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October 3, 2004

Dramatic Deeds on Derby Day

So without further ado, lets look at the results of the weekend's contests:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
2 Oct		7-1		"Banpaku" Stadium
2 Oct		0-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
2 Oct		3-0		Niigata "Big Swan"
2 Oct		1-1		Toyota Stadium
2 Oct		0-4		Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
2 Oct		vs		Shizuoka Stadium
3 Oct		0-0		Kashima Stadium
3 Oct		0-1		Yokohama Int'l

0 - 4

The Reds are currently in the midst of the most important stretch of matches in the entire season, facing all of the main challengers for the stage title in a string of five matches. As we noted, they stumbled in the first of these contests, losing to FC Tokyo. But last weekend they knocked off their closest rival, Gamba Osaka, putting a big dent in Gamba's chances of over taking them. This week the Reds travelled to Tokyo's National Stadium with a chance to knock JEF United Ichihara out of the race, as well. In keeping with the "derby" theme, you could call this contest the "Suburban Derby", since both teams are based in the residential suburbs of Tokyo (Urawa to the northwest, and Ichihara to the southeast). In the early years of the J.League, before there was a Tokyo-based team, JEF and the Reds competed to attract fans from the capito city, and even today they both have a fair amount of support from Tokyo-based fans. When the two teams meet head to head in the center of Tokyo, they can always count on a large crowd to turn out, and this week was no exception.

Although the Reds have been the top story in the J.League this stage, one should not overlook the strong performance of JEF United, who have done a great job considering the limited number of star players on their roster. Though Urawa had a slight edge from the outset, aggressive ball pressure and hard work by JEF kept this contest close until half time. The Reds claimed the early lead in the 16 minute, on a play that emphasised the team's explosive ability to create goals out of the blue. The Reds defence had just managed to weather a spell of pressure from the boys in gold and green, and seemed to be just clearing their zone and trying to set up some offence of their own. But as Alpay Ozalan carried the ball across the midfield stripe, he spotted some open space behind the JEF defence. As both Emerson and Tatsuya Tanaka began their runs, Alpay lobbed a long ball into the box. The pass was just a few centimeters too tall for the diminutive Tanaka, but his attempted header was close enough to making contact that the keeper was forced to guard the near (right) post, and let the ball bounce through. This allowed Emerson to dash in at the far post and head the ball home.

Following this goal, the match remained almost dead even, with both teams getting opportunities but neither one able to capitalise, and the players retreated to the locker room at half time with the result still very much in doubt.

But JEF lacked the defensive depth to keep the explosive Reds attackers in check for long. Shortly after the break, Urawa again demonstrated why they are dominating the league this year. The play evolved as a group of Reds players exchanged the ball on the left sideline. Emerson, Tanaka and Alex Santos are all speedy sprinters and deft dribblers, capable of exploding into space at any moment, so not surprisingly, the three drew a crowd of JEF defenders, wary of giving any one of them space to work with. But this left the right side of the pitch wide open, and the Reds quickly spotted and exploited the opening. Yuichiro Nagai made a sudden dash forward into the green acres, and Tanaka, reading his run perfectly, lobbed the ball across the pitch and sent Nagai into the clear. Before the keeper could get off his line and cut down the angle, Nagai sent a rising line drive that slipped just inside the right post and doubled the Reds lead.

JEF tried to fight back into the contest, but following the second goal, their confidence began to crumble, and by pushing forward on the attack, they were providing the Reds with ample opportunity to spring the countreattack. Sure enough, in the 71 minute, Marcus "Tulio" Tanaka collected a loose ball just outside his own penalty box and released a booming kick downfield, for his strikers. Emerson's speed was simply too much for Takayuki Chano to match. As the speedy striker began to win the footrace, Chano desperately tried to muscle him away from the ball, but Emerson fought through the fouls, collected the ball, and faked the keeper to the ground before tucking the ball into the back of the net.

