Japanese coach Takeshi Okada believes Wednesday night's World Cup qualification clash with Australia at the MCG shapes as a mini-Asian final with his team keen to finish top of Group A.
Both teams have already qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa and only pride is at play in this match, with a Japanese win good enough for the Blue Samurai to finish top.
Okada said that there was a sense of national pride about the match and that it was a chance for his side to test itself out against World Cup quality opposition.
"This for, us is the next step on the road to the World Cup," he said.
"Australia are an excellent team, they have many good players from European clubs and it is always tough to play against them. But we have a great desire to win this game. We enjoy playing against the best teams, and to beat Australia and finish top of the group would be a fantastic thing for Japan."
Okada will be without several first choice players with ill skipper Yuji Nakazawa joining the likes of Shunsuke Nakamura, Yasuhito Endo, Makoto Hasebe, Yoshito Okubo and Keisuke Honda on the list of absentees. But he is confident that the players he does have available will be able to make it a very competitive match.
"Like Australia, we don't have our best side in," he said. "We have rested some players, but we think we have a strong enough side to take it up to Australia."
"After the match against Uzbekistan, where we qualified for the World Cup, I noticed a lot of my players were tired. But they have had time to recover since the Qatar game and are very excited about playing in this match."
Japan is likely to opt for one striker with Shinji Okazaki up front, supported by Daisuke Matsui and Keiji Tamada on the wings. Kengo Nakamura will likely sit at the heart of the midfield, with Hideo Hashimoto and Yasuyuki Konno playing as screening midfielders.
Yuto Nagatomo and Atsuto Uchida will fill the full back roles with Satoshi Yamaguchi and Marcus Tulio Tanaka the two centre backs. Seigo Narazaki will take the captain's armband in goal.