The 36th Empress’s Cup All-Japan Women’s Football Championship will start its quarter-finals on Sunday 21 December at Kagawa Marugame Stadium and Yourtec Stadium Sendai. The tournament, which began with 36 teams, now goes into its late phase and sees mostly the Nadeshiko League clubs surviving and fighting for semi-final berths.

Urawa Reds Ladies (Saitama) will go head to head against Iga FC Kunoichi (Mie). In the third round match against Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara (Kanto 1 / Kanagawa), Urawa scored six goals including Kira Chinatsu’s two goals. Their defence was also stellar as they limited the opponents to five shots and zero goal. The team allowed the fewest goals in the Nadeshiko League, including both its regular season and the Exciting Series (Upper Devision) matches. In the match against Iga, defence again is expected to create good rhythm for Urawa to win it.

Another must-see match is INAC Kobe Leonessa (Hyogo) against Jef United Chiba Ladies (Chiba). They also met in the 34th Cup final in 2012, and Kobe squeezed out a dramatic win with Tanaka Asuna’s last minute go-ahead goal. Tanaka played their first official match after coming back from Germany in the last round and her presence was certainly felt as she helped Takase Megumi score her own goal. On the other hand, Jef could not enjoy a single win in the last five league matches, and finally had a 4-0 victory against Fujieda Junshin High School (Tokai 1 / Shizuoka) in the third round, their first match in this tournament. How they match up against each other in this years tournament remains to be seen.

There is another rematch to be played by NTV Beleza (Tokyo), who finished this year’s Nadeshiko League at second in the standings, and Albirex Niigata (Niigata), its third. NTV’s Sakaguchi Mizuho says “In the last tournament, we got eliminated in the quarter-final by Niigata at the same Yourtec Stadium Sendai. This year we will do the same to them.” Niigata defeated NTV 2-1 in the most recent contest between these two teams as well, so they surely are confident coming to this match. It will be either a pay-back by NTV or reproducing last year’s victory by Niigata.

Vegalta Sendai Ladies (Miyagi) will take on Okayama Yunogo Belle (Okayama) at home. Sendai’s Hamada Haruka scored a hat-trick in the third round and Sakai Yuki also scored two goals. Their offence has been in good form after scoring 18 in six matches in the Nadeshiko League’s Exciting Seriise (Lower Devision). In contrast, Yunogo struggled to get goals late in the league matches as they scored only one goal in the last three matches. Arimachi Saori’s two goals in the first match in the tournament is a sign of .the recovery. Yunogo’s rebounding offence will fight for match-winning goals against Sendai and their home crowd.

The 36th Empress's Cup

Sat.29 November - Thu. 1 January 2015
More Information

TV Broadcast

Quarter-Final
Sun. 21 December     Kickoff 14:00　Yurtec Stadium Sendai
Match number 32   Vegalta Senda vs Okayama Yunogo Belle
 Live Broadcast［ NHK-BS1 ］Sun 21 December 14:00

Venue Information (Japanese version only)

Miyagi Football Association　http://www.miyagi-fa.com/
Kagawa Football Association　http://www.kagawa-fa.com/