Japan coach Javier Aguirre said he was generally pleased with his side's performance after the Samurai Blue beat New Zealand part-timers Auckland City 2-0 on Sunday in their final warm-up before launching their defense of the Asian Cup.
Japan's most-capped player, Yasuhito Endo, opened the scoring in the 33rd minute at Cessnock Sportsground and Shinji Okazaki steered in a late second to see off Auckland, which finished third at last month's Club World Cup in Morocco.
"It wasn't easy for us but this was our final practice and a good practice before our first game against Palestine. We played well in attack and apart from one mistake in defense I thought we were in control," the Mexican coach told reporters.