This goal broke the backs of the JEF players, and the only thing that remained was to add the icing to the proverbial cake. Tadaaki Hirakawa did the honours, with a brilliant bit of individual ball control. Nobuhisa Yamada Took a long pass down the left flank, and chipped the ball in towards Hirakawa as he dashed in at the left edge of the box. Hirakawa had a defender on his right shoulder, but with his first touch, he cut the ball back and towards the middle of the box in a looping arc, while simultaneously putting on the brakes and letting the defender run past. The ball bounced towards Emerson, at the top of the box, almost straight out from goal, but with three defenders faking him, Emerson had no clear shot. So instead, he faked a trap and let the ball bounce through his legs. Hirakawa, meanwhile, was following up his own ball, running across the box from left to right, in the opposite direction as Emerson. The defenders all reacted to Emerson's fake, giving Hirakawa an opening on the right. Hirakawa collect the ball while accelerating, took two steps into space, and drilled a shot into the nylon to lower the curtain on the contest.

Lineups:

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano (Sozo Yuki 74), Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Naotake Hanyu (Mitsuki Ichihara 70), Kohei Kudo (Takashi Rakuyama 70), Seiichiro Maki .

Ryota Tsuzuki, Alpay Ozalan, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Fabio "Nene" de Brito, Takuya Yamada, Tomoyuki Sakai (Satoshi Horinouchi 75), Keita Suzuki, Alex Santos (Tadaaki Hirakawa 83), Tatsuya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson.

7 - 1

Cerezo's defensive midfielder Kiyokazu Kudo got the first hint that this was not going to be his day, just 15 minutes after kickoff, as he chased back to cover a long pass down Gamba's right flank. As ace striker Masashi Oguro chased him into the corner, Kudo tried to turn and pass the ball back to a teammate. But somehow Kudo seemed to either lose his balance or mishit the ball, because the pass went straight to Oguro, who could not believe his luck at receiving the ball right on the edge of the Cerezo box. As Kudo floundered on the ground, Oguro turned into the box and fired a shot on goal. Though his drive was deflected away from net, the rebound fell right to Fernandinho, who slammed it home and put Gamba in the lead.

Less than a minute later, as Cerezo tried to push the ball upfield from the kickoff, Hiroaki Morishima played alob pass into the box, intended for Yoshito Okubo. Defender Noritada Saneyoshi was in position to intercept, but apparently he was feeling a bit sorry for Cerezo's previous blunder, and decided to return the favour. Rather than clearing the ball, Miyamoto tried to play a back pass to his keeper Motohiro Yoshida . But Okubo was so close to the play that this merely put Yoshida on the spot, torn between fielding the ball with his hands and conceding a point-blank free kick, or trying to clear with his feet, as Okubo closed in. Yoshida did his best to make the clearance legally, but keepers are not generally known for their footwork. Okubo easily stripped Yoshida of the ball and tucked it into the empty net.

But Cerezo were in a particularly generous mood on this particular afternoon, and ten minutes later another defensive howler restored Gamba's advantage. This time it was Takanori Nunobe who provided the assist, as he attempted to head clear a free kick from Shigeru Morioka and missed the ball completely. Rather than striking Nunobe's forehead, it hit him in the breadbasket, and fell right at the feet of Satoru Yamaguchi, who had only to side-foot the ball into the back netting.

Not to be outdone, Kudo provided another assist for Gamba a few minutes later, this time stumbling into the path of a deammate's attempted clearance and deflecting the ball right to Fernandinho, at the right post. Again, the pass was so perfect that Fernandinho had only to make the merest of taps and Gamba had a dominant, 3-1 lead.

Though that was the last gift they would receive from Cerezo's players, Gamba needed no further encouragement, and they extended their lead before half time on Oguro's header from a Morioka centering pass. The two teams retreated to the locker room, and Cerezo probably wish that they had stayed there. Just moments after the restart, Oguro had his second goal, heading a short cross from the right flank on a looping trajectory, which cleared the keeper's fingertips and dropped into the left corner of the net.

As the hour mark passed, Gamba coach Akira Nishino brought on Kota Yoshihara as a substitute, apparently to give him a few chances to pad his scoring statistics. Two minutes after coming on, Yoshihara received a pass at the top right corner of the penalty area, whirled around and sent a grass-cutting ground ball into the left corner. Not to be outdone, Oguro completed his hat trick just two minutes later, on a line drive from almost exactly the same spot. The shot brushed off the keeper's fingertips, but found the back of the net anyway, and put the finishing touches on a thorough drubbing for Cerezo.

