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Adelaide United's Sasa Ognenovski beats Masato Yamazaki of Gamba Osaka to the ball during the Asian Champions League final match in Adelaide, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. AAP Image/Rob Hutchison
Congratulations to Gamba Osaka for their latest Emperor’s Cup win, which came at the expense of Josh Kennedy’s plucky Nagoya Grampus and ensured that Adelaide United will play Sanfrecce Hiroshima in this year’s AFC Champions League.
Sanfrecce might not be one of the biggest names in Japanese football, but they played some superb football in 2009 – just a year after winning promotion back to the top flight.
They’ve lost playmaker Yosuke Kashiwagi to Urawa Reds for the coming season, but in Hisato Sato they possess one of the most prolific goalscorers in the J. League.
They also have some of the best young Japanese talent around, after goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa signed on from relegated Oita Trinita to join Japan international Tomoaki Makino, the influential Ryota Moriwaki and midfield lynchpin Toshihiro Aoyama at the core of a highly talented group of youngsters.
Throw in current Bulgarian international Ilian Stoyanov and flying Croatian winger Mihael Mikic and it’s not hard to see why Mihailo Petrovic’s fearless side played some of the most impressive football in Asia last year.
I’m sure Aurelio Vidmar knows all about Sanfrecce Hiroshima and their dynamic brand of football: after all, he played for club in the late 1990’s.
Vidmar’s is just one of a growing number of links between Australia and the J. League, which Nagoya striker Kennedy, new Shimizu S-Pulse signing Eddy Bosnar and Mark Milligan will call home in 2010.
Milligan will do so in J2, after he was signed from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua as a replacement for the Shimizu-bound Bosnar, with the former Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets man set to start a new life in Chiba at recently relegated JEF United.
The trio aren’t exactly blazing a trail in the Japanese game – there was plenty of Australian talent in Japan before the turn of the century – but their presence offers a welcome glimpse into one Asia’s top leagues.
On that note, it was wonderful to see highlights of the Emperor’s Cup final on “The World Game” on Sunday, with SBS commentator Vitor Sobral providing an excellent call of the game for good measure.
It’s a pity Socceroos striker Kennedy couldn’t conjure a win for his gritty Nagoya side, although things could have been so different had he got his boot to Magnum’s cut-back with the scores still level at 1-1.
Gamba’s eventual 4-1 victory was masterminded by recently crowned Asian footballer of the year Yasuhito Endo and gave them back-to-back Emperor’s Cup trophies.
It also propelled fourth-placed J. League finishers Sanfrecce into the Champions League, as Gamba had already qualified via their own league position.
But it’s not just at the top end of the Japanese game that links are being forged, if the experiences of former A-League midfielder Naoki Imaya are anything to go by.
Imaya had a brief stint in the A-League with the doomed New Zealand Knights, although he also enjoyed spells in the National Soccer League and Swiss football in a multinational and multilingual career.
The young tactician has just been appointed head coach at Waseda United – currently based out of one Japan’s most prestigious universities, but eventually aiming to join the professional ranks.
However, the former midfielder hasn’t forgotten his Australian links, and next week he will bring his ‘Touch Of Class’ coaching academy to Sydney for a four-day clinic aimed at exposing Australian youngsters to the high technical standards that have made Japanese football renowned throughout the region.
His aim is to bridge the gap between Japanese and Australian football using his intimate knowledge of both and focusing extensively on technical skills.
Imaya’s vision is a reminder of the burgeoning links between two of the region’s powerhouses, at a time when Asian sides are increasingly looking to flex their muscle on the international stage.