The Japanese were booed off the pitch after slumping to a 3-0 defeat to Serbia during their World Cup warm up match, played in Osaka, Japan.

Serbia’s Dragan Mrdja scored two goals. The Serbs looked more up for the game as compared to their Japanese counterparts. Japan captain Yuji Nakazawa told Reuters:

“We did exactly what we knew we couldn’t afford to by conceding an early goal. We know we’re going to face even more dangerous players at the World Cup in June. We just have to take this loss on the chin and move forwards.”

While the Serbian assistant coach was quoted saying:

“There was plenty of quality tonight for Antic to consider when he chooses his World Cup squad. The players showed they will soon be competing for places with the senior players.”

The display put up by the Japanese players does little to suggest that they can reach anywhere close to their semi-final target, set by coach Takeshi Okada, for the World Cup 2010.

Okada said:

“I honestly thought we would be better than that. There wasn’t the motivation there should be when you wear the Japan shirt. For that I apologise. We had 70 percent of the possession but did nothing with it. It has underlined how reliant we are on our top players.”

Serbia showed solid defence as well as threatening in attack. Goalkeeper Zeljko Brkic made an marvellous fingertip save from Shinji Okazaki with the score at 1-0.

Japan have their task cut out for them, they have been drawn alongside Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon in Group E, for the World Cup.