra-squad training match in front of 13,484 fans and over 400 journalists at Shimizu's Nihondaira Stadium. The proceeds from Wednesday evening's game will go to charity.
The Blue team beat the White 1-0 on Takayuki Suzuki's 86th-minute penalty.
Forwards Naohiro Takahara of Jubilo Iwata and Akinori Nishizawa of Cerezo Osaka played in aggressive style after recently returning to Japan from overseas. Shimizu S-Pulse star Alessandro "Alex" Santos played in the second half.
"This (match) was not anything like a graduation examination; I just wanted to give our players an opportunity to play in a different atmosphere," Troussier said.
"I was able to get more information on our players from the game today and they are still in my laboratory. I will have the same group of 35 for our next training camp on March 11-12."