December 3, 2005
Boom Boom, Out go the Lights!
Even today, the prefectures of Yamanashi and Nagano carry a quiet memory of their fate, and the people tend to keep to themselves, with a reserve and a sort of stubborn rural pride which has kept the area relatively less industrialized or developed than just about any other region of the country. Naturally, Takeda Shingen is the source of local pride and the basis of much of the region's folklore, but people carry a somewhat ambivalent attitude about his legacy. After all, this was a man who spent his entire life fighting battles that didnt achieve much of anything, who died before the most crucial event of his generation, and whose most famous legacy is the motto "Furin Kazan" (wind in the forest - fire on the mountain) . . . which doesnt really seem to mean much of anything. If anyone should wonder about why folks from Yamanashi are a bit "odd", just keep in mind who we have to look upon as a role model.
Five hundred years and a few decades later, and another army has been raised in the mountain fastness of Yamanashi prefecture. A great maroon-and-blue regiment which carries as its banner the motto of the historic Shingen -- Vent Foret, a rendition of the Takeda family's "wind in the forest" into the language of another frequently conquered people, the Gauls. As the first snows of winter begin to cover the high passes, and the wind howls through the barren branches of the forests of Yamanashi, this army -- small in number but valiant in spirit -- hav taken up the legacy of their imperious forbears, and set out to do battle against the more numerous and powerful legions sent against them by the overfed and effete kings of Japan's great cities -- the cruel golden horde of Kashiwa Reysol. Ventforet Kofu, in what must surely rank as the most magnificent turnaround of all times, has gone from J2 doormat in 2001 (when the team came within a single city council vote of disappearing forever) to a contender for J1 promotion just four years later.
No doubt, Ventforet will face an uphill battle at every turn, and even as the battle is joined, we can already see clear indications that those powerful shoguns and daimyos of the J.League bureaucracy wish to humble this upstart pretender and banish its descendants to the farthest hinterlands of J.League football. But as they prepare for their greatest test, the lesson of Shingen lives in the hearts of every son of Yamanashi. Even if this campaign should result in utter defeat, and the destruction of everything they hold dear, Ventforet Kofu and its fans will make such a great and defiant stand that the bards and poets of football folklore will still sing of it, a thousand years hence.
Chapter 1: The Battle is Joined
2 - 1 
"Much as we may complain about the officiating, or the bureaucracy, or the oldboy networks, or all those other annoyances that trouble us as football fans, year in and year out, there is no question but that the J.League is the most amazing, unpredictable and breathlessly thrilling league in the football world. . . . Nothing else can compare to it. Year in and year out, the J.League never fails to amaze. As you take a look at the scores and details of this week's matches, consider how priveleged you are to be a fan of the most dramatic football league there is. "
We might repeat those same comments today, for the first leg of this year's promotion-relegation battle between Ventforet Kofu and Kashiwa Reysol was another one of those rare dramas which will one day be exhumed from the history books and turned into an epic film by Peter Jackson. It had all the elements that one might ask for in a classic adventure movie: Heroes and villains. Scheming, corrupt hirelings and valiant battle-scene extras. A rollercoaster plot of advances and retreats, all culminating in a climactic moment of sudden and total chaos.
Though only half the tale has been told, it is already perfect material for a Homeric epic. So sit back and put your feet up in front of the fire, fill a glass of ale and light your pipel as we tell you of the great deeds that were done in a cold, sleet-drenched battlefield away in the distant mountains, on an early December day in 2005.
For those of you who have not been following the plot up to now, the two main characters in this drama are Kashiwa Reysol, the team which finished in 16th place in the J1 this season, and Ventforet Kofu, who captured third place and a spot in the promotion-relegation series on the final day of the season, with a miraculous victory over Kyoto Purple Sanga. The two teams have had only four days to rest and prepare for this contest, and though the national sports media have paid it little attention, the approaching clash has attracted an outpouring of local pride in tiny Yamanashi, with Kose Sports Park selling out for the first time in its history (despite the addition of about 2000 seats as part of an ongoing renovation which will raise capacity to 17,000).
