The Emperor’s Cup
The Emperor's Cup, Japanese football championship was held from Dec. 25 till Jan. 1. 4 top clubs of Japan Soccer League and 4 top university teams competed by one round knock-out system. Yanmar Diesel F.C. of Osaka won the Cup defeating Mitsubishi F.C. of Tokyo by 1-0 in the final which attracted 35,000 spectators at the National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. The winning goal was scored by Kamamoto at 2 minutes after game started.
Toyo Kogyo F.C. of Hiroshima, the four-time champion of Japan Soccer League, was surprisingly defeated by Waseda University of Tokyo in the first round.
Candidates for National Youth Team
Japan Football Association nominated 40 youth players for the national team which will compete in the Asian Youth Competition to be held in Bangkok in April. They were selected from high-school clubs and were all under 18 years old. Age will be a big handicap of Japanes youth, because other Asisn youth teams are composed of players under 20.
Inter High-School Championship
From Jan. 3 till 7, sixteen youth teams assembled in Nishinomiya city to compete in the inter high-school football championship,1968-1969.
They were selected from 2,000 high-school football clubs in all parts of Japan. After the one round knock-out tournament of four successive days, Hatsushiba high-school of Osaka won the title defeating Sanyo high- school of Hiroshima by 1-0 in the final |
Yanmar Diesel
From the foundation of the club it took only eleven years for Yanmar Diesel F.C. to win the Emperor's Cup, the most important title in Japanese football. The team was organized in 1958 by the workers of the company, but it had been unknown till 1965 when Japan Soccer League was founded. At that time, there were no strong football clubs in Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan, and so the organizers of J. S. L. accepted the application of Yanmar Diesel F.C. to be a member of the League. In the first season of the League, 1965, it was at the seventh place among eight clubs and at the eighth in 1966.
In the third season, 1967, nine new players joined the club and Kunishige Kamamoto who had graduated from Waseda University was among them.
It was promoted to the fifth in 1967 and the second in 1968 getting the title of the Emperor's Cup for the season.
Kunishige Kamamoto, who was the top goal-scorer of Mexico Olympic Tournament and Japan Soccer League in 1968, is star player of the team. He scored 14 goals out of 29 scored by Yanmar in 14 league matches and 5 out of 10 in 3 cup matches. So the supporters are calling the club “Kamamoto Yanmar”. Eizo Yuguchi is another Olympic bronze medalist of the club who is playing as a linkman for Yanmar.
Recently Mr. Kojiro Yamaoka, the owner of the club, received a letter from a young Frenchman wishing to join the club as a player. Mr. Yamaoka, who is also the executive Vice-President of Yanmar Diesel Company Ltd. smiled and said about the letter “Now, we are more famous in Europe as a football club than a highly efficient diesel motor manufacture.” |