The 94th Emperor's Cup which is drawing to a close reopens with semifinal matches on Wednesday, Nov 26.
88 teams have done heated battles in a knock-out system in this tournament and then 4 teams, each 2 from both J 1 and J2, have been qualified to Semi-finals. Yanmar Stasium Nagai will hold the match between JEF United Chiba and Montedio Yamagata.

Chiba won a close opening game against AC Nagano Parceiro of J3 at 3-2, followed by a victory over Kashiwa Reysol in the shootout 12-11.　Given the last winning, a head coach Sekizuka Takashi said "I was thrilled by a tight match. This victory was brought by the team's unity".  The team increasing its togetherness with those victories beat V-Varen Nagasaki of J2 in extra time 2-1 at round 16, 4th round, and Cerezo Osaka of J1 in the quarterfinal match at 1-0, keeping its lead with a score by Tashiro Shinich.

Chiba has had no victory which has a lead of more than 2 points so far and advanced to Semi-finals with winning all close games.　While the team has polished up its persistence, its two FWs, Kempes and Morimoto Takayuki, have marked 6 goals in 6 games after 37 Sec. of the League matches. Though Morimoto had to leave the game because of injury caused by a collision with the opponent in the match against Kamatamare Sanuki in the League's final Sec.,the team successfully gained 3 points with keeping its lead brought by Kempes's goal. Chiba, as a 3rd place in the end of the League tournament, has been qualified to playoffs to be promoted to J1.

On the other hand, Yamagata won all 4 games 1-0, keeping the clean sheet (for 390 minutes) to get to Semi-finals.　A head coach Ishizaki Nobuhiro is humble to describe its first surviving as top 4 teams that "We are lucky in drawing, because we had little matches with J1 teams".　However, at round 16, the team beat Sagan Tosu being on high place in J1 1-0, competing well with a higher level team.Yamagata has been consolidated in defence of mainly CB Toma Takefumi and GK Yamagishi Norihiro and gotten out of pinch, showing its ability to concentrate.

FW Kawanishi Shota said "In making the history of the team, now we are aiming for winning the championship" to repay brave fights by defenses which lost no score in this tournament.　The team has kept its good condition to advance to playoffs to be promoted to J1, even though it lost the game against Tolyo Verdy in the final Sec. of J2.　It will make the next game based on its consolidated defense, watching for chances to score lively.

Semi-Final Matches

The 94th Emperor's Cup

Saturday  5 July to Saturday 13 December 2014
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