The tournament will be held from October 23rd to 27th. It will be a 4-team league format, with matches played every other day.
Participating teams are Wolverhampton Wanderers from England, Ulsan Hyundai from Korea, Hebei China Fortune from China, and Antlers, making it four teams in total.
This is our first time participating in this tournament. Players born on or after January 1, 2002, are eligible, and the team is mainly composed of first and second-year students.
The team departed the academy house around 6:10 AM and arrived at Narita Airport just before 7:00 AM.
After completing boarding procedures, we departed Narita and headed for Qingdao, China, via Seoul. We arrived at Qingdao International Airport as scheduled.
At Incheon Airport, our transit point, we were able to witness a parade of people dressed in traditional costumes.
At Qingdao Airport, we were greeted by Mr. Duan, the interpreter and team attendant for this tournament. From the airport, we traveled by bus and arrived in Zibo City, where the tournament will be held. It took about 4 hours from the airport.
There was a small ceremony at the hotel, where coach Isozaki received a bouquet of flowers.
After this, the team had dinner and lights out was at 9:30 PM.
Also, two days before the tournament, a match coordination meeting was held to confirm regulations and uniforms.
All teams are staying at the same hotel, and there were many posters and bulletin board announcements about the tournament, all aimed at building excitement for the event.
Tomorrow's schedule includes an opening ceremony in the morning, followed by a press conference in the afternoon, and official training for each team.