Saturday, 10 am, Osaka: the temperature gauges are approaching 30 degrees Celsius as the VfB squad make their way out onto the training pitch, and for the next 75 minutes, all involved certainly work up a sweat. After the session, Atakan Karazor and his team-mates took the time to pose for photos and sign autographs with the fans in the stands.
Head coach Sebastian Hoeneß and defender Anrie Chase then attended a press conference with German and Japanese journalists. “We are delighted to be here. It really is something special and we can’t wait to take on Kyoto Sanga on Sunday,” said Hoeneß of the match against the J.League opponents, kicking off at 19:00 local time (12:00 CEST), which will be available to watch live for subscribers of VfB-TV.
“The sporting benefit of our matches here in Japan is considerable,” the head coach continued. “We have every respect for our opponents – the J.League is a good standard of football. We’re hoping that this trip will see us continue to progress as we make our way through pre-season.”
“Picked up important experience”
One player who has come on in leaps and bounds over recent months according to Hoeneß is Anrie Chase, with the head coach describing him as “an exciting young prospect”. Chase previously featured for VfB’s U21s in the Regionalliga before featuring regularly in the Bundesliga squad towards the end of the 2023/24 season. “Quite a few players were injured so I was fortunate enough to get the call-up,” the defender said. “Training with them is at a really high level, and that enabled me to pick up a lot of important experience. The coaching staff have given me great support and I’m very grateful for that.”
The 20-year-old and his first-team colleagues will be looking to continue to ramp up their pre-season on Sunday when they face Kyoto Sanga.