Lineups:

Motohiro Yoshida, Satoru Yamaguchi, Sidiclei, Noritada Saneyoshi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Shigeru Morioka (Mitsuteru Watanabe 77), Takahiro Futagawa, Yasuhito Endo (Satoshi Nakayama 69), Akihiro Ienaga, Masashi Oguro, Fernandinho (Kota Yoshihara 61) .

Tomohiko Ito, Tomi Shimomura, Kenichi Uemura, Takahito Chiba, Kensaku Omori, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo (Noriyuki Sakamoto 53), Hiroaki Morishima, Takeshi Hamada (Mario Garba 64), Akinori Nishizawa, Yoshito Okubo .

1 - 2

These days, S-Pulse is no longer a championship contender, and since the start of the second stage, Jubilo have fallen on hard times as well. But that by no means diminishes the energy, intensity and historical importance of the rivalry. Sure enough, the two teams slugged in out over the opening 45 minutes, like veteran prize fighters feeling each other out but too cautious to go for a knockout punch while the opponent was still fresh. Jubilo had a few more dangerous opportunities than S-Pulse, but when half time arrived, there was little to separate the two old warriors.

Ten minutes after the break, Jubilo drew the first blood, thanks to a fortunate bounce. Second-year midfielder Sho Naruoka made a slashing run up the left side and took the ball all the way to the left post, but his low-angle shot was parried by keeper Yohei Nishibe . But the ball fell right to Rodrigo Gral, who surged past a defender and flicked a shot on goal with the outside of his right boot. Nishibe was reading Gral's body movement, and leaning the wrong way, and the soft flick shot was able to trickle into the right corner before he could recover his balance.

But S-Pulse fought back immediately, and six minutes later they produced a knockdown of their own. As S-Pulse broke out on a counterattack, Keisuke Ota lobbed a long cross from the right sideline into thee Jubilo box. Korean striker Cho Jae-Jin , who has been a huge contributor since S-Pulse acquired him last mtwo months ago, dashed forward to head the ball home, and the two teams resumed their sparring match.

With time running down, both teams began to throw themselves forward with greater abandon, looking for the knockout. It finally came five minutes from full time, as a Teruyoshi Ito ran a clever overlap on the left side and collected the ball from Yoshikiyo Kuboyama. Ito dashed past the flat-footed Jubilo defence and cut the ball towards the far corner. It looked like Ito's shot would have rolled inside the right post, but Cho was eager to add to his goal-scoring tally and pushed it across the line from a few centimeters away. Ito and Cho may argue about whose goal it was, but the result was the same. S-Pulse took the victory, and Jubilo tumbled even further towards the bottom end of the table

Lineups:

Yohei Satol (Fumiya Iwamaru 79), Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Takahiro Kawamura, Naoya Kikuchi, Toshihiro Hattori (Sho Naruoka 45), Hiroshi Nanami, Toshiya Fujita (Hitoshi Morishita 85), Ryoichi Maeda, Rodrigo Gra.

Yohei Nishibe, Ryuzo Morioka, Toshihide Saito, Tomomi Tsurumi, Keisuke Ota, Kazuyuki Toda, Teruyoshi Ito, Jumpei Takaki, Masaaki Sawanobori (Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 81), Araujo (Kohei Hiramatsu 61), Cho Jae-Jin (Hideaki Kitajima 89) .

0 - 2

Since the takeover, the road has been anything but smooth for Vissel's new owners, and following last week's defeat, they releived coach Ivan Hasek of his duties, and put assistant coach Hiroaki Matsuyama in charge for the time being. Matsuyama's good fortune was just beginning, as Vissel chose this weekend to get back into the win column. One important undercurrent to this story is the rumour that veteran Kazuyoshi Miura and his recently-retired brother Yasutoshi may have exercised their back-room influence to force Hasek out and set the stage for Yasu to take over as the team's new coach. Lending strength to those rumours, when the match kicked off, Kazu was an unlikely inclusion in the starting lineup.

