The final piece of silverware

Well. J-1 has crowned Kashima Antlers for the third year in a row. Kashiwa, JEF Chiba, and Oita all ended up in the bottom 3 and head down to J-2. From J-2, Sendai, Cerezo Osaka and Bellmare all make the move up to J-1.

The Nabisco Cup (The J-League equivalent to Englands League Cup) was won by F.C Tokyo who won 2-0 over Kawasaki Frontale.

The last piece of silverware is the Emperor's Cup. Japans equivalent to the FA Cup in that it is organised by the JFA, and open to all teams. Though, Like its English equivalent, the last time it was won by a team outside the top flight was quite a considerable time ago! (Waseda University was the last non-top flight team, in 1966!)

The Emperor's Cup is Japan's oldest football competition being initiated in 1921, and for large parts of its ealry history, it was open to teams from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Manchurian China. However, today, it is strictly Japanese.

It is run on similar to the FA Cup, straight knockout, with teams from various leagues getting seeded. The prefectural champions, and the collegiate champion make up the first 48, with the top 4 JFL clubs joining the J-1 and J-2 clubs who enter in the 2nd round. The 3rd round leads into the quarters, and son on... Until we get 2 for the finals.

The 4th round was the last round played in mid-November.

(J-1) Kashima Antlers 2-1 Vissel Kobe (J-1)

(J-2) Sagan Tosu 1-3 Gamba Osaka (J-1)

(J-1) Yokohama Marinos 1-2 Kawasaki Frontale (J-1)

(J-1) F.C Tokyo 0-3 Vegalta Sendai (J-2)

(J-2) F.C Gifu 1-0 JEF United Chiba (J-1)

(J-1) Nagoya Grampus 3-1 Jubilo Iwata (J-1)

(COL) Meiji University 1-3 Albirex Niigata (J-1)

(J-1) Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 Ventforet Kofu (J-2)

So, the quarter finals are to be played next weekend (12th and 13th of December).

The draw went as follows.

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It is worth noting that FC Gifu and Vegalta Sendai are the only J-2 clubs left in the competition.

Once the quarter finals have been finished, we then move into an interesting final few days of the competition. The semi finals are played at the National Stadium in Tokyo and in the Shizuoka Stadium, in Fukuroi city, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Then, the final will be hosted in Tokyo at the National Stadium on new years day. An auspicious day in Japan. Everyone has to head to the temples to pray for a prosperous new year. I of course, will be praying now for Niigata to get that far! The club is hunting for its first piece of major silverware and it would be great to send off Suzuke with a triumph after a season of promises!