Post by sandman on Jan 2, 2012 16:38:27 GMT 1
A day late but with not much to do today and still the thought of the Cup Final in my head, I think "what the hell".
The 91st Emperor's Cup final was between two J2 teams (although one of them won promotion to the J1 for 2012). The two capitals. Both old and new Nippon represented. FC Tokyo v Kyoto Purple Sanga. A team of seasoned professionals against a team of kids. A battle royal.
The following write is from the very awesome site: www.the-rising-sun-news.com/news/index.php
Imperial Faceoff on New Year's Day
The Emperor's Cup, this season, has been a very unusual one, turning up surprises galore, few of which could match the fashion-driven drama of Mito Hollyhock's victory over fellow Inter Milan wannabes Gamba Osaka. But few could have anticipated that two underdogs from the J2 would make it all the way to National Stadium on New Year's Day. After overcoming the likes of Kashima Antlers and Nagoya Grampus, few could argue that Kyoto Sanga's run to the final was a fluke. Former NT assistant coach Takeshi Oki justified the high praise that the Rising Sun News has accorded him in the past, by guiding a group of teenaged upstarts and journeyman veterans all the way to the final hurdle. FC Tokyo's advance to Kokuritsu was a bit less astonishing, as their easy cruise to the J2 title demonstrated that they are good enough to be playing J1 football even with half of the roster spending most of the season in the intensive care ward. Now that most of the players have returned to health, they look like a prospect for moderate success in the J1 next year, though probably not quite as impressive as Kashiwa Reysol's jump from J2 title to J1 crown in a single season.
In a slightly ironic twist of fate, not only was this year's Emperor's Cup the first time that two J2 candidates have made it to the final (in the past, no J2 club has made it past the 1/4final stage), but it created a matchup between two team that both have strong connections to the Emperor himself. Kyoto was the Imperial capital for 1400 years, and the Emperor moved his residence to the current captial, Tokyo, in 1865. Therefore whoever prevailed on New Year's Day 2012 would in a very real sense be coronated by JFA and Imperial officials alike, at National Stadium.
The matchup between FC Tokyo and Kyoto Sanga offered the dedicated J.League watcher any number of themes to consider, as two radically different teams sought to establish an advantage in this high-stakes contest. Even the rival placard displays in the two end zones before kickoff reflected a degree of focus and dedication that seemed to surpass any previous New Year's Day final. Kyoto fans organized a dazzling violet-and-white depiction of the Emperor's Cup itself, in the Shinanomachi end of the stadium, with inscriptions on the two flanks showing "Tennohai" and "2012" on left and right respectively. Tokyo fans countered in the Aoyama end of the stadium with a simple yet inspirational sea of colour - blue and red bands dividing the lower and upper tiers of seats, with the supporters' number "12" inscribed across the center. That was just the first of many contrasts on display Sunday afternoon, as if everyone was paying tribute to the fact that the names of these two cities, in kanji characters, are direct transpositions of one another.
Where do you even start in trying to list the contrasts? Sanga is one of the youngest teams in either division, with a half-dozen potential starters who are all too young to drink alcohol legally, but who seem, to have very bright futures ahead of them. Tokyo, meanwhile, has packed its roster with veterans whose combined exploits would fill several volumes, with as many former NT members as Kyoto has rookies. Lucas Severino, the team's Brazilian ace, actually came out of retirement at midseason to rejoin the Terrible Tanuki and fill in for the many players FC Tokyo lost to injury this year. The two coaches both served as assistants to Takeshi Okada for the National Team, in the past, but their similarities end there. Tokyo manager Okuma is an old-school sort, who prefers careful organization and poised defending followed by quick counterattacking thrusts. The poise of his veteran players and their effective defending and quick thrusts allowed Tokyo to win close matches all season long, and they secured the J2 title with two weeks to spare. Okuma's tactics were effective in the J2, but the Tokyo brain trust seems to recognize that a more aggressive stance will be needed to compete in the J1, and consequently coach Okuma announced his plans to step down after today's match. Though there are some potential gaps in the squad which will have to be filled if Tokyo is to perform well in the J1, they are definitely a solid team with good promise.
Sanga's Takeshi Oki, by contrast, is a creative technical tinkerer who prefers aggressive - sometimes even audacious - tactics, unbalanced formations, and constant running from his youthful charges. Coach Oki is famous for his "compressed field" drills, in which he marks off a 20x10 meter area and has players move the ball around quickly with one-touch passes while trying to set up shots. The rules dictate that you can only touch the ball twice in succession, whether attacking or defending. Oki believes that players who have been drilled like this will soon acquire the ability to make decisions very quickly, and thus be better able to sustain attacks during an actual match. Though it took time for the Kyoto players to adjust to the Oki system, the team improved greatly in the latter half of the year and promises to be a contender for promotion next year.
The game kicked off with a considerable amount of pressure from Tokyo, who created two set plays for themselves in the first five minutes. But after playing on the back foot for the first 12 minutes, Sanga broke out to open the scoring with a bit of typically opportunistic and adventurous attacking. A long ball for Miyayoshi through the left channel was finally closed down by the teamwork of two Tokyo backs, but the youngster managed to flick the ball out into open space in the centre of the pitch, and Sanga captain Hiroki Nakayama stroked the ball over a flailing keeper with his right boot. Tokyo responded almost immediately with their third attempt from the cornerkick. The initial ball was sent long to the far side of the box where Naohiro Ishikawa collected it and looped a cross for the right post. Tokyo captain Yasuyuki Konno got the last touch and his header bounded through the crowd in front of net and into the high left corner.
Roughly ten minutes later, a buzz of excitement ran through the crowd as the stands began to rock. A relatively large earthquake, centered well off Japan's Pacific coast, struck right at the game's 25 minute mark, with a force of 4 on Japan's intensity scale - nothing really dangerous but enough to make the fans on the upper tiers of National Stadium cut their beer intake immediately. The TV broadcast was interrupted for an earthquake announcement, and as soon as transmission resumed, FC Tokyo vaulted into the lead on a spectacular free kick by Masato Morishige, which just cleared the defensive wall and shot into the high left corner to put the Red-and-Blue on top for the first time.
Coach Okuma seemed to sense a chance to land a knockout blow, and for the final seven minutes of the half he urged his players forward for a spell of sustained pressure. The older, more experienced and more physically seasoned Tokyo squad tried to use sheer power and numbers to force a third tally and establish full control of the contest. Kyoto fended off the pressure at first, and seemed to have broken the Tokyo pressure as the half time whistle approached, but with three minutes left on the clock a long clearance from Tokyo's midfield sent the ball behind the advanced Sanga defensive line, and Lucas Severino outraced his defender to the ball, poking it past the outrushing keeper and extending Tokyo's lead to 3-1. Nao Ishikawa nearly added to the damage with a long-distance shot at the half time whistle, but the ball caromed off the top of the crossbar and the score remained 3-1 at the break.
Sanga came out in the second half with a great deal of effort and activity in the offensive end, but Tokyo soon responded with a cat-and-mouse counterattacking strategy, with the Tokyo players immediately launching the ball forward, once they won posession, for the skillful veteran Lucas to chase. Time after time, Lucas was able to win the ball, take it to the corner, and wait for help to arrive. It seemed just a matter of time before one of these breaks would produce the decisive blow, and Ishikawa nearly produced it in the 57 minute with a left-footed drive that just barely curled past the far post.
But the short-range passing skills that the young Sanga players have cultivated over the past season slowly began to have an impact, as the second half wore on. The insertion of young Yuya Kubo in place of Dutra, on 60 minutes, seemed to sharpen the build-up work, and Nakayama nearly was able to deflect a cross from the left flank, just a few minutes after Kubo came on. With 25 minutes remaining it looked like there might be a way back for the violet underdogs. But at last the Tokyo counterattack managed to make the necessary connections with Kenta Mukuhara breaking out on the left flank and lofting a perfect cross to lead Lucas behind his defender. Lucas took the ball wide and cut a shot back with the left foot, catching the inside of the right post and giving the Capitol City Coon-dogs a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead.
But the young Sanga players were not ready to concede the decision just yet. Five minutes later Kubo met a corner kick with a thundering header and sent his shot underneath the dive of keeper Shuichi Gonda, cutting the lead to two goals, once more. The Tokyo players were starting to run out of energy, standing flat--footed on the perimeter of their penalty area. This allowed Kyoto to work the ball into increasingly dangerous positions with their crisp short passes. With 15 minutes left, coach Oki threw caution to the wind and inserted Kim Sung-Yong to add some height in attack. In the end, though, Tokyo's poise and solidity at the back prevailed, despite some heroic efforts by the young Sanga attacking players in the final few minutes. The "home" team claimed both the Emperor's Cup title, and with it, a spot in next year's Asian Champions League.
The 91st Emperor's Cup final was between two J2 teams (although one of them won promotion to the J1 for 2012). The two capitals. Both old and new Nippon represented. FC Tokyo v Kyoto Purple Sanga. A team of seasoned professionals against a team of kids. A battle royal.
The following write is from the very awesome site: www.the-rising-sun-news.com/news/index.php
Imperial Faceoff on New Year's Day
The Emperor's Cup, this season, has been a very unusual one, turning up surprises galore, few of which could match the fashion-driven drama of Mito Hollyhock's victory over fellow Inter Milan wannabes Gamba Osaka. But few could have anticipated that two underdogs from the J2 would make it all the way to National Stadium on New Year's Day. After overcoming the likes of Kashima Antlers and Nagoya Grampus, few could argue that Kyoto Sanga's run to the final was a fluke. Former NT assistant coach Takeshi Oki justified the high praise that the Rising Sun News has accorded him in the past, by guiding a group of teenaged upstarts and journeyman veterans all the way to the final hurdle. FC Tokyo's advance to Kokuritsu was a bit less astonishing, as their easy cruise to the J2 title demonstrated that they are good enough to be playing J1 football even with half of the roster spending most of the season in the intensive care ward. Now that most of the players have returned to health, they look like a prospect for moderate success in the J1 next year, though probably not quite as impressive as Kashiwa Reysol's jump from J2 title to J1 crown in a single season.
In a slightly ironic twist of fate, not only was this year's Emperor's Cup the first time that two J2 candidates have made it to the final (in the past, no J2 club has made it past the 1/4final stage), but it created a matchup between two team that both have strong connections to the Emperor himself. Kyoto was the Imperial capital for 1400 years, and the Emperor moved his residence to the current captial, Tokyo, in 1865. Therefore whoever prevailed on New Year's Day 2012 would in a very real sense be coronated by JFA and Imperial officials alike, at National Stadium.
4 - 2
The matchup between FC Tokyo and Kyoto Sanga offered the dedicated J.League watcher any number of themes to consider, as two radically different teams sought to establish an advantage in this high-stakes contest. Even the rival placard displays in the two end zones before kickoff reflected a degree of focus and dedication that seemed to surpass any previous New Year's Day final. Kyoto fans organized a dazzling violet-and-white depiction of the Emperor's Cup itself, in the Shinanomachi end of the stadium, with inscriptions on the two flanks showing "Tennohai" and "2012" on left and right respectively. Tokyo fans countered in the Aoyama end of the stadium with a simple yet inspirational sea of colour - blue and red bands dividing the lower and upper tiers of seats, with the supporters' number "12" inscribed across the center. That was just the first of many contrasts on display Sunday afternoon, as if everyone was paying tribute to the fact that the names of these two cities, in kanji characters, are direct transpositions of one another.
Where do you even start in trying to list the contrasts? Sanga is one of the youngest teams in either division, with a half-dozen potential starters who are all too young to drink alcohol legally, but who seem, to have very bright futures ahead of them. Tokyo, meanwhile, has packed its roster with veterans whose combined exploits would fill several volumes, with as many former NT members as Kyoto has rookies. Lucas Severino, the team's Brazilian ace, actually came out of retirement at midseason to rejoin the Terrible Tanuki and fill in for the many players FC Tokyo lost to injury this year. The two coaches both served as assistants to Takeshi Okada for the National Team, in the past, but their similarities end there. Tokyo manager Okuma is an old-school sort, who prefers careful organization and poised defending followed by quick counterattacking thrusts. The poise of his veteran players and their effective defending and quick thrusts allowed Tokyo to win close matches all season long, and they secured the J2 title with two weeks to spare. Okuma's tactics were effective in the J2, but the Tokyo brain trust seems to recognize that a more aggressive stance will be needed to compete in the J1, and consequently coach Okuma announced his plans to step down after today's match. Though there are some potential gaps in the squad which will have to be filled if Tokyo is to perform well in the J1, they are definitely a solid team with good promise.
Sanga's Takeshi Oki, by contrast, is a creative technical tinkerer who prefers aggressive - sometimes even audacious - tactics, unbalanced formations, and constant running from his youthful charges. Coach Oki is famous for his "compressed field" drills, in which he marks off a 20x10 meter area and has players move the ball around quickly with one-touch passes while trying to set up shots. The rules dictate that you can only touch the ball twice in succession, whether attacking or defending. Oki believes that players who have been drilled like this will soon acquire the ability to make decisions very quickly, and thus be better able to sustain attacks during an actual match. Though it took time for the Kyoto players to adjust to the Oki system, the team improved greatly in the latter half of the year and promises to be a contender for promotion next year.
The game kicked off with a considerable amount of pressure from Tokyo, who created two set plays for themselves in the first five minutes. But after playing on the back foot for the first 12 minutes, Sanga broke out to open the scoring with a bit of typically opportunistic and adventurous attacking. A long ball for Miyayoshi through the left channel was finally closed down by the teamwork of two Tokyo backs, but the youngster managed to flick the ball out into open space in the centre of the pitch, and Sanga captain Hiroki Nakayama stroked the ball over a flailing keeper with his right boot. Tokyo responded almost immediately with their third attempt from the cornerkick. The initial ball was sent long to the far side of the box where Naohiro Ishikawa collected it and looped a cross for the right post. Tokyo captain Yasuyuki Konno got the last touch and his header bounded through the crowd in front of net and into the high left corner.
Roughly ten minutes later, a buzz of excitement ran through the crowd as the stands began to rock. A relatively large earthquake, centered well off Japan's Pacific coast, struck right at the game's 25 minute mark, with a force of 4 on Japan's intensity scale - nothing really dangerous but enough to make the fans on the upper tiers of National Stadium cut their beer intake immediately. The TV broadcast was interrupted for an earthquake announcement, and as soon as transmission resumed, FC Tokyo vaulted into the lead on a spectacular free kick by Masato Morishige, which just cleared the defensive wall and shot into the high left corner to put the Red-and-Blue on top for the first time.
Coach Okuma seemed to sense a chance to land a knockout blow, and for the final seven minutes of the half he urged his players forward for a spell of sustained pressure. The older, more experienced and more physically seasoned Tokyo squad tried to use sheer power and numbers to force a third tally and establish full control of the contest. Kyoto fended off the pressure at first, and seemed to have broken the Tokyo pressure as the half time whistle approached, but with three minutes left on the clock a long clearance from Tokyo's midfield sent the ball behind the advanced Sanga defensive line, and Lucas Severino outraced his defender to the ball, poking it past the outrushing keeper and extending Tokyo's lead to 3-1. Nao Ishikawa nearly added to the damage with a long-distance shot at the half time whistle, but the ball caromed off the top of the crossbar and the score remained 3-1 at the break.
Sanga came out in the second half with a great deal of effort and activity in the offensive end, but Tokyo soon responded with a cat-and-mouse counterattacking strategy, with the Tokyo players immediately launching the ball forward, once they won posession, for the skillful veteran Lucas to chase. Time after time, Lucas was able to win the ball, take it to the corner, and wait for help to arrive. It seemed just a matter of time before one of these breaks would produce the decisive blow, and Ishikawa nearly produced it in the 57 minute with a left-footed drive that just barely curled past the far post.
But the short-range passing skills that the young Sanga players have cultivated over the past season slowly began to have an impact, as the second half wore on. The insertion of young Yuya Kubo in place of Dutra, on 60 minutes, seemed to sharpen the build-up work, and Nakayama nearly was able to deflect a cross from the left flank, just a few minutes after Kubo came on. With 25 minutes remaining it looked like there might be a way back for the violet underdogs. But at last the Tokyo counterattack managed to make the necessary connections with Kenta Mukuhara breaking out on the left flank and lofting a perfect cross to lead Lucas behind his defender. Lucas took the ball wide and cut a shot back with the left foot, catching the inside of the right post and giving the Capitol City Coon-dogs a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead.
But the young Sanga players were not ready to concede the decision just yet. Five minutes later Kubo met a corner kick with a thundering header and sent his shot underneath the dive of keeper Shuichi Gonda, cutting the lead to two goals, once more. The Tokyo players were starting to run out of energy, standing flat--footed on the perimeter of their penalty area. This allowed Kyoto to work the ball into increasingly dangerous positions with their crisp short passes. With 15 minutes left, coach Oki threw caution to the wind and inserted Kim Sung-Yong to add some height in attack. In the end, though, Tokyo's poise and solidity at the back prevailed, despite some heroic efforts by the young Sanga attacking players in the final few minutes. The "home" team claimed both the Emperor's Cup title, and with it, a spot in next year's Asian Champions League.