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September 23, 2024
Top J-League teams face heightened competition as they enter the newly revamped Asian Champions League Elite (ACLE), where the stakes have significantly increased. Prize money for this premier continental tournament has surged approximately 2.5 times from the previous ACL campaign, now totaling an impressive $10 million.
The Asian Football Confederation has introduced a new top-tier tournament featuring 24 teams, a considerable reduction from the 40 teams that participated last season. The aim is to elevate the quality of play.
In this inaugural ACLE season, last year’s J1 champions, Vissel Kobe, runners-up Yokohama F. Marinos, and Emperor’s Cup winners Kawasaki Frontale will compete. At the same time, Sanfrecce Hiroshima will participate in the newly established Champions League 2, a 32-team second-tier competition, after finishing third in J1.
Unlike the previous preliminary-round format of the ACL, where teams battled in groups of four through home-and-away round-robin matches, the ACLE structure allows clubs to play against eight of the 12 teams in their respective regions—either West or East—when it comes to the J-League representatives.
This format shift means that while teams previously only needed to prepare for three opponents during the group stage, they now face the challenge of scouting eight rivals, adding an extra layer of strategy and preparation to their campaigns.
“It’s hard to imagine (what it will be like),” Kawasaki manager Toru Oniki said. The club’s head of development, Hiroaki Takeuchi, stated, “There’s no sense of unfairness” following the announcement that all Japanese teams would play the same eight teams.
The location of games will be a factor because many teams adjust their strategies based on home and away games, and the vast distances that Asian clubs are dispersed over also contribute to increased travel.
In the East and West, the top eight teams move on to the round of 16.
“Winning three or four games early will help in getting into that top eight, so that’ll be important,” Takayuki Yoshida, manager of Kobe, stated.
Although the ACLE winners will be eligible to participate in the World Cup of FIFA Club in the United States next summer, Japan has not received much attention for Asia’s top club competition up to this point.
Only 12,887 and 16,098 people attended the quarterfinal and semifinal home legs of the Marinos, the ACL finalists from the previous season, respectively, at Nissan Stadium, which can accommodate about 72,000. “In other countries, the tournament is always on television, including special programs before the games,” a source at a participating J1 club said.
“(J-League) clubs also need to work to lift the mood (around the tournament) in order to have more fans coming to watch on weekdays.”
In the French Ligue 1, Reims defeated Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 on Saturday, ending the three-time defending champions’ undefeated start to the season. Japan winger Keito Nakamura scored the game’s second goal in a row.
Nakamura, who scored the game-winning goal last weekend at Nantes thanks to an assist from Junya Ito, scored in the ninth minute at Stade Auguste-Delaune after controlling a low cross from a fellow Samurai Blue winger and defeating Brazil defender Marquinhos.
“I always have my mind set on getting into the middle when Junya gets the ball,” Nakamura said. “Our understanding is getting better compared to last year. I’m super happy (with the goal).”
Ito said he was “glad” to again play his part in his junior countryman’s goal before joking, “It’s about time I get a good cross from Keito too.”
Three minutes after entering the game, France winger Ousmane Dembele equalized for the visitors in the 68th minute. Still, Reims earned a respectable point to climb to fifth place with eight points after five games, behind leader PSG.
As Freiburg defeated Heidenheim 3-0 and Holstein Kiel drew 2-2 at Bochum in the German Bundesliga, Ritsu Doan and Shuto Machino each scored their second goal of the year.
In the 54th minute, attacker Doan scored the first goal with a spectacular curler from the box’s edge that struck the far post. For Freiburg, Vincenzo Grifo hit a double.
Machino, a forward brought on in the 79th minute, scored the equalizer for promoted Kiel ten minutes later by side-footing home a right-wing cross.
“There was a space between their defense and keeper. My job is to get a goal, and I’m happy to have produced one,” Machino said after starting on the bench for the first time four games into the campaign.
“I need to keep striving without feeling satisfied. I look to cut my easy mistakes and keep scoring.”
Koki Ogawa cut the deficit in half during NEC Nijmegen’s 2-1 home loss to Heracles Almelo in the Dutch Eredivisie by heading in off a corner in the 45th minute, his second goal of the season.
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