The 2022 AFC Champions League East Asian Group stage will begin on April 20 in Thailand. Last year's Nippon Professional League champions Kawasaki Frontale, runners-up Yokohama Marinos and Emperor's Cup winners Urawa Red Diamonds all qualified for the group stage, while last year's Nippon Professional League third-place finishers Kobe Victory beat Australian representative Melbourne Victory in the play-offs to qualify for this year's group stage.
As for Hong Kong Premier League champions Jiezhi, they are in Group J, just like Kobe Victory, and will face each other in a Hong Kong-Japan clash. Hong Kong and Japan are both in the East Asian region. Before the AFC Champions League was reformed, the two clubs had already played each other in the old Asian Champions Club Cup and Asian Cup Winners' Cup, and many classic matches had been created, so let's take a look at three of them.
1993-94 Asian Champions League Tohoku 1:0 Kawasaki Yomiuri
In the first round of the knockout stage of the East Asian Cup, Hong Kong's representatives Orient will face the representative of the Nippon Professional League, Kawasaki Yomiuri, at the Mongkok Stadium. The hosts, Orient, started the Orient dynasty in the 1992-1993 season, and many of their starters were at their peak in the match against Kawasaki Yomiuri. Even though they could only use three foreigners, namely Bryan Tambasi, Richen and Osha, their strength is still intact. As for Kawasaki Yomiuri, many Japanese internationals were absent in that match, and only three internationals in the squad, Bismarck, Nakamura Tadashi and Kikuchi Shinkichi, were in the squad, which weakened their strength a lot.
The Mongkok Stadium was fully packed on that day, adding to the hot atmosphere of the match. The match started on an even keel, with Kawasaki Yomiuri's midfielder Bismarck creating few threatening attacks, but unfortunately, Yoshinori Abe and Shinji Fujiyoshi's strikers' efforts were all deflected by Orient's goalkeeper, Kenny Tong. As for Orient, the pair of arrows Tan Baxi and Richen also brought a lot of threats to Kawasaki Yomiuri's defense thanks to the feeds from Tan Siu Wai and Lee Kin Wo, but they were also unable to break through the Japanese international goalkeeper at that time, Kikuchi Shinkichi. The two sides exchanged a half-time draw.
Kawasaki Yomiuri had a golden opportunity in the second half, when Shinji Fujiyoshi's shot was saved by Orient's defense center Jo Toshiaki. Orient's attack intensified as Richen and Li Jianhua's shots were not successful, but it was a warning to Yomiuri's defense. At 20 minutes into the second half, Zhao Junming took advantage of Yomiuri's poor clearance and fired a shot from the top of the box into the corner of the net, which Kikuchi Shinkichi could not save, giving Orient a 1-0 lead.
After the record was opened, Yomiuri's offense was strengthened, but the strikers did not have enough power to grasp the situation. On the contrary, Orient's offense did not weaken after taking the lead, Lee Kin Wo, Tam Siu Wai had a goal in the middle of the goal, and Osha had a fraudulent goal at the end of the match, which failed to add to Orient's record. As a result, Orient beat Kawasaki Yomiuri 1-0 in the first leg.
Kawasaki Yomiuri, however, returned to the Tokyo National Stadium to defeat Orient 3-1 in the second leg, making it 3-2 on aggregate to advance to the final week of the Asian Champions League Cup. Orient's defeat proved that the Hong Kong side are still capable of competing with the JSL clubs at home, kicking off more classic matches in the future.
2001-02 Asian Cup Champions Cup Nanhua 3:2 Shimizu S Pulse
South China played in the 2001-2002 Asian Cup Champions League as the champion of the Cup, and met Japan's representative, Shimizu S Pulse, in the second round of the East Asia Regional Tournament. The Japanese league was gaining popularity in Hong Kong at the time, and South China's strong appeal in Hong Kong attracted more than 10,000 fans to the match.
Shimizu Heartbeat's lineup in Hong Kong was quite impressive, with six international players in the squad, namely Lord Santo, Teruyuki Ito, Kazuyuki Toda, Takuzo Morioka, Daisuke Ichikawa, and Masao Sawaden, which shows the seriousness of their attitude. South China's lineup is not weak either, with familiar names such as Lee Kin Wo, Au Wai Lun and Cheng Siu Chung in the lineup, as well as three foreign players such as Gonzalo, Senno and Yan Ma Tian.
It took only 8 minutes for South China to open the record, Sham Kwok Pui's long ball was lifted into the penalty area, Au Wai Lun's head hammer passed to Zhen Ma Tian, and the Slovakian shooter took advantage of Shimizu S Pulse keeper Kurokawa Takaya's mistake to score into the empty goal and open the record for South China first.
Shimizu S Pulse started to counterattack immediately, and left midfielder Santos put pressure on Nanhua's defense with many threatening attacks. In the 39th minute, Santos took a penalty kick from the left side of the field, and the center forward Barang was able to beat Gonzalo to the net to tie the game at 1-1, and ended the first half with this record.
Although Shimizu S Pulse was the first to fall behind, they controlled the game with better quality, however, South China's counter-attacks were also very threatening, making the battle very tight. In the 53rd minute, South China won a penalty kick in front of the goal and Yan Ma Tian shot the ball through the goal of Shimizu Heartbeat, giving South China the lead again.
