Dragan "Pixy" Stojkovic will make an appearance in front of his Japanese fans when the Nagoya Grampus Eight star suits up for Yugoslavia on Thursday night against Paraguay in the opening match of the Kirin Cup at Tokyo's National Stadium.

"After having seven nice seasons in Japan, playing before the Japanese fans this time has special meaning to me. I'd like to put on a fantastic performance without any mistakes," Stojkovic said in a news conference at the venue Wednesday. Stojkovic has already announced that he'll hang up his boots after the end of the J. League's first stage. The 18-member Yugoslavia side, however, is formed around many young players. Seven of them haven't yet played for the country, including last-minute callup Aleksandar Zivkovic of Jubilo Iwata.

Vujadin Boskov, one of the Yugolsav team's three managers, said that he and his colleagues, Ivan Curkovic and Dejan Savicevic, will use the three-nation annual tournament as a test selection of these young players for the remaining World Cup qualifiers. "We have many young players this time but they are good players," Stojkovic said. "I hope they understand the importance of playing in this tournament."

Boskov said: "Pixy takes a role similar to ours and he is like a father or a brother to our younger players. I don't see any problems having him play with these younger players as they respect him very much. . . . If we qualify for next year's World Cup, I want to give him an important role on the national team, such as coach."

Asked about Paraguay, Boskov commented: "Paraguay is a small country. They seem to rely more on fighting spirit than skills and that seems different from Brazil and Argentina. But they are not an easy opponent and we've got to be careful with them."

Stojkovic added he would like to score a goal against Paraguay.

But Paraguay goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert calmly reacted to his opponent's remark, saying: "That's all right. If he scores a goal on me, he could become famous internationally. But our team is good."

Paraguay manager Sergio Markarian commented: "Our team here has some less-experienced players than the ones for our World Cup qualifying team. But this team has better agility and is a good team."