Japan have suffered another defeat in the lead-up to the World Cup, going down 2-0 to South Korea in Saitama.
Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung opened the scoring for the Koreans who confirmed they are a serious threat to their Group B World Cup opponents.
Park hit the target with a superb shot from the edge of the area in the 6th minute before Chu-young Park converted a 90th minute penalty to confirm the win.
Japan: 0 South Korea: 2 (Park Ji-Sung 6', Chu-young Park (p) 90') Venue: Saitama Stadium - Saitama, Japan Crowd: 57,873 Yellow cards:JPN - Yasuhito Endo 74', Seigo Narazaki 90' KOR - Lee Chung-Yong 38', Beom Seok Oh 85'
Japan boss Takeshi Okada revealed he asked Japanese federation president Motoaki Inukai if he should step down from his role after a string of negative results but confirmed he would remain in the job although he admitted he was disappointed the Blue Samurai again went down to South Korea.
"As the president told me I should carry on, I guess I have no choice but do it," Okada said. ''The players gave it everything they had but we have lost twice in one year (to South Korea) and I feel very sorry about that.
''It is our job to get results and we couldn't do that and I feel responsible. We just have to move forward and keep believing in ourselves.''
South Korea coach Huh Jung-Moo added: "My players played their own game until the end. I'm happy about it. But we must improve further our counter-attacks, we need to do it more sharply."
Starting Line-Ups
JPN:
Seigo Narazaki (gk), Yuji Nakazawa, Yasuyuki Konno, Yuto Nagatomo, Shunsuke Nakamura (Morimoto 63'), Yasuhito Endo (Komano 79), Yuki Abe, Makoto Hasebe, Keisuke Honda (K.Nakamura 72'), Yoshito Okubo (Yano 87'), Shinji Okazaki
Subs - Takayuki Morimoto (63'), Kengo Nakamura (72'), Yuichi Komano (79'), Kisho Yano (87')
KOR: Jung Sung-Ryong (gk), Du-Ri Cha (Beom Seok Oh 67'), Lee Young-Pyo, Kwak Tae-Hwi, Lee-Jung Soo, Park Ji-Sung (Seungyoul Lee 76'), Kim Jung-Woo, Lee Chung-Yong, Ki Sung-Yeung (Kim Bo-Hyung 76'), Yeom Ki-Hun (Chu-young Park 46'), Lee Keun-H (Kim Nam-Il 46')
Subs - Chu-young Park (46'), Kim Nam-Il (46'), Beom Seok Oh (67'), Seungyoul Lee (76'), Kim Bo-Hyung (76')
