The final horn sounded and Japan’s men’s box lacrosse team erupted in cheers. They did it — Japan advanced to the quarterfinals for the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championship.
“We’ve learned a lot in the last couple games,” Japan defender Yuta Kato said. “We knew we could get through this game victorious.”
Japan won’t have much time to prepare though. The quarterfinal is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday morning. Japan walked off the field around 3:30 p.m. Less than 18 hours separates Japan and its game against undefeated Canada.
It’s a difficult task for Japan to manage: the players have to physically recover, mentally prepare, get enough sleep, eat, get treatment if needed – the list goes on. Its opponent, however, played its last pool play game Tuesday night and had Wednesday off.
The clock is ticking until the quarterfinals faceoff. Thankfully for Japan head coach Naofumi Suzuki, he doesn’t feel that he needs to spend too much time on the mental aspect until the morning.
“In terms of mental fatigue, we’re not tired at all,” Suzuki said. “This game gave us a lot of positive energy mentally.”
Suzuki’s team has been taking the lacrosse world by surprise, after taking bronze in sixes at The 2022 World Games and now, securing a quarterfinals spot in the nation’s first-ever box lacrosse world championship.
The head coach has kept his team on a regimented schedule. The players all know what they’re doing and when they’re doing it. With such a short window to transition towards Canada, Suzuki wants to rely on that schedule.
“They’ve seemed to benefit from the schedule,” Suzuki said. “We do as much as we can do.”
Even though there’s not much time to study Canada, Japan already has a sense of what the previous world champions can do. The two teams scrimmaged before pool play started last week, giving the teams a good look at what each other can do.
“We see our role as ambassadors,” Canada head coach Glenn Clark said. “But we do it in a respectful way. We play hard, and they want to see our best because they want to see what that looks and feels like.”
Kato played in the 2023 men’s championship in field for Japan, when the team finished fifth. With this tournament being his first box lacrosse tournament, he learned new things about the game to focus on heading into the game against Canada on Thursday morning.
“When they have the ball, they have a lot of options around them,” Kato said. “So it’s important to not get deceived, but at the same time get into passing lanes.”
So off to treatment, then shifting everything toward taking on Canada. The experience and exposure is why Japan wanted to compete in Utica. It’ll get both Thursday morning.
“It’s Canada,” Suzuki said. “Yeah, we’re all looking forward to the game and the huge learning opportunities for us all.”