Despite a chill wind and the threat of sleet or snow, the spectators poured into the stadium early, and kept each other warm while jumping up and down and singing the entire repertoire of local cheers, the most distinctive of which is the wordless rendition of "Amazing Grace", which keens across the pitch as the players emerge from the locker room at the start of each game. After the endless preliminaries before kickoff, which only served to wind the suspense level even higher, the contest finally kicked off. Barely ten minutes into the contest, Ventforet got its first taste of the adversity that they would face throughout the contest, when Reysol's Kisho Yano took what looked like an obvious belly-flop just above the top right corner of the penalty area, and referee Joji Kashihara awarded a free kick. The kick was played by midfielder Harutaka Ono onto the head of Reysol's ace striker, Reynaldo, who headed it just underneath the crossbar to give the visitors the early lead.
But Ventforet fans have been through plenty of adversity in the past, and with most of the match left to be played, their spirits were undimmed. As the roar of the crowd built higher and higher, Ventforet began to fight their way back into the contest. A corner kick opportunity a few minutes later was eventually cleared buy the Kashiwa defence, but Ventforet players chased the ball relentlessly from one end of the pitch to the other, and as the first half wore on, their aggressive pressure began to pay off. In the 25 minute, after one attempt at a breakaway counterattack was broken up and cleared to the right sideline, Ventforet's Brazilian defender Alair collected the ball about 35 metres out from goal, with plenty of room to set up and choose his target. He sent a looping cross to ace striker Jader "Bare" Spindler, who leapt over his defender and headed the ball back in front of net to strike partner Taro Hasegawa. As Yuta Minami dashed off his line, Hasegawa had time for only a quick stab at the ball, but he managed to flick it past Minami, and as it bounded loose in front of an empty net, Kazuki Kuranuki swept in to bundle it home.
Reysol were momentarily taken aback by this reversal of fortune, and it took them nearly ten minutes to settle themselves and begin pressing for the lead once more. It was not until the final eight or tem minutes of the first half that Reysol began to apply its superior technical skill effectively, and start to pressure the Ventforet net. But even though they were clearly outdone in terms of weaponry, the Kofu players used tireless physical efffort to make up the difference, and hold off their opponent until the halftime break.
When the two teams re-emerged from the locker room, and play resumed, Ventforet dragged out the one weapon that they have used effectively all year long -- a blitzkreig of pressure deep in the opponent's end -- in a bid to seize the initiative. Though it left the defence undermanned, and nearly cost them a goal moments after the restart, on an individualistic run by Reynaldo, this gamble paid off in the 48 minute, when four consecutive attempts by Reysol to clear the ball from their half were all collected by Ventforet players and rammed back into the attacking zone. After a frenetic scramble in front of net, Bare latched onto the ball and fired a blast into the nylon netting, sending the crowd into a rapture of celebration.
The remainder of the match can only be compared to trench warfare. Not only Reysol themselves, but apparently the officiating crew as well, suddenly felt their backs to the wall, and began to throw everything at their disposal into the quest for an equalizer. As hard as the Kashiwa playersworked to try to score the equalizer, their efforts paled in comparison to the efforts of the head referee, Mr. Kashiwahara (Kashiwa. . .hara . . . Hmmmmm . . . There is something fishy about that name, but I cant quite put my finger on it). The most egregious example of his intervention came with less than ten minutes remaining in the contest, when he first ignored an obvious Reysol foul, which caused the ball to go out of bounds, then awarded a throw-in to Reysol when it was clear that (in addition to the foul), the ball clearly came off a yellow-shirted player's boot. Then, when the throw-in was mis-played by a Reysol striker and the keeper collected the ball, Mr. Kashihara declared that it the ball had been played back to the keeper by a defender (when you see the video, posted further down this page, trust me, you will laugh out loud), and awarded an indirect free kick to Reysol, just three meters out from the goal line.
Despite their most strenuous efforts -- both legitimate and questionable -- Kashiwa simply could not produce the equalizer. The Ventforet players may have been outclassed in terms of technical skill, but they simply would not stop running. Midway through the second half, one of the announcers commented that Ventforet were doing a great job of defending, through sheer effort, but if Reysol kept up the pressure they would eventually run out of energy. Well, that might be theoretically true. But from our vantage point, they could have kept playing until the new year dawned, and those Ventforet players would still be running, just as furiously. As the clock moved into injury time, there was no sign of a letdown in the Kobe defensive pressure, and with Reysol players starting to panic, Ventforet had one or two chances to score on the counterattack and put the result beyond doubt. A minute of injury time was already on the clock, when suddenly . . .
