5 : 3

Ichikawa 1, Own Goal 21                        Yusuke 71, Oshima 89

                       Nishizawa 98, Hara 100, Nishizawa 104                          Jiro 116

So, either way you look at it Shimizu scored 5 goals and the Marinos got 3. Sounds like a cracker, doesn't it? Wouldn't know, MOIST lacks a TV. Not that it would have mattered as, in this day and age when every J-League gets shown, the Emperor's Cup barely makes a ripple on the big screen.

MOIST could always have been a real fan and travelled down to Okayama for the....what do you mean, you don't know where Okayama is? That, you see, is the beauty of the Emperor's Cup. Grounds across the country are booked well in advance so that the country folk can see some of the beautiful game which MOIST thinks is a nice touch but, and this is probably where the JFA panic, wouldn't it make more sense to try and send relevant teams to relevant places?

In Japan most of the stadiums aren't owned by the teams and therefore the teams actually have to hire them for their games. The Kyoto vs Sanfrecce first leg playoff was shifted forward because the stadium was booked out for a high school sports meet the day after. Obviously this has a huge impact on arranging fixtures for a cup competition but I find it hard to believe that there couldn't be a better solution to the problem of having teams travel 4 hours by Shinkansen for no obvious reason.

Or maybe I'm just pissed off because we lost and the season is over.