Shimizu Heartbeat was still in shock and conceded another goal after 5 minutes. Shimizu Heartbeat's defense center Kazuyuki Toda made a mistake at the top of the penalty area, and Chung Siu Chung took advantage of the situation and hit a second pass to Yan Ma Tian, who scored a hat-trick and gave South China a 3-1 lead, bringing the atmosphere of the match to a climax.
Shimizu Heartbeats were trying to recover the lost ground in the remaining time so as to avoid a more difficult game in the next round. Barang and then Santo's penalty kick hit the crossbar, which sounded the alarm for South China's defense. In the extra time, Barang's header and pass to Kohei Hiramatsu, who was unmarked in the penalty area, made it 2-3 for Shimizu Heartbeat.
Despite the pressure at the end of the game, South China was able to hold on to win the game and was awarded the Asia
soccer league
South China was voted as the best team of November 2001 in Asia. However, South China failed to relive their old dream in the next round when they visited Shimizu S Pulse, and eventually lost 0-6 to Shimizu S Pulse after Gonzalo was sent off and played with 10 men for most of the match. Although there was already a clear power gap between the J-League club and the Hong Kong club at that time, South China managed to capitalize on their chances of pulling off a shocking upset at home, resulting in another classic match.
Asian League Champions Cup 2018 Jiezhi 1:0 Kashiwa Reysol
The Hong Kong Football Club once again qualified for the AFC Champions League group stage in the 2017 season, when the Oriental Dragon Lions forced Kawasaki Striker to a draw at home, proving Hong Kong's home power, and Jiezhi even produced amazing results in the 2018 season. Jiezhi and Kashiwa Reysol were placed in Group E of the 2018 AFC Champions League. In the first round of the group stage, Kashiwa Reysol narrowly beat Jiezhi 1-0, which proved that there is not much difference between the two sides' strengths. In the second round, Jiezhi will continue to play at home with a strong lineup, including former Ballon d'Or winner Koran, who used to play for Osaka Sakura, while Kashiwa Reysol will start the match with a substitutes-based lineup, with international players such as Junya Ito, KIM Po-Kyung, Hosokabe Moe, and Nakamura Kousuke in the back-ups.
In just 14 minutes of the match, Kashiwa Reysol had to face a tough battle, as Ryoishi Kamekawa was sent off for blocking a single shot by Alex, and the visitors had to play with 10 men for the rest of the match. Though they were down a man, Berbice still took the initiative in the first half, with a threatening goal from Jiu soon after, while Jiezhi also had a shot from Koran in the evening. Both sides exchanged a scoreless draw at half time.
In the second half of the match, Jiezhi took the initiative with one more player. Although Kashiwa Reysol was under pressure, they still managed to create a dangerous situation in front of Jie Zhi's goal, but Ramon Rebis missed the chance. However, Ramon Rebis missed the target. Later on, Jiezhi's substitution of Jordy saved a lot of attacking power for the team, while the visiting team also substitutes Jinya Ito and Kristan Taschwald to strengthen the attacking power, but both sides are still weak in breaking the goal.
In stoppage time, substitute Cheng Chin-lung scored a Robin's World Cup goal from the right corner of the pitch, which was beyond the reach of Kirihata Kazushige, the goalkeeper of Kashiwa Reysol. Jiezhi won the match against Kashiwa Reysol with Zheng's goal, which was the first win for a Hong Kong team in the group stage of the AFC Champions League.
Zheng Zhanlong's goal was voted as the best goal of the tournament that year, leaving a good memory for himself. On the other hand, Kashiwa Reysol was getting worse and worse that year and eventually landed in the J-League, but fortunately, they were able to save face by returning to the J-League after just one season.
Of course, the above three matches are just the tip of the iceberg of Hong Kong and Japanese football clubs' encounters, and I believe all fans have their own unforgettable moments in their hearts. It's true that the JLF clubs are stronger than the Hong Kong Premier League clubs, but when it comes to Cup matches, there are always unexpected battles that make up the heart-stopping moments. Jiezhi has the experience of defeating Kashiwa Reysol, and also drew with Cerezo Osaka in last year's group stage. In this year's tournament, Jiezhi will have the chance to face Kobe Sakuradon with Ennistar in the lineup, which is something to look forward to. If you want to see how the match between Kobe Victory and Jiezhi will go, remember to pay attention to the AFC Champions League matches on April 19th and May 1st!
This week's JLF live streaming schedule:
April 9, 6:00pm Kawasaki Striker vs. Kashiwa Reysol Cable 601/661
April 10, 1:00pm FC Tokyo vs Urawa Red Diamonds Cable 602/662
April 10, 1:00 p.m. Kobe Victory vs. Osaka Sakura Cable TV 604/664
April 10, 2:00 p.m. Nagoya Whale vs. Sapporo Gonzaga Cable 601/661
This week's Sunday B live streaming schedule:
April 9, 12:00 p.m. Iwate Morioka Senzuru vs. Gunma Kusatsu Onsen Cable TV 601/661
April 9, 4:00 pm FC Ryukyu vs. Okayama Green Pheasant Cable TV 601/661
*Live broadcast time to be announced by the TV station
JLF Pick of the Month (March):
