The Rainy Season has fallen upon Tokyo, but spirits are high in Chofu. With its win against Tokyo Verdy, FC Tokyo secured the first wildcard seed in the Nabisco Cup Quarterfinals. Fortunately with the way that the Nabisco Cup is set up, counter to how most wildcard seeds get treated in the US, this is an advantage. FC Tokyo will play the mediocre Oita Trinita in a home-and-home series, with the first match taking place on July 2nd at Ajinomoto and the second match taking place on August 6th at Kyushuu Oil Dome.
Should FC Tokyo win the series, they’ll take on the winners of the JEF Chiba vs. Nagoya Grampus series in the semifinals in early September (3rd and 9th). On the other side of the bracket, Shimizu takes on Kashiwa and Gamba fights it out with Yokohama FM, with the winners of those respective series facing off against each other in the semifinals. The winners of the semifinal matches will challenge for the hardware at Kokuritsu on November First. In my opinion, Tokyo can easily reach the finals, but if they listened to my opinion they wouldn’t bother playing the matches, would they.
In other news, things are quiet in Gastown. FCT travels to South Korea this weekend for a friendly against FC Seoul before J.League Division 1 resumes. Unfortunately, my game schedule will be interrupted by the only thing that can affect it - my family coming to visit me. We’re all going to Osaka to spend 10 days in Kansai, so I will not be at the following matches:
6/29 vs. JEF United Chiba (J1 R14) - I highly suggest fans attend the day if you can, last year TOMAS gave away free muffler towels on their sponsor day.
7/2 vs. Oita Trinita (Nabisco Cup Quarterfinal)
7/5 at Urawa Reds (J1 R15) - Even if I *could* go to this game I’m not sure if I’d want to.
7/13 at Kashiwa Antlers (J1 R16) - I’ll actually be back in Tokyo on the 7th but photography commitments prevent me from making the trip out to Deer Island.
This is hella 申し訳ない especially since I have no reason *not* to attend any of these matches, but when family comes calling what can you do?
My next game will be the home match on 7/16 vs. Gamba Osaka - yes, that’s right, FC Tokyo takes on Urawa, Kashiwa, and Gamba within an 11 day span. Maybe I can ditch my family on the 5th and at least find a sports bar in Osaka that would broadcast the Reds game, especially since Gamba doesn’t play on the 5th… if anyone reading this has any suggestions for places to go in Osaka, by all means lemme know,
In site news, my exams are more or less over so I’m going to start updating some stuff, including the supporter song section, as well as the page on attending FC Tokyo matches now that I know where all of my screenshots of the Loppi machine are. I’m also going to try to figure out a system where I can order+ship FC Tokyo swag for any fans/collectors who might be interested in such a thing. Good times, good times.
Oh, and I pulled a ticket to the National Team’s match against Bahrain on the 22nd, so that should be fun! I’m not sure what the policies are viz. bringing cameras into the stadium but I’ll do my best to maybe post some pics and video if I can.
Kashiwa is in Chiba! Please do not shame Ibaraki!