Steve Corica, Tony Popovic and strength and conditioning coach Anthony Crea all believe that the Socceroos will need to be at their very best to beat the highly-organised Japanese team.

Both Corica and Popovic played extensively for Australia and spent large parts of their careers in Japan playing for Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

And while Anthony Crea is currently in Australia, he remains part of the Socceroo set-up having helped prepare the Socceroos during their pre-tournament camp in Singapore.

Corica, like his coach Branko Culina, has named Shunsuke Nakamura as Japan’s greatest weapon.

“He’s very good on the ball and he creates a lot for them. Overall though, they’re a great side. They pass the ball well, can slow it down and they finish teams off. We’ll have to play really well to beat them,” he said.

Australia’s ability to hold possession will also be key, according to Sydney’s star midfielder.

“[Our form] has been a slow progression. We’re losing a lot of possession, giving the ball away a lot and we’re not closing them down as quick as what we should.

"We got a bit better in the third game but we’ll have to improve a lot to beat Japan.”

Crea believes that Japan will use revenge as a motivating factor despite the team playing that down in recent days.

“They’ll definitely want revenge. They were probably embarrassed in the World Cup and probably underestimated us. I think we were more physically powerful, especially coming towards the end of that game. They’ll take that into consideration as they prepare. I think the physical attributes will come into play in this one again,” he said.

He also played down the supposed rift that has taken hold in the camp.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of drama in there," he said.

"The media is obviously going to run with different things if some players are saying certain things but I think they’re a close group and I think the Thailand game showed that everyone is there for the cause - and that’s to win the Asian Cup.”

Popovic believes that the much-maligned Socceroos defence cannot afford any mistakes to creep in, and that Graham Arnold’s skills will be tested in the encounter.

“If the boys can pull it together for the full 90 minutes like we did at the World Cup, I’m sure they’ll have a great chance because I’m pretty sure Japan will be nervous coming up against us,” Popovic said.

“It’s hard to give advice to a man [Arnold] that made three changes at the back and that worked out very well.

"He’s probably got a few headaches now with who he’s going to start and what system he’s going to play.

"I’m sure he’d rather have those headaches though. He’s now seen that he has the back-up in defence and he’d be very pleased with that.”