Japan heads to South Korea for the East Asian Cup this weekend expecting a completely different challenge from last month's Confederations Cup, but with the disappointment of a first-round exit from Brazil still fresh in the memory, manager Alberto Zaccheroni will be keen to come home with the title.
Japan takes on China in Seoul on Sunday in its first match of the four-team round-robin tournament, with Australia next up the following Thursday before a date with the hosts three days later.
Zaccheroni has selected a 23-man squad drawn exclusively from J. League clubs with only four survivors from the Confederations Cup, and with no fewer than seven players receiving their first call-ups, predicting how the team will fare is impossible.