During the Japan Tour, VfB took the opportunity to give some young players in Japan an insight into the work of Sebastian Hoeneß and his coaching staff.
Warm-up, match situation drills and finishing: on Saturday afternoon, some of the VfB party were hosted by the Kyoto Sanga U18 team. Assistant coach Malik Fathi, goalkeeping coach Steffen Krebs and conditioning coach André Filipovic exchanged ideas with the academy director and staff there about different training approaches and took a session at the Kyoto Sanga Field. The language barrier was soon overcome. “The boys have football intelligence,” said Filipovic after the session. “They quickly realised what we want to implement. In football you speak one language.” Fatih added: “It was a lot of fun because the boys got into it straight away. All of them were really keen.”
Following the warm-up with Filipovic, the Japanese club’s youth team did some passing and match situation drills, led by Fathi. At the same time, Krebs tested the goalkeeper trio with the ball in the summer heat. “The boys joined in really well, immediately embraced the exercises and gave it full effort,” said Krebs afterwards. “The mentality and openness are first-class. It was a lot of fun.”
Following the session, the young players posed their questions to the VfB coaches and exchanged German and Japanese souvenirs. A thoroughly successful afternoon, which once more strengthened VfB’s connection to Japanese football.