But if Kazu was hoping to impress the owners and offer an argument for handing control of the team to his brother, the ploy failed dramatically. After 75 minutes of scoreless football, coach Matsuyama finally pulled the veteran striker and replaced him with Mitsutoshi Watada . It took Watada just one minute to demonstrate why he should be starting, instead of Kazu. Midfielder Roger carried the ball up the left sideline and lobbed a high cross to Watada, who sent his first touch of the ball underneath the keeper and into the back of the net.

Five minutes later, Watada added an exclamation point to his demand for a starting spot, launching a 30 meter blast directly into the top right corner, sending coach Matsuyama into a paroxysm of celebratory dancing, and giving Vissel only their second win of the stage.

Lineups:

Yoshinari Takagi, Takushi Yoneyama, Kenta Togawa, Claudio Ubeda, Masayuki Yanagisawa (Kazuki Hiramoto 45), Kentaro Hayashi, Takahito Soma, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Takuya Yamada (Takeshi Hirano 73), Naoto Sakurai (Kazunari Iio 80) .

Makoto Kakegawa, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kazumichiu Takagi, Kunie Kitamoto, Tomo Sugawara, Roger, Park Kang-Jo, Mitsunori Yabuta (Naoya Saeki 55), Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura (Mitsutoshi Watada 75) (Tomoyuki Hirase 89) .

3 - 0

As the two teams came out for the restart, Albirex took over the momentum. Ten minutes after the break, Albirex won a corner kick on the left side, and Shingo Suzuki sent a high, looping cross to Oseas , directly in front of net. The veteran Brazilian outjumped the Trinita defence and headed the ball between the legs of the defender guarding the near post, giving Albirex the lead.

Albirex doubled their lead in the 75 minute, on a nearly identical play. This time it was Fabinho who leapt at the penalty spot and headed Suzuki's cross into the nylon. With time running down, the third of Niigata's Brazilian trio had his chance to add his name to the scorebook. Yusaku Ueno played a perfect post-up and pass to Edmilson , as he cut through the Trinita defence. Edmilson outran the final Oita defender nto the box, and toed the ball underneath the outrushing keeper to cap off the victory.

Lineups:

Koichi Kidera, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Yasushi Kita, Naoki Takahashi, Isao Honma (Hiroyoshi Kuwahara 88), Motohiro Yamaguchi (An Yeon-Ha 20), Yoshito Terakawa, Shingo Suzuki, Edmilson, Oseas (Yusaku Ueno 73), , Fabinho .

Hayato Okanaka, Koji Yoshimura, Takashi Miki, Kazuyoshi Mikami, Koji Arimura (Ryosuke Kijima 62), Takayuki Yoshida, Takashi Umeda, Taku Harada, Yuichi Nemoto (Teppei Nishiyama 76), Magno Alves, Daiki Takamatsu .

1 - 1

The controversy developed after Nagoya won a free kick on the right sideline, about 35 meters out from goal. Jorginho took the kick and sent a high looping ball directly on goal. The ball cleared the onrushing Grampus players and short-hopped right in front of keeper Yoichi Doi , who deflected it right into the path of defender Masahiro Koga. The ball clearly hit Koga in the forearm, and bounded into the net, but despite ferocious protests from the Tokyo players (and clear video evidence of the hand ball), referee Masayoshi Okada allowed the goal to stand.

But the "Hand of Koga" was not sufficient to guide Grampus to victory. Despite a dogged effort to keep Tokyo at bay, Grampus were on the back foot throughout this contest, and with 15 minutes remaining, Tokyo finally got the equaliser on a corner kick form the left side. Naohiro Ishikawa's cross found Lucas Severino directly in front of goal, and the Brazilian ace headed the ball down and just inside the near post.

Neither team could add to their tally, and in a result that will benefit only league-leading Urawa, the two teams received just one point each from this contest.

Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Yusuke Igawa (Makoto Kakuda 45), Keiji Kaimoto, Masahiro Koga, Kojiro Kaimoto, Keiji Yoshimura, Claiton, Yusuke Nakatani, Naoshi Nakamura (Tetsuya Okayama 64), Jorginho, Marques (Yohei Tomita 83) .