. . . . . .
. . . as the blackness closed over a throng of roaring fans, and an icy blanket of sleet, frozen rain and stillborn snow began to pelt down from the heavens, somewhere I could swear I heard the voice of Vicki Lawrence, singing . . .
That's the night that the lights went out in Kofu
Thats the night that they hung an innocent man
Well dont trust your soul to no cocked-up J.League referee . . . "
Somewhere in the darkness, a circuit-breaker had rolled over, strained to the breaking point by the sheer tension of the match. Or perhaps a rat (human, or otherwise) had gotten their claws on the stadium light switch. Or perhaps . . . . well . . . we may never know for sure.
But the impenetrable fact was that the whole of Kose Sports Stadium was plunged into sudden darkness, and as the crowd howled in confusion and consternation, the two teams were forced to retreat to their respective locker tooms, unable to play the match to its conclusion.
It took over a half hour to eventually respore power, and by that time, the pitch was icy slick, and the fans chilled to the marrow by the sudden downpour of sleet and freezing rain. To the amazement of anyone who had been watching the clock tick past the 91 minute mark, before the lights went out, the stadium announcers informed the crowd that the full four minutes of extra time would be played. Another case of the powers that be, trying to give Reysol a helping hand?
Perhaps.
But in the end, even that was in vain. No blackout. No officiating blunders. Not even an icy cascade from the heavens was going to snuff out the warm glow that was burning in the hearts of Ventforet fans on this particular evening. When the final whistle sounded and the match was officially concluded (with the official game clock reading 131' 24"), a great wave of exultation, victorious defiance, and long-repressed pride rolled like thunder through the frigid air. Ventforet Kofu had emerged from the dark cloud battle, and were still standing.
Yes, it is true that this was just the first act in a drama, and the second act may very well have a bitter ending for the good folks of Yamanashi. But for those fans who have stuck with this team through it all -- through the lean years when the team was the laughing stock of the league, and local fans showed up at matches with paper bags over their heads in self-mocking jest, for supporting such a hapless team. Through the financial crisis, when the team seemed on the verge of dissolution. Through all the tribulation and travail -- no tragic ending can ever dispel the warm glow that they feel tonight. For this night, at least, the battle has ended, and Ventforet Kofu stands victorious upon the snow-swept field.
For this night, at least, we ARE the champions.
| Date: 7 Dec, 2005 | Location: Kose Stadium | |||||||
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1 | ||||||
| Kazuki Kuranuki (25') Jader "Bare" Spindler (48') | Scoring | Reynaldo (11') | ||||||
| Taro Hasegawa Michitaka Akimoto Shinya Nasu | Cautions | | ||||||
Lineups: Kensaku Abe, Hideomi Yamamoto, Alair (Takuma Tsuda 74), Michitaka Akimoto, Yukihiro Aoba, Shinya Nasu, Kazuki Kuranuki, Ken Fujita, Katsuya Ishihara (Daisuke Sudo 73), Jader "Bare" Spindler, Taro Hasegawa .  Yuta Minami, Mitsuru Nagata, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Tatsuya Yazawa (Lee Chun-Song 84), Hidekazu Otani, Yuzo Kobayashi (Yuji Unozawa 71), Harutaka Ono, Tadatoshi Masuda (Ryo Kobayashi 58), Kisho Yano, Reynaldo . | ||||||||
2 
Chapter 2: The Sun Sets on the Sun Kings
2 - 6
The sun has fallen into the cold darkness beneath the December horizon, and as brilliantly glittering stars emerge like diamonds in the black velvet night, a brash winter wind rumbles through the forests of Yamanashi, down the mountainsides and across the broad plain like a horse messenger, bearing urgent news to those waiting in Kofu castle. All across the valley, bells are tolling and throngs of people huddling close to one another in a great communal embrace. The tidings from the east tell of heroic deeds and glorious victory. Like a powerful wind through a late autumn forest, the maroon and blue army of Ventforet Kofu has swept away its enemies like withered leaves from the December branches. Off in the distant marshes of southern Kanto, a great battle has ended, and as the shattered legions of Kashiwa Reysol limp home from battle, the valiant boys of Ventforet Kofu stand alone on the field, victorious at last. Their sun kings have been toppled from their throne, ushering in a new era for football fans throughout Japan.
