National team manager Alberto Zaccheroni admits the importance of making a strong start to the final round of qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup was weighing on his players' mind ahead of Sunday's 3-0 win over Oman.
Japan laid down an impressive marker in its bid to reach a fifth successive World Cup in front of a Saitama Stadium-record crowd of 63,551, with star player Keisuke Honda breaking the deadlock after 11 minutes before Ryoichi Maeda and Shinji Okazaki made the game safe early in the second half.
But Zaccheroni revealed his concern over his players' frame of mind after the match, with the pressure to open the five-team final stage with nothing less than three points taking a heavy mental toll.