Yoichi Doi, Ryuji Fujiyama, Teruaki Moniwa, Jean Carlo Witte, Jo Kanazawa, Yusuke Kondo (Yoshiro Abe 45), Yasuyuki Konno, Fumitake Miura (Masashi Miyazawa 64), Yuta Baba (Naohiro Ishikawa 70), Lucas Severino, Mitsuhiro Toda Yusuke Kondo .

0 - 1

As the reader can already tell, Reysol snatched their first victory of the second stage, on Sunday. But the importan issue is that this was not just a fluke win in a close match. On the contrary, Reysol fully deserved to win the contest, and the only surprise is that it took them so long to produce the winning goal. Reysol were particularly dominant in the first half, when they limited the Marinos to just two or three shots on goal, while dominating possession and field position. Though their record of wins-draws-and-losses, since coach Hiroshi Hayano took over, is not much better than it was in the first stage, Reysol do appear to be playing better as a team, and perhaps this victory was a sign that they are turning the corner towards better things. One point that was quite apparent in this contest was that Reysol's youngsters are starting to get a clearer idea of how to play their positions, and what is expected of them as members of the team. Though we have been saying for the past year that Reysol has some of the most promising youngsters in the league, up to now they have demonstrated only individual skills, but have failed to play well as a team.

The Reysol midfield adopted a very unusual tactic in this match, which may or may not be deliberate but which certainly was effective. Rather than maintaining position to cover a specific "zone" of the field, as is typical in most defensive strategic plans, they frequently collapsed on one sideline or the other, bottling up the Marinos and preventing them from moving the ball forward, smoothly, into attack. This produced a lot of steals in midfield, and gave Reysol a constant edge in possession.

The drawback, of course, is that this produced large areas of open space, either in the center of the pitch or on the opposite sideline. The Reysol strikers and side backs seemed to be alert to the danger, since every time that the Marinos tried to move the ball quickly into the open space, either a striker or a defender would dash into coverage, picking up the Marinos player who was trying to slip forward into the open space. Against a team with one or more fleet-footed sprinters, it is likely that Reysol could be made to pay for leaving so much open space available. But agains the Marinos, at least, it worked like a charm. Only once or twice did Yokohama players move the ball quickly enough to the opposite sideline to create a breakaaway, and each time, someone was able to scramble back and pick up the free man before he could generate a dangerous shot.

For their part, the Marinos defended well, but they could not solve the Reysol defensive strategy. Apart from a breif spell, early in the second half, Yokohama were mainly on the defensive. As time ran down and both teams started to step up the pressure, looking for a goal, Reysol finally got te break they had been looking for from the outset. Former Marinos wing Yasuhiro Hato caried a ball into the right corner, waited for his teammates to run into the box, then launched a long cross for goal. The ball deflected on, past the far post, but Reysol's ace striker, Keiji Tamada dashed forward to collect it, a step ahead of the defence. Tamada had almost no angle on the net, but with a crown of bodies rushint at the goal mouth, he fired a low line drive anyway. Keeper Tatsuya Enomoto , who was also racing back after coming out to try to clear the initial cross, swatted desperately at the ball, but only managed to deflect it into his own net. Reysol claimed the victory, moving out of the league cellar at last. Yokohama, meanwhile, tumble to nine points behind the Reds, and unless they can take a clear victory in their head-to-head clash against Urawa, in two weeks' time, they will be out of the race for the second stage crown.

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Eisuke Nakanishi, Hayuma Tanaka (Yukihiko Sato 80), Yoo Sang-Chul, Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Oku (Tatsuhiko Kubo 75), Ahn Jung-Hwan, Daisuke Sakata.

Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Norihiro Satsukawa, Mitsuru Nagata, Naoya Kondo, Hidekazu Otani, Tomokazu Myojin, Tadatoshi Masuda (Tatsuya Tanizawa 60), Harutaka Ono (Takehito Shigehara 71), Toshiaki Haji, Keiji Tamada .

