The first match of the women's soccer final Asian qualifying round for the Paris Olympics, in which Japan will play against North Korea, will be held in Saudi Arabia from 10pm on the 24th Japan time.

Although this was an unusual situation in which the venue was not decided until the last minute, coach Futoshi Ikeda expressed his feelings before the match, saying, ``I am confident that we have prepared well for the battle for the Olympic spot.''

The first away game of the Asia Final Qualifier, in which Japan and North Korea will face each other in a home-and-away format, was originally scheduled to be held in the capital Pyongyang, but the Asian Football Confederation canceled the match due to difficulties in preparing for the match. Three days before the match, it was announced that it would be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the 21st of this month.



On the 23rd, the day before the match, the players of the Japanese national team Nadeshiko Japan made their final preparations at the match venue, and Coach Ikeda held a press conference.

Coach Ikeda spoke about his feelings before the match, saying, ``I'm confident that we've prepared well for the battle for the Olympic spot.I feel very excited.''



Regarding the fact that the venue was not decided until the last minute and it ended up being held in Jeddah, where the maximum temperature exceeded 30 degrees, he said, ``The opponent is still North Korea, so the team decided to focus on that.'' "The players also focused on what they needed to do."

Captain Saki Kumagai said in an interview after practice, ``We want to play smartly as a team.We have analyzed North Korea's strong points, so we want to respond well and bring out our strengths.We want to win. I want to go back to Japan.''



Furthermore, playmaker Yui Hasegawa said, ``I'm not feeling the heat as much as I expected.Winning the first game will be a big advantage, so I want to play in a way that will get people to cheer for me.I want to prevent them from scoring the first goal.'' "I want to stay focused and get into the match and win in the 90 minutes," he said with enthusiasm.

《NHK will broadcast both races》

[Round 1]


Saudi Arabia Jeddah


February 24th (Sat)


Match start 22:04 (Japan time)


= Broadcast schedule =


NHKBS 21:59 ~


NHK General 25th 0:30 ~ (recorded)


[Round 2]


Tokyo National Stadium


February 28th (Wednesday)


Match start 18:34


= Broadcast schedule =


NHK General 18:25 -


Both games will be broadcast on terrestrial TV simultaneously on NHK Plus.


You can also miss the home broadcast on the 28th.