As a long-suffering fan of Ventforet Kofu, it is hard for the Rising Sun News to avoid a display of bias on this most remarkable of days. However, we do have a feeling of regret for Kashiwa Reysol. Kashiwa are a rather young team that has been nearly as ill-treated by fate as our own Ventforet, and we can certainly sympathize with the feelings of demoralized dismay that Reysol fans are feeling after the second leg of the promotion/relegation playoffs. This was not just a simple defeat. It was a rout. A massacre. A humbling blow to their pride. And while there can be no doubt that Reysol deserve to be relegated after their performance in this two-leg playoff, their performance over the course of the regular season was not nearly as disappointing as what we saw today. Hopefully they can repound from this disappointment next season, and we wish them luck in their effort to regain a J1 spot.
Nevertheless, apart from partisan Reysol fans, anyone who was fortunate enough to watch the second leg match, played on Saturday will be feeling a sense of wonder and admiration, after what was surely the most uplifting and joyopus match we have seen this year. It would be hard for even the most jaded neutral observer to avoid being caught up in the boyish enthusiasm that the Ventforet players displayed on Saturday afternoon. The first leg of this battle, on Wednesday night, was a nail-biting, hard-fought affair. But the second leg was a romp. An explosion of intensity, effort and emotion which -- like the powerful wind whose name they bear -- swept away all resistance.
The brave lads of Kofu poured out their hearts upon the pitch, and when it was all over, the emotion cascaded over them all, leaving not a dry eye in sight. The hero of the contest -- Jader "Bare" Spindler -- addressed the crowd after the final whistle with tears pouring down his face, and a voice choked with emotion. This was not just the victory of one player, or even of eleven. This was a victory for the whole of Yamanashi, and one which has been built upon years of struggle and disappointment. It was a victory founded on teamwork, unflinching determination, and tireless effort. For despite the lop-sided score line, even in their finest hour, it was always clear that Ventforet were the underdogs, and Reysol were the more skillful and talented side. Kofu emerged victorious only through their superior effort, heart and hustle
From the outset, it was clear what Ventforet intended to do. A team with a solid defence, and a certain amount of technical skill might have approached the away leg cautiously, knowing that a draw would be good enough to win them the prize. But as coach Takeshi Oki surely must have told them before the match, Ventforet is not the sort of team that can play for a 0-0 draw. In football, as in battle, when you are outnumbered and outgunned, there is only one strategy that you can choose -- Attack!
And attack they did. Relentlessly. Remorselessly. Ruthlessly. From the opening whistle to the final gasp, Ventforet Kofu attacked the ball, chasing it from one end of the pitch to another. Throwing themselves forward into attack, in numbers, again and again and again. This blitzkreig of pressure in the Reysol end allowed Ventforet to collect the clearance passes again and again, not only ensuring that Reysol's scoring opportunities were few, but also producing some chances to score themselves. If Reysol had managed to break through this swarm of pressure in the early minutes, it might have been a very different game indeed. But Kofu knew full well that they were taking a calculated risk, and as good fortune would have it, the gamble paid off.
Ten minutes into the contest, Kofu pushed the ball deep into the Reysol zone, and though defenders cleared it from their penalty area three times, each time a Ventforet player was the first to reach the loose ball, ramming it back into the box once more. On the third attempt, Ken Fujitabroke down the right sideline to take the pass from midfield, and he had enough space to locate the powerful form of Bare, posting up about eight meters out from goal. Bare chested the ball down, then flicked it towards goal, bulled his way past his defender and fired into the back of the net. Ventforet had the lead!
