This international tournament, now in its 13th year (for players born in 2001, equivalent to third-year high school students in Japan), hosts all teams at the "Shandong Luneng Taishan Football Academy" owned by Chinese Super League team Shandong Luneng, and matches are played on the academy's grounds. The final match will be held in the stadium used by the top team.
The participating teams are divided into three groups of four teams each for a league stage, followed by a ranking tournament. The tournament involves playing matches for two days in scorching heat, followed by a one-day rest, then another two days of competition.
Group A: Shandong Luneng (China) ・ Santos Laguna (Brazil) ・ RCD Espanyol (Spain) ・ Wolverhampton Wanderers (England)
Group B: Hebei China Fortune (China) ・ Santos (Brazil) ・ Kashima Antlers (Japan) ・ OGC Nice (France)
Group C: Shanghai Shenhua (China) ・ Desportivo Brasil (Brazil) ・ Sporting Clube de Portugal (Portugal) ・ Boca Juniors (Argentina)
We arrived at Narita Airport around 7:30 AM, completed boarding procedures, and took a commemorative photo together.
We departed Narita Airport and arrived at Qingdao Airport at noon. The in-flight announcement stated that the temperature in Qingdao was 33℃. Upon landing, we indeed felt a significant mugginess.
At the airport, we were warmly welcomed by the Shandong Luneng tournament staff, and we took a commemorative photo.
We left Qingdao and traveled by bus for about 2 hours.
It was still quite hot around 3:30 PM when we arrived at the "Shandong Luneng Taishan Football Academy" accommodation.
After checking in, we trained for about 1.5 hours starting from 4:30 PM. Since the tournament will be played on natural grass, our practice was also on natural grass.
About 4 to 5 local staff members assigned to our team were kindly assisting us with preparing ice, arranging water, securing the ground, and adjusting meal times.
The practice started with running, followed by ball possession drills, possession games, and game-form training. We finished the day's practice with crosses and shots.
We returned to our accommodation and had dinner at 7 PM. After dinner, we conveyed some brief announcements, and lights were out at 9 PM.
