Venue selection

The final was hosted in the newly rebuilt Japan National Stadium – the first time the final had been hosted in the national stadium since 2013. The game served as the inaugural sporting event at the venue.

Analysis

Vissel Kobe had never reached further than the semi-final stage of any knockout tournament in their history. Kashima Antlers had previously won the competition 5 times, the most recent coming in 2016. In their meetings in the 2019 J1 League, Kashima Antlers won their first meeting away at Vissel Kobe, with Vissel then later winning the reverse fixture.^[5] Vissel Kobe had a more convincing run to the final, defeating three J1 League teams en route. Kashima Antlers only met one J1 team but on their way unconvincingly beat JFL team Honda FC 1–0 in the quarter-finals.

First half

Vissel Kobe started the game brightly with Andrés Iniesta central to their good play. One of their early chances came down the right, with Kyogo Furuhashi breaking down the right-side and providing a pull-back cross for Noriaki Fujimoto who blazed his shot over the bar. Kobe kept the pressure on and following a surge into the box by Gotoku Sakai, Lukas Podolski managed to retain possession and fire a tightly angled attempt at goalkeeper Kwoun Sun-tae, who could only parry it into his teammate Tomoya Inukai with the ball rebounding into the net.^[6] Kashima were limited in their chances – coming closest with a volley from striker Serginho after Kobe failed to clear following a free kick. Kobe continued their strong play and after Podolski had a goal disallowed for an offside in the build-up, it wasn't long before Kobe's second goal was scored. Former Antlers player Daigo Nishi was offered too much space on the right-side and provided a cross which was bundled into the goal by Fujimoto, following a mistake from Kashima defender Inukai.

Second half

In response to the humbling first-half, Kashima manager Oiwa made a half-time substitution, bringing attacking midfielder Shoma Doi on in place of Ryohei Shirasaki. Kashima played more offensively and managed to create a number of half-chances, but a combination of poor finishing and strong defending from Reo Osaki kept Kashima out. Kashima then changed their formation to play three at the back and match Vissel Kobe's 3-4-3, which made the game a tighter contest and allowed them much more possession and wing-play. However Kashima struggled to break down Kobe and create any meaningful chances, with Kobe's pacey Furuhashi and Fujimoto threatening on the counter. Kobe had a chance to finish the game off late on, but striker Junya Tanaka was only able to strike a weak shot from 6 yards out at goalkeeper Kwoun, after a fine break down the left by Podolski. As the game drew to a close, it was a chance for the fans of Vissel Kobe to say goodbye to legendary player David Villa, who made a cameo appearance in added time – his last professional appearance before retirement.^[7]

Details

More information Vissel Kobe, 2–0 ...

Vissel Kobe	2–0	Kashima Antlers
Inukai 18' (o.g.) Fujimoto 38'	Report

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GK 18 Hiroki Iikura DF 33 Dankler  57' DF 25 Reo Osaki DF 4 Thomas Vermaelen MF 22 Daigo Nishi MF 5 Hotaru Yamaguchi MF 8 Andrés Iniesta (c)  88' MF 24 Gotoku Sakai FW 10 Lukas Podolski  90+2' FW 16 Kyogo Furuhashi FW 9 Noriaki Fujimoto  78' Substitutes: GK 1 Daiya Maekawa DF 3 Hirofumi Watanabe MF 27 Yuta Goke MF 35 Takuya Yasui  88' FW 13 Keijiro Ogawa FW 21 Junya Tanaka  78' FW 7 David Villa  90+2' Manager: Thorsten Fink

GK 1 Kwoun Sun-tae DF 6 Ryota Nagaki (c) DF 27 Bueno DF 39 Tomoya Inukai DF 28 Koki Machida MF 30 Shintaro Nago  53' MF 20 Kento Misao MF 4 Léo Silva  77' MF 17 Ryohei Shirasaki  46' FW 18 Serginho FW 15 Sho Ito  72' Substitutes: GK 21 Hitoshi Sogahata DF 33 Ikuma Sekigawa DF 16 Shuto Yamamoto  53' DF 2 Atsuto Uchida MF 13 Atsutaka Nakamura  72' MF 8 Shoma Doi  46' FW 34 Kotaro Arima Manager: Go Oiwa

Statistics