The 97th Emperor's Cup All Japan Football Championship saw its opening on Saturday 22 April with 13 first-round matches played on that day.

At the Nagano U Stadium, AC Nagano Parceiro (Nagano Prefecture) faced Suzuka Unlimited FC (Mie Prefecture). While Nagano represent the Meiji Yasuda J3 League and currently stand in fifth place of their league, Suzuka take part in the Tokai Senior Football League which sees their season opening on Saturday 5 May. Despite the windy conditions, two teams put forth a thrilling contest until the very end of the match.

In the first half, Nagano took the early initiative by carefully stringing their passes. In the 15th minute, from the interception by SHIOZAWA Shogo, they created a scoring chance by ARINAGA Kazuki cutting inside the box and coming close to the goal, but his attempt failed to hit the target.

Having their opponents dominate the possession battle, Suzuka looked to counter off quick vertical passes directed towards two forwards Efrain Rintaro and FUJISAWA. As latter commented by Efrain, “Fujisaawa and I stayed forward and tried to win the battles up front, while the midfielders and defenders attempted to claim the second balls to create chances.” Capitalising on the strengths in power and height of these attackers, Suzuka earned a free kick as Efrain was illegally taken down just outside of the penalty area in the 23rd minute. YOSHIDA Hikaru directly fired a shot at goal, but failed to open the scoring for his side.

Thereafter, favourites Nagano gradually regained control of the match. After 29 minutes, KANNO Tetsuya was put clean through by a Shiozawa’s incisive pass behind the defensive line, but his right-footer failed to find the back of the net. However, from this point on, the home side spent more time in the attacking third of the pitch and threatened the opponents’ goal. The awaited opener came in the 43rd minute, as KOKURYO Ippei’s delivery from a left corner was met by UCHINO Takashi whose header created a goalmouth scramble, where Shiozawa contested the loose ball and Uchino at the end of the inside-the-box turmoil bundled the ball over the line. Nagano took a one-point lead to the break.

Looking to find an equaliser, Suzuka subbed in KURAKAWA Yohei after halftime. This substitution worked for the Mie club as they found their attacking rhythm by sending passes to the two forwards as they did in the first half and continued to threaten the opponents’ goal despite another replacement KONISHI Yohei had to leave the pitch due to injury in the 68th minute. Some notable scoring chances came in the 74th minute as Efrain reacting to Fujizawa’s pass behind the backline struck a left-footer at goal and in the 79th minute off a FUJI Yuki left-side cross met by Efrain’s header, but both efforts failed to level the scoreline. After 85 minutes, Efrain created three goal-scoring chances and also made a goal-tying attempt, but only to be denied by Nagano goalkeeper TAKEDA Dai’s fine save.

This scintillating match came to a 1-0 end as Suzuka despite their countless scoring chances in the second half failed to find the back of the net and Nagano defended tenaciously without losing their concentration until the end to protect their one-goal lead. Advancing to the second round, Nagano’s manager ASANO Tetsuya prasied their players after edging a tough contest, “We earned the ticket to the next round. I will give my players full credit for their efforts.” Today’s winners Nagano will face F.C. Tokyo（J. League Division 1）in the subsequent round on Wednesday 21 June. Coach Asano showed his strong determination towards the following match and stated, “We are no longer the favourites for the next round, and must challenge the opponents with all we have. We shouldn’t be afraid of the results.”

Match Details (Japanese version only)

Coaches' and Players' Comments

ASANO Tetsuya, Coach (AC Nagano Parceiro)
Similar to the final of the prefectural qualifiers, the first round of the Emperor’s Cup made us realise the difficulty of playing as the favourites. Looking at their team roster, we saw a very strong team, and they challenged us with all they have with an equally strong determination towards winning. As expected, it became a tough match. However, with our primary concern being the result, despite scoring only one goal, we are content we came up with a win today.

UCHINO Takashi (AC Nagano Parceiro)
In the first round of the Emperor’s Cup, we faced the team of the lower division coming at full stretch and ended in a tough contest. However, I am satisfied I produced the only game-deciding goal. We had stretches where we struggled as we introduced new players and tried out a different system. I must say that winning was the most important takeaway of this game. Looking back at the goal, off my header Shiozawa put up an excellent effort contesting for the ball and I was able composedly put the loose ball into the back of the net. We are known to create a famous upset or ‘giant-killing’ in the Emperor’s Cup. We are looking to do the same this year by beating top flights F.C. Tokyo.

OZAWA Koichi, Coach (Suzuka Unlimited FC)
We were fortunate to have the opportunity to play against the J3 Nagano Parceiro of the J. League at this time of the pre-season. However, looking back at the match, we needed to find a way of scoring while we kept them scoreless. We had several chances but we were not clinical enough with our finishes. Some of my players might have thought we had a decent chance of winning, but including the injury we had in the second half, we still have a long way to go before edging a close contest.

Efrain Rintaro (Suzuka Unlimited FC)
I was thinking we needed to keep the opponents from scoring first, but we allowed a goal off a set play. Thereafter, we created several chances, but were unable to capitalise on those opportunities. I must say I am devastated with the loss. Regarding how we entered the match, we discussed that we would pressure the opponents from up front and steal the ball to create goal-scoring chances. This strategy worked as we, in fact, had chances to score, but unable to convert those into goals, we struggled until the end of the match. Our opponents Nagano had much clearer game plan, while I felt we lacked one of our own.

22 April 2017 (Sat.) ～ 1 January 2018 (Monday, New Years Day)

Tournament Information
Ticket Information (Japanese version only)