<Anchor> The
Olympic soccer team had their first training in Kashima, Japan, the decisive battlefield, but there were setbacks such as delays in training due to poor local preparations.
This is reporter Ha Seong-ryong from Kashima.
<Reporter> The
national team, which entered Kashima, the decisive battlefield after a 7-hour journey, arrived at the training ground with a bright expression after a day of rest, but could not start training immediately as they only relaxed.
To prevent injuries to the players, as a convention for international competitions, the lawn should be sufficiently watered 15 minutes before training, but the organizing committee did not water it at all.
At the Kashima training ground here, we are spraying water on the grass at the request of coach Hak-beom Kim.
Because of this, the national team training was delayed by more than 30 minutes.
Director Kim Hak-beom, who took the hose and started spraying water himself, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the lack of preparation of the organizing committee.
[Kim Hak-beom/Olympic soccer team coach: If it's like this (dry) grass, there's no meaning in training here. It started because I came here and asked to spray (water). (Competition) Aren't you ready? .] The
national team, who started training late after twists and turns, digested the first training for the scheduled 90 minutes, and closed the screen for the last 30 minutes and had a private set-piece training.
[Kim Hak-beom / Olympic soccer team coach: We are having our first training in Kashima, and all preparations are now complete. I'm doing my best to prepare that way to bring good results.]
As the national team that plays the first and second games in Kashima uses three training grounds in turn, the Football Association plans to check the stadium preparation more thoroughly before training.
(Video coverage: Ho-Jun Choi, video editing: Young-Taek Oh)