Krishna Sadhana
Football Tribe SEA Editor
The quarterfinal of the Emperor’s Cup was played out on Wednesday, October 23rd, with the 8 teams participating in it looking to get those 4 tickets to the semifinal. The 8 teams were Kashima Antlers, Oita Trinita, Vissel Kobe, Shimizu S-Pulse and Sagan Tosu of the J1 (1st tier), V-Varen Nagasaki and Ventforet Kofu of the J2 (2nd tier), and Honda FC of the Japan Football League (4th tier). For V-Varen and Ventforet, the draw for the quarterfinal pitted the two J2 teams against one another, thus guaranteeing the presence of a side from outside the top flight in the semifinal. There were J1 vs J1 clashes between Vissel Kobe and Oita Trinita as well as Sagan Tosu and Shimizu S-Pulse, while Kashima Antlers are looking to avoid an upset as they host Honda FC at the Kashima Soccer Stadium.
At the Misaki Park Stadium, hosts Vissel Kobe were without the Spanish maestro Andres Iniesta in the midfield, but the presence of Sergei Samper and Thomas Vermaelen in the starting lineup, as well as Lukas Podolski and David Villa in the bench, meant that Vissel head coach Thorsten Fink is taking this match very seriously. After impressing last time out in their 1-0 win over Urawa Red Diamonds, Oita once again entrusted Yusuke Goto with leading the Turtles’ attacking line, this time alongside Ado Onaiwu who had to sit the Urawa match out due to being ineligible to play against his parent club. Thai midfielder Thitiphan Puangchan made himself known on Tomohiro Katanosaka’s bench, having recovered from an injury that kept him on the sidelines for a while.
The match was a balanced affair, but eventually, it was Vissel who came on top, thanks to a goal from Hotaru Yamaguchi in the 56th minute. Despite the defeat and the subsequent elimination from the Emperor’s Cup, Oita fans were treated to the sight of Thitiphan playing out the last ten minutes of the match in his return from injury, an encouraging sign for both Tomohiro and Thai national team head coach Akira Nishino, who both needed the on-loan BG Pathum United player in their teams’ respective midfield.
Elsewhere at the Kashima Soccer Stadium, J1 leaders Kashima Antlers took on JFL leaders Honda FC, with the former hoping to avoid the fate of Urawa who were eliminated by Honda in the previous round. Go Oiwa decided to go all out for this match as he refused to underestimate Honda, with heavy hitters such as Shoma Doi, Yasushi Endo, Shintaro Nago and Ryota Nagaki lining up for the Ibaraki side. And it was Doi and Endo who combined for the winning goal of the game in the 65th minute – underneath the tight marking of the Honda defenders, Endo delivered an accurate cross towards Doi, who had the simplest of jobs to head the cross home. Try as Honda might, Kashima were always an opponent too difficult for the plucky amateurs to handle, but at least they’ve bowed out of the competition with their heads held up high.
A 15th minute strike from Junior Dutra was more than enough for Shimizu S-Pulse to see off hosts Sagan Tosu at the Ekimae Real Estate Stadium, the third 1-0 result of the Emperor’s Cup quarterfinal. Sagan ended the match with 10 men as Mu Kanazaki was sent off in the 85th minute after receiving a second yellow card. The all J2-affair between V-Varen and Ventforet at Nagasaki’s Transcosmos Stadium also proved to be a close affair, with Masakazu Yoshioka (9′) and Ryo Niizato (14′) scoring for the hosts in the first 20 minutes of the match, with Ventforet’s Shusuke Ota scoring what proved to be his side’s consolation goal on the 31st minute. The 2-1 result meant that V-Varen would become the only representative left outside of the J1 in the semifinal, being the first Kyushu side since Sagan Tosu in 2013 to reach that round in the competition.
However, a Herculean task would await V-Varen in the semifinal – an away trip to the Kashima Soccer Stadium to take on the almighty Antlers on December 21st. The same day also saw Vissel and Shimizu clashing at Misaki Park Stadium in the other semifinal.