In the 37th Empress’s Cup All Japan Women’s Football Tournament, the two semi-final matches were held on 23 December at Todoroki Stadium in Kanagawa. INAC Kobe, looking to be crowned for the first time in two years, fifth overall, defeated Vegalta Sendai Ladies 2-0 to advance to the final. On the other side of the bracket, Albirex Niigata Ladies edged defending champions Nippon TV Beleza 3-2 in the penalty shootout that followed the regulation that ended with 1-1 tie. INAC Kobe and Niigata will go head to head at the final to kick off at 2 p.m. on 27 December at the same Todoroki Stadium.

As Sendai attack with good rhythm taking full advantage of the width of the pitch, INAC kept dealing with it patiently. Sendai’s midfielders NAKANO Manami in the 20th minute and KAWAMURA Yuri in the 23rd as well as Kawamura again in the 36th with her mid-range shot repeatedly threatened INAC’s goal while the INAC defence led by goalkeeper KAIHORI Ayumi tenaciously coped with them.

Then in the 39th minute, INAC had forward TAKASE Megumi head KAWASUMI Nahomi’s right corner-kick to forward OHNO Shinobu, who put in a close-rage header to open the scoring.

Reactivated by the goal, INAC created another scoring opportunity in the 42nd minute. Defender KINGA Yukari on the right flank received a through ball from Kawasumi and returned it to the middle. Although Takase tried to meet it to extend the lead, Sendai’s goalkeeper Brittany CAMERON denied it.

INAC kept their offensive momentum in the second half, centred around midfielder SAWA Homare, who had recently announced her retirement at the end of this tournament. In the 61st minute, Kinga ran up the right side, took a pass from Kawasumi, and fed it to the middle, where midfielder NAKAJIMA Emi was waiting. Nakajima beautifully right-footed the feed into the back of the net and put her team up two goals. 

Substituted forward MASUYA Rika moments before the time-up fired her own shot for INAC and scared the opponents by hitting it off the post. 

Sendai fought hard especially early in the second half when Nakano on the left flank led the offence toward the goal. In the 53rd minute, forward ARIMACHI Saori attempted to score by meeting a left corner kick with her head. But later on they could not sustain their momentum and the up-tempo offence they showed in the first half, which was not enough to outplay INAC. Sendai were eliminated at the semi-final two straight years.

Meanwhile the battle between two Nadeshiko League rivals Beleza and Niigata turned out to be one of the closest match in the tournament, and Beleza’s journey to their second Empress’s Cup in two years, 12th in their history, and also the second major title in this year following the Nadeshiko League championship was cut short in the end.  

Niigata scored the opener in the 11th minute through a set-piece. The long ball fed by midfielder KAMIONOBE Megumi after a free-kick on the right ended up at the foot of forward OISHI Sayaka at the near side, who put it into the goal. 

Beleza started fighting back right after and came back on level terms in the 34th minute. A free-kick was deflected by defender IWASHIMIZU Azusa, which was caught by midfielder NAKASATO Yu, passed to forward TANAKA Mina, and eventually struck into the back of the net by Nakasato’s left foot.

In the second half, Beleza sent midfielder HASEGAWA Yui onto the pitch to focus on attacking the left flank, although Niigata’s collective defence well coped with it, limiting Beleza’s control by robbing balls in the midfield.

With both sides struggling to score the go-ahead goal even in the additional period, the match went into the penalty shootout. Niigata had one kicker denied by Beleza’s goalkeeper YAMASHITA Ayaka and also saw Kamionobe misfire her attempt. Their goalkeeper FUKUMURA Kanae, however, stopped three shots by Beleza to lead her squad to the 3-2 win and on to their third Empress’s Cup final appearance, the first in two years.

Match results

Nippon TV Beleza   1-1 (1-1, 0-0、extra 1st 0-0, extra 2nd 0-0, PSO 2-3)   Albirex Niigata Ladies
Vegalta Sendai Ladies   0-2 (0-1, 0-1)   INAC Kobe

Match details (Japanese version only)

Coach and Players' Comments

MATSUDA Takeo, Coach (INAC Kobe)
I thought it would be a very close battle. We had the shared understanding to defend altogether, but we struggled to catch the attacking momentum. But the goal we scored brought us good rhythm. Sawa was also saying before the match “we can never afford to lose this one.” I think she was pumped up more than ever. All of our players want to make Sawa’s finish the best it can be.

CHIBA Yasunobu, Coach (Vegalta Sendai Ladies)
It’s disappointing that we failed again to advance out of the semi-final. But our players did their best without backing down against the INAC squad, full of national team players. We conceded the goal in the first half in a bad way. We wanted to reset the mood in the second half, but right then we allowed the second goal. The second half, we tried to move the ball too carefully and that made it hard for us to attack quickly.

MF  SAWA Homare (INAC Kobe)
Today, I felt like it would be impossible for us to lose. I wanted to play the maximum three matches no matter what. My teammates let me play the final match. I was tired and couldn’t play how I wanted to play, but with that said I wanted to do what I could afford to do by using my whole body to protect our goal. And I did just that. I want to make my last match a good one by winning that final. I want to finish it with smiles.

FW  ARIMACHI Saori (Vegalta Sendai Ladies)
INAC’s ball pressure was quicker than before. They looked so determined, and we couldn’t deal with that momentum. I felt something that I didn’t feel when I played against them during the regular season. We need to share the common understanding on things such as where to get the ball and when to start attacking. 

NONAKA Futoshi, Coach (Albirex Niigata Ladies)
I knew it wouldn’t be easy against a good team like Beleza, but our players kept staying in it and showed what we had done. In the past Empress’s Cup final, we lost to INAC in the penalty shootout. Since then, we had negative feeling about penalty shootouts. So we have worked on it. Our goalkeeper did a very good job. We laid out our defence not to let Sakaguchi and Hara touch the ball and push the entire defence up to keep it compact. The key to our defence was whether we can have multiple players putting pressure on the ball.

MORI Eiji, Coach (Nippon TV Beleza)
Finishing the first half 1-1 was within our expectation. We tried to charge in the second half, but Niigata played very good defence and it seemed they had studies us very well. When our defensive midfielders had the ball, they often came at us to pick it up. The luck factor comes in when you go into penalty shootouts, so we wanted to finish it in the 90 minutes and didn’t want to go into penalties. We didn’t practise penalties so much, so we weren’t ready.

GK  FUKUMURA Kanae (Albirex Niigata Ladies)
We worked on penalties, so I got into it relaxed, having good feeling, and not being nervous. I was also lucky to get my read right. Even before the penalty shootout, our defence was good with everybody working hard, and we could stop the opponents in the second half after allowing the first goal. We want to keep playing Niigata’s football in the final.

DF  IWASHIMIZU Azusa (Nippon TV Beleza)
It’s our fault that we had to go into the penalty shootout. We had to play within their defensive game plan and we couldn’t get out of it. We wanted to keep playing until the final. It’s disappointing that we couldn’t make the final match-up everyone anticipated happen. It’s also disappointing that this turned out to be the last match to play with this squad.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

Semi-Final   Nippon TV Beleza vs Albirex Niigata Ladies  Highlight

Semi-Final   Vegalta Sendai Ladies vs INAC Kobe  Highlight

The 37th Empress's Cup

Final  12-27 (Sun.)　Todoroki Athletic Stadium/Kanagawa
More information