“The 95th Emperor's Cup All Japan Football Championship”, which decides the strongest football team in Japan, is to start this weekend, and the first round will be held on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August.

Usually, the first round sees matches among teams from universities or local leagues, but this year there will be two club teams from J.League Division1, namely Montedio Yamagata and Matsumoto Yamaga F.C., and all the teams from J.League Division2 in the first games. You may be able to see some “giant slaying”, which is this championship’s tradition, from the first round. 

Montedio Yamagata (J1), who took second place in the previous championship, will meet Yamagata University Faculty Of Medicine. Although the team are struggling in the 2nd stage of the Meiji Yasuda J1 League without any victory so far, they are keen to win this match to pull themselves together. 

The attackers, who have only scored three goals in the last eight matches, must brace themselves. Yamagata University Faculty of Medicine, on the other hand, are a fairly small team with 30 players. They have been trying various measures in practice sessions to improve the team, and have succeeded in participating in this championship for the second time. How will they play against a professional team?

Kwansei Gakuin University (Hyogo), who beat Vissel Kobe from J1 in the second round last year, will play an away game against FC Gifu (J2). The team retain a lead in the 93rd Kansai Student League with eight wins and one draw (as of the 9th Sec.).

They have YONEHARA Yu in the defensive line, and GOYA Hiroto up front, who have been drafted to play for Gamba Osaka (J1), with a good balance in the team. We are eager to see whether they can beat a professional team again. 

Zweigen Kanazawa were promoted to J2 this year and have been playing well, temporarily staying among the top teams. They will meet FC Imabari (Ehime), who are owned by OKADA Takeshi, the former Japan National Team coach, to get to the second round.

Although Kanazawa have not won a match in the recent five games of the league, the players show enthusiasm, commenting; “we’d like to win the first match to play against Matsumoto Yamaga from J1.” FC IMABARI, on the other hand, will aim to cause an upset with YAMADA Takuya and ICHIKAWA Daisuke, who used to play for Japan.

There will be other exciting matches, such as that between AC Nagano Parceiro (Nagano) and Renofa Yamaguchi FC (Yamaguchi), both of whom are from J3, Nirasaki Astros (Yamanashi) and Juntendo University (Chiba), and Yokkaichi University (Mie) and Verspah Oita (Oita). All of them aim to win their games so that they can play against a J1 team. Please come and enjoy the first round to start the championship.

The 95th Emperor's Cup All Japan Football Championship

Sat. 29 August 2015 - Fri. 1 January 2016

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