World Cup underdogs Japan wound up their World Cup finals preparations here on Thursday with another disappointing performance, a scoreless draw with Zimbabwe in a training match after a match-making blunder which left the former Asian champions deeply embarrassed.

The Japan Football Association had waited until Thursday morning to announce Zimbabwe had replaced other non-World Cup qualifiers Mozambique as their opponents.

The only semi-positive note for the Japanese was that the draw at least brought to an end a run of four successive defeats.

Japan wanted to play an African side as a tune-up for their World Cup opener against Cameroon on Monday. But Mozambique told Japan they would skip the scheduled match, only hours after losing 3-0 to Portugal in a friendly in Johannesburg on Tuesday night.

"We wanted to make the announcement only after confirming that the Zimbabwe team had arrived here," JFA technical director Hiromi Hara told frustrated reporters in Japan's World Cup base camp of George.

"It was not that we had lied to you. We wanted to clear up all risk before the announcement."

There was no list of players on the 20-strong Zimbabwe squad available. Hara said some of them had reportedly played in the 3-0 friendly defeat by five-time World Cup champions Brazil at home on Wednesday.

The training match was played over three 30-minute periods with Japan's first-team regulars, including rising CSKA Moscow midfield star Keisuke Honda, competing only in the first one.

Honda played as Japan's lone frontman, a new role given by coach Takeshi Okada to boost the Blue Samurai's firepower after four straight international defeats against a second-string Serbia, South Korea, England and Ivory Coast.

They managed to score only one goal in those warm-up games through Marcus Tulio Tanaka in the 2-1 defeat by England in Graz on May 30. They lost 2-0 to Ivory Coast in the Swiss city of Sion last Friday.

Honda said he thought the Zimbabwe workout - espepcially the first period he took part in - had been good for the team.

"Although we didn't score in such a short period, we managed to find several patterns that we can use against Cameroon. I take it as a positive," he said.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP