The two-time defending champions will arrive in Japan with Igor Rakocevic the only member of their squad to have experience of Olympic or World Championship competition.

They also arrive on the back of a difficult preparation period, culminating in defeats to Spain and Slovenia in the weekend's Philips Singapore Tournament.

"Our team is set up and we are competitive but you cannot build a team in just a few months," Sakota said.

"The Spanish team have been built for many years and that was our situation for many years when we won a lot of competitions, including the World Championship, with big players.

"It's the first time for 11 of our players at the World Championship because we only have one who played in Greece (the 2004 Olympics).

"In Japan, everything will be at the beginning for our team and we must play with desire."

Sakota refused to criticise his players too harshly for the weekend defeats.

Speaking after Sunday's collapse to Slovenia, he said: "I said before this game that I would prefer it if we had a close game but a few minutes before the end we were controlling the game.

"Then there was a foul that was not called, in my opinion. They got a technical foul and they scored easy points and that was the difference in the end.

"Basically, they won the game with their rebounds. The key thing was their offensive rebounds. It is a matter of concentration and maybe the players got a bit tired towards the end but we should not have let it happen."

]Guard Bojan Popovic was pleased with his personal contribution after a perfect shooting display of seven from seven - including three three-pointers - saw him top score with 21 points.

However, he was critical of the way the side threw away an 11-point lead to lose 78-74.

"It was a good game for me in scoring but we lost in the end and I was disappointed with our rebounding," he said.

"Slovenia got more than 20 offensive rebounds and we got only half of that. We should win our defensive rebounds easily but we didn't do that and that was the key to the game.

"They had too many offensive rebounds. That gave them a second or third offence and when you play against a team with that sort of advantage, it's hard.

"For most of the game, we had a six to 10-point advantage but that's nothing. A game can turn in a minute with that kind of difference."

Turning his attention to Saturday's defeat to in-form Spain, Sakota said: "We played against a team much better than we are.

"I'm not too angry about our results in the tournament. I think it was a good tournament for us with strong opposition.

"I think that we came to some conclusions after the games and it helped me to find my squad."

Sakota will take 13 players to Japan before naming his final 12-man squad ahead of Saturday's opening Group A game with Nigeria.