Japan to take a risk with South Korea

TOKYO // Japan's football chief has described tomorrow's World Cup warm-up game against South Korea as a risk worth taking. Motoaki Inukai, the Japan Football Association (JFA) president, said the Blue Samurai needed toughening up before the finals. "It's the first time in a long time Japan will play South Korea with both teams fielding their best line-ups," Inukai said. "It is risky, but if you don't take those risks with less than a month to go they don't [get] that sense of what the World Cup is all about."

Takeshi Okada, the Japan coach, has chosen three tough opponents in the run-up to the tournament with fixtures against England and Ivory Coast after their South Korean test. South Korea have notched 33 wins to Japan's 10 in their previous 61 meetings and their last victory at the East Asian championship earlier this year almost cost Okada his job. Inukai refused to shake Okada's hand after Japan lost 3-1, but insisted he was squarely behind the coach. "I don't get too nervous about friendly results," said Inukai. "The coach wants to play the top teams and feels that, if we lose, then tough luck.

"Before the 2006 World Cup we won lots of games and the Japanese media were jumping up and down and saying we could get to the semi-finals or even further - and look what happened." Japan's meek early exit from Germany four years ago under Brazilian Zico left deep scars, and on paper it looks like they will struggle to make it past the first round in South Africa. Okada's side face Cameroon, Holland and Denmark in Group E. Victory against 2002 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea in Saitama would give them an enormous confidence boost.

"What I want is to go out and try to win every match," said Inukai. * Reuters