As the Japan national team was set to play an international friendly against Zambia on the next day, their coach Alberto Zaccheroni said at a news conference on the 5th June in Clearwater, Florida that his squad's build-up has come as planned and would intend to proceed as planned in the remaining schedule before the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

''Our team is in a positive mood and that's a favorable situation as we are headed into the World Cup,'' Zaccheroni said of his national team, who are making their fifth straight World Cups and have won all the three friendly matches this year. ''Tomorrow will be our final game before the World Cup, so we would like to give play opportunities to as many players as possible. We are going to use them, looking at the flow of the game, their performance and conditions.''

Zambia is placed 76th in the latest FIFA ranking while Japan is 46th. They missed the World Cup this time, but triumphed in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in 2012, and beat Uganda 2-1 in a March friendly.
''We want to play, being careful about the distances with the opponents and their individual skills, but I believe that they will struggle with our team plays as well,'' Japan defender Yoshida Maya said. ''We want to take the initiative in those areas.''
Entered their seventh day of the Florida training camp, the weather made a complete turn-around from the cloudy ones until the previous days to a sunny day that was like the summer. In the temperature that recorded over 30 degrees, the team worked on their final tune-ups for the next day's game, including rotating passes and physical training, at the field in Clearwater.

The team received ''Nippon'' chants from enthusiastic supporters who came by the field after the practice as they left the field.

Comments

Alberto ZACCHERONI Head Coach
We consider the Zambia game will be our final opportunity to test our players before the World Cup, so we would like to try some players and we have some players that we want to observe as to whether they can play for the entire 90 minutes. Also we will have to check on how we can play out in the 90 minutes as the team. In the past few months, we have made some player changes yet have come up with positive outcomes, so I feel like we have improved our level as the team. With that being said, we are in a situation that gives us some hard time deciding on which 11 players we should name as our starting members. Tomorrow, we don't want to cope with how our opponents will play, otherwise we won't have our own play speed. We want to stick to our game. It will be important for us to play, observing how our opponents will come against us. We hope to play keeping the balance of our game, which is our base.

MF ENDO Yasuhito（Gamba Osaka）
We want to avoid unnecessary goals lost in tomorrow's game, so we try not to make simple mistakes and do our risk managements while we dominate the ball. Obviously, they are from a different country, but they are still an African team (which is the same as Cote d'Ivoire, Japan first opponents in the World Cup), so we will be able to feel their physical strengths first hand. We will have to manage to work on their fast counter attacks as the whole team. Since Ibusuki was hot, and it's been great that we've had some measures against the hot weather here as well. So it feels that we've been able to have good preparation.

MF HASEBE Makoto（Eintracht Frankfurt/Germany）
I went through all the menus. I felt some stiffness around my whole body, but overall I've a lot better. There's nothing that I have to save or hold up. I don't think that I will play fully in tomorrow's match, but the World Cup is the priority. It will all be up to how we do toward it. Regarding my condition and other body situations, I've started feeling some stiffness, so I have to think about it. (But) what's really important overall will be all in the hands of our coach.

FW KAKITANI Yoichiro（Cerezo Osaka）
Since I didn't play for 90 minutes (in the game against Costa Rica), I don't know if I have the right condition, but I will for sure be ready to go. I'm not sure about the outcome after we worked on our strengthening since Ibusuki until I get to play for the whole 90 minutes, but I will just prepare myself as best as I can so the team can show our maximum performance.

Patrice Beaumelle, Zambia National Team Head Coach
After the victory in the Africa Cup of Nations 2012, Zambia National Team was aiming at the World Cup 2014, but the dream didn’t materialize. However, our young players are making progress, so we have to step forward. I have great respect for Japan National Team. The squad shows good teamwork and team spirit, which Zambia needs, and has a number of quality players such as Kagawa, Uchida, Honda and Endo, so I think Japan is a tough team as a whole. I would like to know our standing by facing a team which will participate in the World Cup.

JFA-TV