Now the pressure on Reysol was even greater than before. Only three clear goals could rescue them from relegation, and though there was plenty of time left in the match, they must have known that their backs were to the wall. To their credit, Reysol went to work right away, throwing players forward in numbers to improve their chances. If Kofu had been content to defend their lead, it is quite possible that Reysol could have fought their way back.
But "defend" is a word that isnt included in coach Oki's playbook. No doubt this cost Kofu some matches over the course of the 2005 season, but under the conditions the team faced on Saturday, their relentless attacking pressure was exactly the right ticket. Reysol never got a chance to settle down, work the ball around and regain their composure and confidence. Wherever the ball went on the pitch, there were two or three blue-shirted players in hot pursuit. Reysol seemed to have a slight edge in posession and opportunities for the space of about 15 minutes, but they were constantly under pressure, and faced with the threat of a quick Kofu counterattack. Sure enough, in the 27 minute the ferocious Ventforet press succeeded in forcing a poor pass at midfield and Taro Hasegawa dashed onto the ball, sprinted into the clear, and then passsed to Katsuya Ishihara, cutting for goal from the top right corner of the box. Ishihara was in full sprint, and the last two Reysol defenders were both flatfooted. As he raced towards them, Ishihara managed to squeeze the ball through a gap before running headlong into a melee of bodies. To be fair, it was a 50:50 call. The Reysol players could claim that they were there first, and that Ishihara caused the collision. But since the ball made it through without a Reysol touch, the referee, Mr. Okada, gave the benefit of the doubt to Ishihara, and pointed at the spot. Bare drilled his PK and Reysol had a 2-0 lead.
Reysol controlled the tempo for the remainder of the first half, but the Ventforet players continued to run tirelessly, and the constant harassing pressure prevented the home team from creating many good shots. As half time drew near, Kofu seemed ot be just "hanging on" until the break, but despite a close call on a shot by Reynaldo, just before the break, Ventforet maintained a 2-0 lead at half time.
As the second half began, Reysol found themselves under more pressure than ever. They knew that they needed to score soon; only by scoring three unanswered goals could they keep hope alive, and they would need four in order to claim the victory. Having recharged their batteries at half-time, the Kofu players were once again running at full tilt, and they seemed determined to keep as much pressure on Reysol as they could manage. Four minutes into the second half, tiny Taro Hasegawa made the play that would decide the course of the battle. After collaborating with Fujita and Kazuki Kuranuki to break up a Reysol passing exchange, Hasegawa took off up the right sideline, and as Fujita fed him the ball, he suddenly fired the turbo jets and accelerated even further. Defender Mitsuru Nagata realised he was beaten and resorted to a very un-professional "professional" foul. In fact, it was so clumsy and thuggish that even Nagata seemed to realise that he was finished, taking the ball and dribbling away upfield even as Mr. Okada blew repeatedly on his whistle. Nagata already had one yellow card, collected in the first half, and consequently, as Nagata made his way to the dressing room, Reysol found themselves in an even deeper hole than ever.
But while it reduced their numbers, the sending-off also gave Reysol a bit of a boost, stiffening their pride and stimulating them to greater effort. Three minutes after Nagata's sending off, Reysol finally managed to put together a sequence of passes inside the Ventforet box, and the last player in the line -- Reynaldo -- swung a side kick that drove the ball into the roof of the Kofu net. Now they needed only two goals to claw their way back to level terms, and for a breif instant, there was a glimmer of hope for the boisterous crowd of home fans. Thoug the sun was sinking low on the horizon, casting the stadium in a golden light, it seemed that the Sun-Kings might still win the day.
Those hopes lasted less than 60 seconds. Almost immediately, the Ventforet players shifted their engines into a higher gear, and roared off into the sunset, leaving Reysol in the dust. Once again it was Bare who was on the end of the pell-mell dash towards goal, and as he neared the right post, he fired a thunderbolt into the top right corner that nicked the post on its way through, and left the entire goal framework shuddering with the impact. Every yellow-shirted person in the stadium dropped their heads in dismay, and with 38 minutes still on the clock, sportswriters across the country began typing out Reysol's obituary.
