Japan coach Zico has questioned the timing of comments made by FIFA media director Markus Zeigler over a disputed penalty incident in his side's dramatic 3-1 defeat by Australia in Kaiserslautern on Monday.

Zeigler said during FIFA's daily media briefing on Wednesday he felt the Japanese should have been awarded a penalty just moments after Australian midfielder Tim Cahill had levelled the scores six minutes from time.

Cahill hauled down Japan wingback Yuichi Komano but Egyptian referee Essam Abd El Fatah waved for play to continue and the Everton midfielder, who had already been booked, went on to score a second before John Aloisi hit Australia's third in injury time to give the nation their first World Cup victory.

"The FIFA secretariat said there was only one problem at this World Cup and they said there should be a penalty just in the game of Japan," said the former Brazil international. "It's the same as a typhoon. Why?

"They said the game was okay but the problem was with the referee and just for Japan."

The Japanese led through a disputed goal of their own when Shunsuke Nakamura's cross sailed over Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer - who claimed he was impeded by Japan strikers Atsushi Yanagisawa and Naohiro Takahara - before three goals in the final 10 minutes killed off the Asian champions.

"There's nothing we can do because the game is already over," said Zico. "The Australian goalkeeper said in some newspapers the referee said he made a mistake with the first goal but he never said anything like that to us about the penalty."

Following the loss to the Australians, Japan now need to pick up points from their two remaining games, against Croatia and Brazil, and Zico's team face the Eastern Europeans in Nuremberg on Sunday.

Bolton Wanderers midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata was in confrontational mood ahead of the Croatia game, which the Japanese must win to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knockout phase for the second World Cup in a row.

"Why do we have to get four points?" he asked reporters. "We can get six points. I think just to win.

"Everybody knows that we have to win, that's it. Every match is difficult. No match is easy."

The loss to Australia was the second time in three games the Japanese had been in front before conceding important goals late in the match. In a friendly match against Germany before the start of the World Cup, Zico's team had led 2-0 before Jurgen Klinsmann's team scored twice in the dying minutes to tie the game.

"We have to score more to get the result," said Nakata. "It's simple. You want to make it complicated?

"The problem is we didn't close the game. We needed a third goal or a second goal or whatever so we could close the game and we didn't do it and that's why we lost."