The Nabisco Cup semi-final (two legs) take place October 7th and 11th, the Emperor’s Cup next round takes place over 10, 11, 14 Oct.

The Emperor’s Cup – despite giving the winner an Asian Champions league place – is getting very little interest compared to J.league, national team (as usual)… but perhaps you should be taking a closer interest in a tournament that saw, last night, two J3 teams knock out two J1 teams, as Fujieda MYFC took out Shimizu S-Pulse and Machida Zelvia beat Nagoya Grampus.

BUT… I have to throw this out there… I know a fixture list is a tough one to keep efficient but Gamba Osaka could well be without any (or all) of Usami, Niwa, Yonekura, Fujiharu, Kurata, Higashiguchi, and even Konno when the national team play their games during this week. Would there be a case for asking for a postponement of the two legs IF (unlikely, I know, but consider the theory) if Gamba lost six or seven of those players to Samurai Blue duty?

As for The Emperor’s Cup, there’ll be some team in the 3rd round hit by national team selections (and don’t forget some of our teams have internationals from other countries, too – Korea, North Korea, Australia, Slovenia, and more) – how can a tournament offering a place in the ACL take place, fairly, when one team or another is at a disadvantage?

What is ironic about Gamba v Grampus, of course, is that the player that got game time because forward Nagai was selected, scored two of their three goals in the tie! While Gamba, missing four key players won the tie, in the end.

Your thoughts on how (and / or when) the ties should be scheduled in the future?