But even with an untouchable lead, the Ventforet players never altered their pace. As coach Oki has noted many times this season, Ventforet arent that good at defending, so the only thing they can do is to keep attacking, whatever the situation or score line. Fifteen minutes later, a powerful drive by Fujita forced Yuta Minami to make a diving block, and the ball spilled right to Bare for his fourth goal. A minute later, he struck again for his fifth of the match, equalling the J.League record for most goals in a game. With time running down, Reysol finally got a consolation strike from Yuji Unozawa, but this only served to provoke another surge of attacking pressure from Kofu, and with three minutes left on the clock, Bare completed his second hat trick of the afternoon. Six goals in 90 minutes, to set a J.League record. The sun fled from the scene, leaving close to 15,000 Kashiwa fans shivering in the chilly darkness, while at the far end of the pitch, a small knot of travelling fans from Yamanashi laughed, wept, danced and embraced as their team drank in the heady taste of victory.
After all the tears, the suspense and anticipation, the thrills and celebrations, it is hard to know just what to say, to conclude this report. It is very hard to sum up all the emotins and events of the past few days in mere words. As we have noted many times in the past, Ventforet Kofu is a small team, with no major corporate sponsors and very little money. Although this plucky little team richly deserve their place in the J1, it is hard to see how they can do much more than make up the numbers next season, battling to capture a few points, and hopefully manage to maintain a sense of pride as they return to the J2 at the end of next season. Yet tonight, nobody in Yamanashi is looking ahead. Next year will come when it comes. For now, we can only sit back and relish this moment of glory, while it lasts. Perhaps the best way to conclude our story, then, is to paraphrase the words of the late Winston Churchill.
The whole fury and might of the enemy
Must very soon be turned upon us
If we can stand up to this test
Then the life of our world may move forward
Into broad, sunlit uplands
But if we fail, then our whole world
And all that we have known and cared for
Will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age . . .
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties
And so bear ourselves that,
If Ventforet Kofu should last for a thousand years
Men will still look back and say
That this . . . was their finest hour!
| Date: 10 Dec, 2005 | Location: Kashiwa Stadium | |||||||
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6 | ||||||
| Reynaldo (52') Yuji Unozawa (86') | Scoring | Jader "Bare" Spindler (10') Bare (27') Bare (53') Bare (68') Bare (69') Bare (87') | ||||||
| Tomoki Hirayama Mitsuru Nagata Mitsuru Nagata Yasujhiro Hato Franza Yukio Tsuchiya Reynaldo | Cautions | Alair Arata Sugiyama Shinya Nasu | ||||||
| Mitsuru Nagata | Sent Off | |||||||
Lineups: Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Mitsuru Nagata, Yukio Tsuchiya, Harutaka Ono, Tomokazu Myojin, Hidekazu Otani (Yuji Unozawa 45), Tomoki Hirayama (Yuzo Kobayashi 51), Cleber Santana, Reynaldo, Kisho Yano (Franza 81) . Kensaku Abe, Arata Sugiyama (Yukihiro Aoba 89), Alair, Michitaka Akimoto, Hideomi Yamamoto, Shinya Nasu, Kazuki Kuranuki, Ken Fujita (Kenta Suzuki 80), Katsuya Ishihara, Jader "Bare" Spindler, Taro Hasegawa (Yuya Ikehata 60) . | ||||||||
Emperor's Cup Roundup
The promotion / relegation series was not the only football action on the card this weekend. In addition, seven of the eight "round of 16" matches in this year's Emperor's Cup were played (the eighth, between Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol, will be played on Wednesday, since Reysol were busy clinching relegation, on Saturday). All of the matches were high-scoring affairs, which is not surprising for those who know the history of the Emperor's Cup. In addition to the fact that many teams have already begun restructuring for next season (thus limiting the availability of players or having an impact on team morale), the very nature of the Emperor's Cup, with its one-match, winner-take all format and mandatory extra time in the case of deadlocks, means that teams go all out for the win. There is no benefit in trying to remain on level terms, so if a match is level in the final ten minutes, both teams will put their heads down and throw themselves forward relentlessly looking for the winner.As we already noted, this resulted in a large number of goals, and several blowout victories. Most of these went to the favoured team, though there were some upsets as well, none bigger than the loss by last year's league champions, Yokohama Marinos, to Kawasaki Frontale. Here is a quick overview of the seven matches played on Saturday.
