The weekend saw Round 2 of The 92nd Emperor’s Cup (see other story) and there were some shocks in store for some J1 clubs, not least for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, who were beaten by FC Imabari! In fact both of the top two teams had a fight on their hands, but Vegalta Sendai managed to beat neighbours Sony Sendai by a solitary goal, earning a 3rd round home game against Roasso Kumamoto on October 10th – when all Round 3 games will be played.

Other “big” names to fall to lower opposition were FC Tokyo (lost at home 1-0 to Yokogawa Musashino), Vissel Kobe (went down 2-1 to Sagawa Shiga) and, less of a surprise, Consadole went out on PKs to Nagano Parceiro. On Sunday Sagan Tosu were added to that list, beaten by Kamatamare Sanuki!

Saturday Sept.8th, 13.00 kick offs:

Cerezo Osaka 4-0 Nara Club at Kincho/Nagai 2nd
Gamba Osaka 3-0 Kansai Univ. at Bampaku
Kashima Antlers 7-1 Tsukuba Univ. at Kashima
Kashiwa Reysol 3-0 Kashiwa Reysol U18 at Kashiwa
Kawasaki Frontale 2-0 Tokuyama Univ. at Todoroki
Vissel Kobe 1-2 Sagawa Shiga FC at Himeji
Ventforet Kofu 0-0 Fukushima United FC (Fukushima won 4-3 on PKs AET) at Chugin/Kose
Roasso Kumamoto 4-3 FC Gifu (AET) at Kumamoto
Consadole Sapporo 1-1 AC Nagano Parceiro (Nagano won 5-3 on PKs AET) at Atsubetsu
Vegalta Sendai 1-0 Sony Sendai FC at Yurtec/Sendai
Shimizu S-Pulse 5-0 Arterivo Wakayama at Nihondaira
Shonan Bellmare 1-0 Ehime FC at Hiratsuka
Tochigi SC 0-1 Yokohama FC (AET) at Tochigi Green
Tokushima Vortis 5-1 Fagiano Okayama Next at Naruto
Tokyo Verdy 3-0 HOYO Oita at Nishigaoka
Urawa Reds 2-1 Volca Kagoshima at Komaba
Montedio Yamagata 3-0 Tonan Maebashi at Yamagata
Yokohama F.Marinos 4-2 Y.S.C.C. at Mitsuzawa

15.00 kick offs:
Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1-2 FC Imabari at Fukuyama
Matsumoto Yamaga FC 1-3 Kyoto Sanga FC at Matsumoto
Nagoya Grampus 2-0 FC Kariyaat Fukui

Sunday September 9th, all 13.00 kick offs:

JEF Utd Ichihara Chiba 1-0 V-Varen Nagasaki at Chiba
FC Tokyo 0-1 Yokogawa Musashino FC at Ajinomoto
Avispa Fukuoka 4-2 Fukuoka Univ. at Hakatanomori
Jubilo Iwata 7-0 FC Suzuka Rampole at Yamaha
Machida Zelvia 1-1 Giravanz Kitakyushu (Zelvia won 5-4 on PKs AET) at Komazawa
Albirex Niigata 2-1 Saurcos Fukui (AET) at Niigata Athletic
Oita Trinita 2-2 Mito Hollyhock (Mito won 5-3 on PKs AET) at Oita
Fagiano Okayama 2-0 Kataller Toyama at Okayama
Omiya Ardija 2-0 Blaublitz Akita at Kumagaya Athletic
Sagan Tosu 0-1 Kamatamare Sanuki at Tosu
Gainare Tottori 2-1 Thespa Kusatsu at Tottori

If you’d got your cash on one of those giant-killing acts at the likes of partycasino.com you’d be rolling in the money now – I hear someone had 20p on Kamatamare over Sagan Tosu The magic of football!

(Image from WikiMedia)