Semi finals today, other game is Marinos-Reysol, this season the games will be played over a single leg, with the final held at the national stadium next month.Frontale are running away with the league and can afford to give their all today, but the truth is, that such is their superiority this season, that even a Kawasaki at 80% is better than even the 2nd/3rd /4th best teams and when they want to win, they do so and usually emphatically. Their numbers have just been insane, they have averaged 2.95 goals and 2.67 points per league game and could/should have scored 4 per game and that IS what they have averaged in this competition, with 16 goals in four starts. They come into this better rested, with FCT having had a tough game at Shonan Bellmare on Sunday (24 hours less recovery time) and they host Gamba Osaka this weekend in what is looking likely a battle for second palce.

 

This is the least important domestic competition, but Frontale are holders and we might see them at their most motivated today with an "easy" upcoming league fixture and having the chance to put another "rival" in their place, which they seem to get additional enjoyment out of. They are playing on another level and with incredible options and competition for starting places, something I touched upon back in July ........ as potent offensively as they have been, they got Yu Kobayashi back at the weekend and he played 30 minutes off the bench and scored twice ! He was top J-League scorer in 2017 and has 137 goals for the club, few teams in Japan would not be better off for having him in their line up and a team with an already huge offensive goal threat just went up a level. Since returning the 33 yo has 15 goals and 4 assists in just 1,175 minutes of play, which is a goal contribution every 61.84 minutes and he cannot get a starting place in the league games !