Ahead of Japan's upcoming friendly match against Thailand on New Year's Day, Thailand coach Masata Ishii attended a pre-match press conference.
"Although the number of places in the World Cup has increased, it is not easy to participate in the lower ranking in Asia. Not only the national team, but also for the development of Thai football, the World Cup can be an opportunity, so we hope to work in that direction. ”
"I think the quality of Thai football is better than when I was in Japan (when I was the head coach of Kashima Antlers) in the AFC Champions League," Ishii said. The Thai players outperformed the Japanese in some aspects of their individual ability. I have been in Thailand for 4 years and have felt this, so I hope to continue to improve through the efforts of the association based on this. ”
"Thailand has a lot of players who like to attack, and the speed of attacking and the feeling of aggressively stealing the opponent's ball when defending is more obvious than that of Japanese players," Ishii said. Thai players have a 'can do it no matter what' personality and they change emotionally very quickly. Being able to face it positively even if you fail, and I want to be able to turn that into an advantage. ”