Pick-up Match

University of Tsukuba (Ibaraki) 0-2（0-1, 0-1）OMIYA  ARDIJA（J1）

All eight Round of 16 matches of the 97th Emperor's Cup All Japan Football Championship took place on Wednesday 20 September, and the only remaining university team, University of Tsukuba (Ibaraki), squared off against J.League’s top-flight OMIYA  ARDIJA at Kashima Soccer Stadium.

Tsukaba have been on an amazing run by defeating three J.League teams, Y.S.C.C. Yokohama (J3) representing Kanagawa Prefecture, VEGALTA (J1) and AVISPA FUKUOKA (J2), before getting to the Round of 16. The match has received much attention as the university squad look for their fourth upset or “giant-killing” by beating Omiya.

Tsukuba took the early initiative as TOSHIMA Sachiro and MITOMA Kaoru displayed their attacking talents and fashioned several scoring opportunities, but Omiya stayed patient and took advantage of their experience as a professional team from the J. League to clear the ball from danger before the university side had a decent chance to attempt a shot at goal.

Halfway into the first half, Omiya started to find their rhythm as they connected passes and built effective attacking plays after regaining possession. Then, one of the key moments of the game arrived in the 27 minute. After chesting down IWAKAMI Yuzo’s right cross, SHIMIZU Shintaro fired a volley shot on the turn and clipped the hand of onrughing defender YAMAKAWA Tetsushi. This was ruled ‘handball’ and Omiya earned an important penalty, where Shimizu calmly converted to the left corner to open the scoring for the J.League club. Thereafter, menacing attacks continued from the professional side, but some of those efforts were denied by the crossbar or the goalpost, and Omiya could only take a one-goal advantage at halftime.

Tsukuba have reached the Round of 16 by displaying their “attacking style of football”, and the momentum shifted to the university side in the second half as they came out strongly and threatened the Omiya’s goal. Right after the break, Mitoma capitalised on his excellent dribbling skills to break through Omiya’s defence and NAKANO Seiya, who already tallied 5 goals in the tournament, reacted to his through ball and created a decisive chance, but lacked the finishing touch to find the back of the net.

After 65 minutes, Tsukuba brought on hard-working NISHIZAWA Kenta to the pitch and this substitution increased the work-rate of the entire team. Looked as if the university side were in complete control of the game after holding midfielder TAKAMINE Tomoki came close to levelling a match from range in the 67th minute and Nakano struck crossbar from 20-yards out on 73 minutes, but none of those sounding chances had an end product to even the match.

Another game deciding moment came in the 85th minute, when Omiya scored against the run of play. Substitute MATEUS cut in from left side and his scoring attempt was initially blocked by a Tsukuba’s defender, but Shimizu slammed home the deflection by a stunning bicycle kick and doubled the lead.

Tsukuba went all out in the closing minutes and looked for their chances to score goals, but their string of efforts did not pay off until the final whistle. Omiya edged a closely-contested match 2-0 and advanced to the quarter-finals. Relentless scoring attempts from Tsukuba had drawn many cheers and created plenty of enticing moments in the game. However, Omiya capitalised on their experience as a professional club to fend off the menacing chances and did not allow the university counterparts to reach the Top 16 of the competition.

Match Report (Japanese version only)

Coaches' and Players' Comments

KOIDO Masaaki, Coach (University of Tsukuba)
Since the Emperor's Cup is a knockout tournament, winning means everything. Although it is such a shame that we lost, I believe the players on the pitch performed at full stretch. Frankly, I wish I could make them win. People commented that we were playing our way to a victory, but we didn’t think in that way. We managed three victories, because all of us did what we had to do. Although I’d like to point out that we did the same today, the poor quality of shots brought this result.

FW #11 NAKANO Seiya (University of Tsukuba)
Simply devastated. That’s all I can say. I believed that we performed our defence as we wanted and started the game well. Despite the fact we struggled to create opportunities in the first half, we shared our vision and stayed patient. So we didn’t feel pressed that much. However, it was my fault that we couldn’t score in the second half despite having several scoring chances. We performed well and demonstrated the 'University of Tsukuba' style of football. However, I just wish we had enough strength to bring a victory to our teammates, who came on a bus tour and recoloured the space behind the goal in blue with our football kits to support us. I would like to accept this result and move forward.

ITO Akira, Coach (OMIYA ARDIJA)
We still have areas where we could improve our quality of our plays. We reacted too much to their attacks in the second half and gave away the initiative. Game management is one of the areas where we need to work on. I’d like to point out, however, that we managed to score two goals and keep a clean sheet despite the opponents being a university team. I’m sure the team have built some confidence. We’d like to bring this momentum to the quarter-final to grab a good result.

DF #4 YAMAKOSHI Kouhei (OMIYA ARDIJA)
Since the opponents were a university team, we had to win. I felt some pressure as people talked about ‘giant-killing’, as if we were already defeated. Although the game was tough, it was good that we secured a win in a knockout tournament. University of Tsukuba focused on the movements of players up front as soon as they got the ball. It helped that I could predict their plays when defending. Despite their goal-scoring opportunities, we did not let them score. It was excellent result, as winning means everything.

【First Round】Saturday 22, Sunday 23 April
【Second Round】Wednesday 21 June
【Third Round】Wednesday 12 July
【Round of16(Fourth Round)】Wednesday 20 September
【Quarter-finals】Wednesday 25 October
【Semi-finals】Saturday 23 December (National Holiday)　
【Final】Monday 1 January 2018 (New Year's Day)

Tournament Information