Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni spoke at an official news conference on 18 June at Arena das Dunas in Natal, Brazil, the site for their match against Greece in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The Greece match held on the 19th will be a must-win contest for Japan, who lost to Cote d'Ivoire 2-1 in their first group stage match. Since Greece had lost 0-3 to Colombia in their first game, they are expected to come and play as hard as they could to gain three points in this one. Zaccheroni has asked his players to take this game as a whole brand-new game and put up what they have done with high concentrations.

''This is such as short-term tournament and every single game will determine your fate. This match is a completely different game against a completely different team. You have got to forget the previous match and focus on this particular game. I told our players to not have their minds dwelled on the previous game but to play how we've played in the past,'' the Italian coach said.

At the official practice session, which followed the news conference, the players eased up their bodies with physical training and listened to the coach forming a circle.

''They are resilient and are solid playing compactly, and they have been successful capitalizing on it, but we will sill have to find a way to beat them. It will be difficult opponents to take on,'' Zaccheroni said of Greece.
Greece is placed 12th in the FIFA rankings (Japan is 46th). Greece has been led by Portugal coach Fernando Santos since July of 2010 and qualified through the European qualifiers. This is their third World Cup berth after the 1994 and 2010 editions.

''Tomorrow, I want to send our players to the pitch, reassuring that they are ready tactically, psychologically and physically. I am sure that our team will come up with a positive outcome had we shown what we've done,'' Zaccheroni insisted.
Japan captain Hasebe Makoto said, ''If there's strengths for Greece, we have our own strengths that they don't have. We want to take advantage of ours.''

The Greece match will kick off at 7 p.m. In the local time on the 19th (7 a.m. in the Japan time).

Comments

Alberto ZACCHERONI, Head Coach
Japan have a lot of potentials and that's something you would have noticed if you watched us play until yesterday. Everybody is now waiting to blossom with two matches left in the group stage. In order for us to advance to the next stage we have got to win tomorrow's match. (During these four days) I've considered about how much we are able to bring composure back. We don't want to have worries and just want to focus on the match. We have come up with positive results in this past four years, and we are not going to change what we have established. Based on what we have done in the last four years, I am trying to tell our guys our faiths. If our team can do what we have done, I believe we will end it with a positive outcome.

MF HASEBE Makoto（1.FC Nürnberg/Germany）
It's been four days since we lost to Cote d'Ivoire in our first game. Right now, I feel like all of us are in the mood of focusing and being ready for the next match. As to the first game, all of our players think that it happened in the past and understand refreshing our minds is important. How much we can go about business, not dwelling our minds on it. We have prepared ourselves to play against a team like Greece. We would like to exhibit that on the pitch.

FW OKAZAKI Shinji（1. FSV Mainz 05/Germany）
Rather than we want to win tomorrow, we want to put up everything we have. We have been eliminated, not having putting up we had in stages like this in the past. I know that if we show what we have, we will come up with a result we want, and we have to play our defense aggressively for the entire 90 minutes. We have to communicate with each other and play with the mind-set to go for scoring some goals.

Fernando Santos, Greece National Team Head Coach
We want to play, focusing on the battles tomorrow. Our opponents are a tough team that we should have respect, but we want to make history for Greece as well. It doesn't matter who will start for us, but it'll be important to see what will happen on the pitch. The Japanese team that played against Cote d'Ivoire was like a different team from the team I knew. I believe that they will come in this contest, making adjustments, but we are prepared on our side as well.

Schedule

※Broadcast time is Japan time.