0 - 0

Sanfrecce had one or two close calls as well, but this contest was dominated by Kashima, who did just about everything you can think of, to demonstrate their superiority . . . except score. You can be sure that a competent striker will be at the top of the Antlers' shopping list for 2005. Unfortunately, it now looks like they are also out of the race for a title, this season.

Lineups:

Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, (Tomohiko Ikeuchi 89), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Fernando, Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Takeshi Aoki 68), Takayuki Suzuki, Marcelo "Baron" Polanczyck (Yuki Nakashima 81) .

Takashi Shimoda, Ricardo, Norio Omura, Megumu Yoshida, Hiroto Mogi (Tatsuro Kimura 74), Ri Han-Jae, Beto (Kohei Yatsuda 82), Kota Hattori, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Kohei Morita, Susumu Oki (Toshiya Tanaka 45).

And so, the Urawa Reds tighten their grip on first place, and move a step closer to their first league championship.

Rumours and Rumblings

Oh By The Way, In Case Anyone Cares . . .

Oh, and in case you didnt notice, it is already half over.

We are speaking, of course, about the Emperor's Cup. A tournament which -- given its background, and the fact that it is the only truly national sports tournament -- SHOULD be treated with the respect and interest that it has received in the past. But thanks to a few grumpy old men in the J.League heirarchy, the Emperor's Cup is in danger of fading into obscurity, and perhaps being abandoned altogether.

Last season, many of the coaches and management of J.League clubs approached the JFA, which organises the Emperor's Cup, and asked that the schedule of the tournament be changed. In the past, the Emperor's Cup has kicked off in mid-November, and continued without a break, every weekend through New Year's Day. But the J.League teams werent happy with this time-honoured schedule, which has been followed faithfully for 84 years, with the exception of a few years during the latter stages of World War II, when bombing and devestation forced its cancellation. The J.League clubs didnt like the idea of having to face amateur competition immediately after their own season ended -- a time when the players were exhausted, physically and emotionally, and occasionally couldbe knocked off by an upstart opponent. Never mind that this was what gave the tournament its uniquee charm. It simply wouldnt do for the big clubs to be beaten by underdogs.

And so, the JFA was bullied into altering the schedule, moving the preliminary rounds back into October and early November, when they happened to clash with the dates of J.League matches. Predictably, the scheduling changes caused the preliminary round matches to fall completely out of the public eye. The first round, which took place on September 23, was not even mentioned in any of the sports tabloids, and the second round, on September 26, was similarly invisible in the media. Even the third round, played on October 10, was given virtually no coverage at all, with only a few papers even printing the scores of the matches.

Just as predictably, the tournament has lost its magic. The motivation that inspired rank amateurs to lift their performance, fighting valiantly on national television against a top club, and springing a cinderella-type upset, is now a thing of the past. In the October 10 clashes, every single J2 club defeated its opponent and all of the other spots were claimed by JFL teams. Going into the fourth round, there is not a single underdog left in the tournament -- a fact that will no doubt deplete interest in the later round matches as well.

Though the tournament may be less than half over, it is already a huge disappointment, and if the current trend continues, could go down in history as the most unnoticed and unheralded Emperor's Cup tournament ever. And so, the Rising Sun News would like to take this opportunity to say a few words to offer the people at the JFA:

You idiots!

Give us back the Emperor's Cup! This is a precious legacy that you are destroying, and the obscurity in which the tournament has languished this season should prove beyond doubt that the rescheduling move was a mistake. Though the new schedule may benefit the top J.League clubs, it is a slap in the face to the hard-working amateurs who spend the entire year looking forward to this one opportunity for fame -- and more importantly, to the fans who follow the tournament, and who have been following it faithfully, for eight and a half decades. Much of the joy that this tournament has provided over all those years came from the chance that it gave people, all over the country, to see their local boys in action on nationwide TV. This year, by the time the matches reach the television airwaves, the only teams left will be the J.League clubs. And we can see them playing on TV any weekend of the year.

On behalf of football fans throughout the country, and throughout the world, we want to send this message to the tournament organisers: Bring back the magic. Without it, the Emperor's Cup is just another meaningless event.

Below is the table of results from the first three rounds of the Emperor's Cup: