Official 2014 ACL Thread

What makes this draw funky for the J.League teams is that Marinos, Sanfrecce and Frontale are all alive in the Emperor's Cup.
http://www.jfa.or.jp/match/topics/2013/204.html

Draw scenarios based on Emperor's Cup winner:

• Sanfrecce or Marinos win Emperor's Cup
  • E: Cerezo
  • F: Sanfrecce
  • G: Marinos
  • H: Frontale
• Frontale wins Emperor's Cup
  • E: Cerezo
  • F: Sanfrecce
  • G: Frontale
  • H: Marinos
• Trinita, Sagan, Vegalta, FC Tokyo, or Ventforet win Emperor's Cup
  • E: Frontale
  • F: Sanfrecce
  • G: Emperor's Cup winners
  • H: Marinos

 

Winning the Emperor's Cup means you will have to face Evergrande then if u are Frontale or Marinos...

 

Group F is really tough. I hope Sanfrecce will pull a better play than last year.

 

Should be a pretty big chance Hiroshima and Seoul qualify rather easily from that group, if they take it seriously that is of course?

Mariners have so far not looked the same after Arnold left, and can't see them have any big chance at taking points against Seoul or Hiroshima, especially not away. The 4th team will most likely be Beijing Guo'an or one of the Thai-teams, which both should on paper be an "easy" match to Seoul/Hiroshima. But I guess we never know if JApanese teams take it seriously or not, so anything can happen=)

 

ACL has many flaws

- distances
- pitches
- referees
etc...

I would however still like to see Japanese teams doing well there, otherwise like it or not it tarnishes the reputation of Japanese football

 

Don't expect too much from a team that just went through a managerial change. Also when it comes to the ACL, Arnie has had a horrible record with the Central Coast Mariners.

The distances have been shorten. All the East Asian clubs will not meet any West Asian clubs until the semi-finals. The pitches are not that bad in East Asia. Also AFC can't hire top notch Euro refs nor can the Asian ones improve if we do that.

 

I think they did quite good this season, finishing ahead of Guizhou and Suwon and reaching the final stages. Not too many other Australian teams have managed that. And anyone would have lost against Evergrande in the 8th finals!

 

Aside from Japanese footy being better than Aussie footy, you don't expect a team to do very well when they undergo a managerial change.

Arnie's record in the ACL since 2010:
(3W-4D-7L)

I'm not saying Arnie's a bad manager. All I am just saying is that don't expect too much from Velgalta next year.

edit: Suwon is a good example of what I am talking about. They went through a manager change and they did poorly in the ACL and in the K-League.

 

But that's still pretty good considering Mariners have met on paper far better teams than themselves in 80-90% of their matches! 5 of their losses came against Nagoya, Reysol and Evergrande, all games they were expected to lose by a big margin anyway. The 2 others vs Guizhou and Seongnam, which are also arguably better on paper than what Mariners have ever been?

A quick look at the other Australian team's results in recent years shows that Mariners have actually been the best performing team by a big margin since Adelaide lost to Gamba in the final. Brisbane, who are supposed to be the best team in Australia, havent even managed to pick up a single win.

Arnie did wonders with Mariners I think, and if given enough time, I think Vegalta can improve as well. He's good with young players, and managed to turn a relatively poor club into one of the best in Australia. He's a good tactician as well, but of course coaching in Japan will be a different thing than in Australia, and it will be interesting to see if he can manage the cultural difference.

 

With Marinos and Sanfrecce in the Emperor's Cup final, Cerezo has sealed a place in the 2014 ACL.

 

Groups finalized.

 

Uchida: "Italy isn't that great aside from Pirlo and Balotelli."

 

Wikipedia says the prize for the winning team will increase from 1,5k to 10k dollars this year, but I could not find anything confirming it in AFC website. Is there any true in this info?

 

million not K


But this is really good news. Now it should become a lot more important. Hope 2nd place and semi finals for instance get a nice boost as well.


For 10 mils those flight up and down and karate fights on the pitch might actually be worth

Cerezo might actually be interested in that.

I dont think Sanfrecce, Yokohama and Kawasaki are capable to do much in there or better to say dont have the dept needed to battle on two fronts.

Reds would have that but they were 6th so...

 

When did he said that? Outrageous statement to make imo.

 

during the confederations cup

 

ACL rosters

Sanfrecce Hiroshima

No	Pos	Player Name	DOB	Nat
1	GK	Takuto Hiyashi	9 Aug, 1982	JPN
2	DF	Hwang Seok-Ho	27 Jun, 1989	KOR
3	DF	Byeon Jun-Byum	5 Feb, 1991	KOR
4	DF	Hiroki Mizumoto	12 Sep, 1985	JPN
5	DF	Kazuhiko Chiba	21 Jun, 1985	JPN
6	MF	Toshihiro Aoyama	22 Feb, 1986	JPN
7	MF	Koji Morisaki	9 May, 1981	JPN
8	MF	Kazuyuki Morisaki	9 May, 1981	JPN
9	FW	Naoki Ishihara	14 Aug, 1984	JPN
10	MF	Yojiro Takahagi	2 Aug, 1986	JPN
11	FW	Hisato Sato	12 Mar, 1982	JPN
13	GK	Takuya Masuda	29 Jun, 1989	JPN
14	MF	Mihael Mikic	6 Jan, 1980	CRO
16	MF	Satoru Yamagishi	3 May, 1983	JPN
17	DF	Park Hyung-Jin	24 Jun, 1990	KOR
18	MF	Yoshifumi Kashiwa	28 Jul, 1987	JPN
21	GK	Yutaro Hara	23 Apr, 1990	JPN
22	FW	Yusuke Minigawa	9 Oct, 1991	JPN
24	MF	Gakuto Notsuda	6 Jun, 1994	JPN
25	MF	Yusuke Chajima	20 Jul, 1991	JPN
27	MF	Kohei Shimizu	30 Apr, 1989	JPN
28	MF	Takuya Marutani	30 May, 1989	JPN
29	FW	Takuma Asano	10 Nov, 1994	JPN
30	MF	Kosei Shibasaki	28 Aug, 1984	JPN
31	GK	Teimoshi Shiraoka	8 Sep, 1996	JPN
33	DF	Tsukasa Shiotani	5 Dec, 1988	JPN
34	DF	Soya Takahashi	29 Feb, 1996	JPN
35	DF	Naoki Otani	24 Sep, 1995	JPN
36	MF	Hayao Kawabe	8 Sep, 1995	JPN
37	MF	Kazuya Miyahara	22 Mar, 1996	JPN

Cerezo Osaka

No	Pos	Player Name	DOB	Nat
1	GK	Hiroyuki Takeda	30 Nov, 1983	JPN
2	MF	Takahiro Ohgihara	5 Oct, 1991	JPN
3	DF	Yuta Someya	30 Sep, 1986	JPN
4	DF	Kohta Fujimoto	2 Apr, 1986	JPN
5	MF	Ariajasuru Hasegawa	29 Oct, 1988	JPN
6	MF	Hotaru Yamaguchi	6 Oct, 1990	JPN
7	DF	Toru Araiba	12 Jul, 1979	JPN
8	FW	Yoichiro Kakitani	3 Jan, 1990	JPN
9	FW	Ryo Nagai	23 May, 1991	JPN
10	FW	Diego Forlan	19 May, 1979	URU
11	MF	Jumpei Kusukami	27 Aug, 1987	JPN
13	MF	Takumi Minamino	16 Jan, 1995	JPN
14	DF	Yusuke Maruhashi	2 Sep, 1990	JPN
15	MF	Takamitsu Yoshino	24 Apr, 1989	JPN
16	DF	Jun Ando	8 Oct, 1984	JPN
17	DF	Noriyuki Sakemoto	8 Sep, 1984	JPN
18	MF	Mitch Nichols	1 May, 1989	AUS
19	DF	Yuki Kotani	27 Jul, 1991	JPN
20	FW	Kenyu Sugimoto	18 Nov, 1992	JPN
21	GK	Kim Jin-Hyeon	6 Jul, 1987	KOR
23	DF	Tatsuya Yamashita	7 Nov, 1987	JPN
24	MF	Takeru Okada	31 Aug, 1994	JPN
25	MF	Masato Kurogi	24 Oct, 1989	JPN
26	MF	Daichi Akiyami	28 Jul, 1994	JPN
27	GK	Kenta Tanno	30 Aug, 1986	JPN
30	MF	Gojko Kacar	26 Jan, 1987	SRB

 

Sanfrecce vs Beijing Guoan
http://www.the-afc.com/en/component...ageid=317&tMode=H&view=ajax&show=matchsummary

 

Zaccheroni is in attendance at the Sanfrecce - Guoan match

Sanfrecce - HAYASHI, MIZUMOTO, CHIBA, SHIOTANI, AOYAMA, MIKIC, YAMAGISHI, NOTSUDA, MARUTANI, HISATO, ISHIHARA #ACL2014

— #ACL (@TheAFCCL) February 25, 2014

Forlán is on the bench.

Cerezo - JINHYEON, TAKA, KOTA, YAMASHITA, ARIA, HOTARU, KAKITANI, MARUHASHI, SAKEMOTO, MINAMINO, KENYU #ACL2014

— #ACL (@TheAFCCL) February 25, 2014