Japan coach Takeshi Okada says he can handle losing to Australia although he was displeased with the final result. After leading in the first half, the Blue Samurai capitulated at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to go down 2-1 to the Socceroos but Okada said the match has no bearing on what may happen in South Africa 2010.

"We came here without several of our best players and that made it hard for us to play at our best," he said.

"I was mostly happy with how we played but we let ourselves down on a couple of occasions. That's okay, we shouldn't panic about that. Sometimes when you have a new bunch of players together, they make mistakes like this.

"The World Cup is 12 months away, we have a long time to work on our side and have them ready for that tournament."