3 - 0 
Mitsuo Ogasawara and Masashi Motoyama both ignored injuries and played the full 90 minutes of this romp over Trinita, in a clash between the outgoing maestro of the Antlers coaching staff, Toninho Cerezo, and his former student as a coach in Brazil, Pericles Chamusca. Trinita did a fairly good job of holding the Antlers in the first half, limiting the scoring to a lovely free kick goal by Fernando. But as the match wore on and Trinita wer forced to begin attacking themselves, the Antlers added two more goals including the finisher in which the two limping midfielders, Ogasawara and Motoyama, teamed up to put the contest out of reach.
1 - 2 
The lone exception to the rule about high-powered offence characterizing the Emperor's Cup was a clash between two teams that struggled a bit this season -- Nagoya Grampus and Omiya Ardija. The two teams played to a scoreless draw over 90 minutes, and only when the match moved into extra time, and they had no other choice, did the two teams come out of their corners and start throwing haymakers. Ardija landed the first blow, on a strike by Chikara Fujimoto late in the first OT period, but Grampus answered just moments later, just beating the whistle at the end of OT part 1. The second OT period was a bit wild, as both teams were down to their last reserves of energy, but midway through the 15 minute period, Toninho scored the winner, thus avoiding a recourse to penalty kicks.
2 - 0 
The Urawa Reds found the devence of FC Tokyo difficult to break down, but they had little difficulty controlling the contest and tallied once in each half to claim a relatively comfortable victory. Tomislav Maric scored the first, midway through the first half, and Nobuhisa Yamada added a strike shortly after the break for Urawa.
2 - 3 
In the biggest upset of the day, next-door neighbours Yokohama and Kawasaki travelled all the way to western Kyushu to play their match at Nagasaki Athletic Stadium, and the nominal "visiting" team claimed the win with a goal in extra time after the two teams played to a 2-2 deadlock over 90 minutes. Givanildo "Hulk" de Souza, who saw very little action during the regular season, scored a brace for Frontale, while his opposite number Tatsuhiko Kubo, who also missed most of this year's regular season due to injury, tallied twice for the Marinos, including a strike in the final minute of regulation time to send the match to extra periods. The winning goal came not long after the start of extra time, and was scored by Frontale midfielder Kengo Nakamura.
2 - 5 
Cerezo Osaka apparently had some frustration to work out, following their last-second collapse in the final week of the regular season, which saw them fumble the championship trophy and hand it to cross-town rivals Gamba. Fans are probably wondering why their team could not have turned in this sort of performance a week ago, as Cerezo stormed out to a 5-0 lead before putting the engine in neutral and coasting to a 5-2 victory. Hiroaki Morishima and Bruno Cuadros gave Cerezo a 2-0 lead at the half, and shortly after the break, Teruaki Kurobe, Tatsuya Furuhashi and Tomoya Maeda added tallies of their own. For JEF, the two consolation goals were possibly more than they deserved, as the number of dangerous shots that Cerezo created over the opening 60 mintues might just as easily have produced a double-digit score line.
2 - 1 
Jubilo Iwata's unimpressive performance during the regular season extended into the Emperor's Cup, and though they managed a narrow win to advance to the next round, they will be thanking good fortune for their relatively easy draw in this toournament. Despite playing at home (one of only two teams to enjoy such an advantage), and gaining a man advantage in the 57 minute, when Keiji Kaimoto was sent off for his second yellow card, Jubilo struggled to create offence. Takashi Fukunishi finally put Jubilo on the board with 12 mintues to go, but ten-man Albirex managed to equalise before the final whistle. After playing shorthanded for 30 minutes of regular time and 25 minutes of extra time, Albirex finally ran out of gas, and Jubilo claimed the late winner on a set-play piece headed home by Makoto Tanaka.
0 - 3 
Finally, Shimizu S-Pulse put on a strong showing against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, tallying twice in the opening 12 minutes and then adding another goal after half time to advance to the quarterfinals with a 3-0 victory.
Below is the full tournament table, as of Saturday December 10:
Send all questions, comments and queries to: