Yanmar and Towa shared a cup
　Yanmar Diesel of Osaka and Towa Fudosan of Utsunomiya-city drew in the final of the Japanese League Special Cup. This semi league cup competition had been scheduled for die first division clubs during April and May when they were without their national players who were attending the training camp for the World Cup preliminary competition. Yanmar and Towa reached the final thanks to their Brazilian Japanese players.

　New regional league
　The fourth regional league in Japan was founded in the 1973 season with six clubs in the Chugoku district, in western Honshu (the main Japanese island). Now we have two divisions of the national league with ten clubs in each division and four regional leagues in Kanto, Kansai, Tokai and Chugoku. The three original regional leagues consist of eight clubs each.

　World Cup Preliminaries
　The Japanese national side did not achieve such impressive results in the World Cup preliminary tournament (group A in Asia) which was held in Seoul, Korea, from May 16 to 28, 1973. However the Japanese football supporters were not completely disappointed, because their younger players certainly put up a good show in the semi-final match against the favorite Israel. They were able to feel that their boys would be able to gain better results in the preliminary tournament for the Montreal Olympics two years from now.
　Seven teams participated in the Seoul tournament : Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Vietnam and South Korea. After three primary matches they were divided into two preliminary groups with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals of the knock out tournament.
　The Japanese team lost against Israel in their primary grouping match which, however, did not directly affect the final outcome. In group league matches, they won against South Vietnam by a score of 4-0 but lost to Hong Kong 0-1. Although the defeat by Hong Kong did not prevent them from reaching the semi-final, they had to meet Israel again in the semi-final.
　This time, Ken Naganuma, the manager of Japanese team selected his younger players, with only three bronze medalists of the Mexico Olympics 1968 (the most glorious day of the Japanese football) among them. They were Yokoyama, Ogi and Kamamoto.
　The other younger players were remarkably activity. With their fast, hard running, they confronted against the short passing tactics of an Israeli side which contained six of its Mexico World Cup squad. Spiegler, who plays for Racing Marseilles in France, and key Israeli player, was well held by the 22 years old Kozo Arai.
　The game was decided by an Israel goal in the 95th minute of extra time when the stamina of the Japanese young players was exhausted. But the spectators and the television audience (live transmission was made possible by sattelite) indicated a promising future for the young Japanese National side.
　South Korea defeated Israel in the final to meet the winner of the Iran-Australian game in the next round, the decisive goal coming after 109 minutes of the second half of extra time. It was the hardest and the most dramatic victory for the Koreans.

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