The 94th Emperor’s Cup finally gets into the final phase. The final will take place on 13 December at Yokohama Nissan Stadium between Gamba Osaka (J.League Division 1), who target for the third Japan title of the year, and Montedio Yamagata (J.League Division 2), who look to win the first crown in their club history.

Gamba Osaka have already won this year’s J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup and J.League Division 1 and are aiming to be the second club in history after Kashima Antlers in 2000 (the 80th Emperor’s Cup year) to sweep Japan’s three major football titles in a year. As for Gamba’s past Emperor’s Cup achievements, this year’s win will be their fourth after grabbing the second cup in a row in 2009 (the 89th). Endo Yasuhito, this year’s J League MVP, and Konno Yasuyuki, Endo’s teammate on the national team, lead the midfield as forwards Usami Takashi, scoring 17 official-match goals this year, and Patric, 12 official-match goals since joining the club midyear, are in good shape up front.

Another reason behind Gamba’s outstanding year is their defence. Since coming back up from J2, they have allowed the least number of goals in the league. Since the mid-season break for the FIFA World Cup, the club won five consecutive matches and seven consecutive matches with one loss and one draw between the two streaks. Their last five matches in the season also did not see any loss, which brought the league championship to their hands. Many players speak of their high motivation for winning the triple crowns after getting the two already, while Konno shows no sign of carelessness saying “Even though we already won two, if we lose in the last match of the year, that will ruin our entire year. So we don’t take it for granted.” “All we have to do is to have one more goal than our opponents at the end of the match. We also have extra time and penalty shootouts. I am looking forward to it.” He adds.

Meanwhile, Yamagata also is in the middle of their good stride after defeating Jef United Chiba in the J1 Promotion Play-off on 7 December. They clinched the spot back in J1 again after spending four years in the lower division.

Late in the season, as they kept playing both league matches and the Cup tournament matches simultaneously, Yamagata have shown their signature hard-working and tenacious play style and gained successful outcomes. They also upset J1’s Sagan Tosu in an extra-time match at the Emperor’s Cup round 16. They were without defender Toma Takefumi at the Cup semi-final due to suspension and forward Diego at the league play-off final for his injury, defender Lee Joo Young and forward Hayashi Ryohei took their respective positions on the starting line-up and proved the team’s depth by turning in good performance.

For the final, midfielder Byeom-Yong Kim will not be allowed to play for his accumulated yellow cards and neither will forward Kawanishi Shota, who is on loan from Gamba, because of the contract restriction. However, Diego, with team-leading 14 goals for this season, will come back to the line-up. The attacking end is manned also by forward Yamazaki Masato, ex-Gamba player, and right midfielder Yamada Takumi while midfielder Miyasaka Masaki performs well both in offence and defence. The presence and reliable defence by goalkeeper Yamagishi Norihiro, who headed in the dramatic additional-time goal in the J2 play-off semi-final, leads the team’s defence from the back. Forward Yamagishi, also showing leadership as the team captain this year, says of the contest against his former club “Gamba is a very talented team. It’s up to how well we can match up against them. We want to play aggressively as challengers.”

In the past meetings between these clubs in the league, J1 and J2, Gamba has the edge with six wins, one loss and one draw. As for the Emperor’s Cup, they played against each other three times so far and Gamba also leads here with two wins and one loss. However, at the 78th Cup in 1998, their match at the third round was won by Yamagata 2-1 led by head coach Ishizaki, while the last contest at the fourth round of the 87th in 2007 did not end until the penalty shootouts.

The final match is scheduled to kick-off at 2 p.m. on Saturday 13.

Comments

HASEGAWA Kenta, Head Coach, Gamba Osaka
I think Yamagata has good momentum going and they will play coach Ishizaki’s style of football. I think the key is which team can fully stick to their own style and win. We have been playing based on the same concept since last year. At the beginning of the season we struggled because of J1’s superior competitiveness, but after we started getting used to it, our style of football started showing. In the final, however it is, either playing a great game or playing until the extra time or penalty shootouts, winning the match is important. We already got the spot in the AFC Champions League by winning the league, so all we should focus on now is winning against Yamagata.

ENDO Yasuhito, Gamba Osaka
Yamagata is a very hard-working team, and I think both clubs will put everything out onto the pitch. So I want to play aggressively without worrying about mistakes, and however it is, I think we just have to win the match. In the early part of the season, we had injuries and we struggled. But we survived through that adversity with our collective effort. Other players stepped up at crucial moments for injured players, and we defended our goal through tough stretches. The number of our goals allowed is down this year. I also think it’s very good that we can score goals in many different ways. Winning two championships so far this season has given us great inspiration. Only Kashima Antlers have achieved winning the triple crowns. It’s a difficult thing to do, but I think it’s a great position to be at for our team and for me personally. I want to finish this season with smiles.

ISHIZAKI Nobuhiro (Montedio Yamagata)
I think playing against the J1 champion Gamba Osaka before us moving up to J1 is a great opportunity for us to see how good we really are. Their offence has many different weapons led by Endo. Including the striker duo of Patric and Usami, they have players up front who are capable of scoring goals. I think the key is how patiently and aggressively we can play against those players. We are the challengers, so we have nothing to lose. Having that mentality is important for us to grab the win. It’s the first time in 81 years for a club from Tohoku to advance to the Emperor’s Cup final, and the win will be the first in history for Tohoku clubs. We will represent our Tohoku Region in the final.

YAMAZAKI Masato, Montedio Yamagata
We won the promotion to the J1 and we have a good momentum going for this Emperor’s Cup final, so we will take advantage of it and play well in the final. Gamba are the J1 champions and a very talented team. We will play patiently to show the football we have played all year, and I think the first goal of the match will be the key. Yamagata have gotten better since we went down from J1, and our offence has become able to score goals in tough stretches. We will play hard collectively and try not to miss good chances we get.

Final

The 94th Emperor's Cup

Saturday  5 July to Saturday 13 December 2014
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