Alphabet Challenge | Part 46, Club 22 | Asian Champions League and a Cup Final

An exciting young Gamba Osaka team, led by a mass of outstanding homegrown talents, booked the club’s place in the AFC Champions League for the first time in 28 years in 2064. Manager Trebor Mahtal now faced the challenge of strengthening his inexperienced squad for even more fixtures as they balanced domestic and continental football towards the end of the league campaign.

Despite that, the club began 2065 with £29m in the bank and a £27m transfer budget. Mahtal boosted that by selling six players for £3m, including unconvincing 31-year-old striker Koki Kaneko to Nagoya for £1.6m and midfielder Shintaro Ikefuji to Kashima for £1.2m. They then received a club record £11.5m bid for midfielder Yota Nomura from FC Tokyo, which Mahtal couldn’t refuse.

Mahtal bulked out his midfield with more defensively aware playmaker Marcin Borowski for £2m from Cravovia and brought in centre back Shinji Harada, who’ll retrain to play left wingback, for £3.5m from Urawa. He also promoted midfielders Naoto Tsunoda and Takayuki Nakamura and goalkeeper Osamu Maeda (which means they now have Kikuchis and two Nakamuras in the squad).

Mahtal stuck with the 3-5-2 approach that worked nicely last season. 17-year-old Tsunoda steps into midfield alongside Ales Vorel, while superstar 16-year-old Hiroshi Nagai comes in as the libero Mahtal had been hankering to play at the heart of his defence. And another teenager, last season’s top scorer Tetsuya Wada, starts up top alongside South African Wandile Fortuin.

Second Full Season in Japan

The Japanese bookies boosted their expectations, predicting Gamba to finish 11th with title odds of 100/1. Yokohama F Marinos, who only finished 7th last season, are 10/11 favourites followed by Kashima (7/1), holders Kawasaki Frontale (8/1), Vissel Kobe (17/2) and Avispa Fukuoka (16/1). There was some interesting manager movement in the winter as YFM sacked manager Kazuya Ikeda, who won them the 2064 title and the Champions League in May, and he joined Gamba’s rivals Cerezo, while YFM nicked Kashima’s manager.

Gamba kicked off with a tough game at home to holders Kawasaki and Wada’s penalty rescued a point. Right wingback Takoya Kikuchi followed suit in another 1-1 at Ventforet Kofu, before Nagai’s first senior goal and Fortuin and Keigo Kikuchi secured a 3-1 win at Sanfrecce. The strong start continued with Wada scoring in five consecutive games, including a 2-0 win over Urawa, another 3-1 win at Shimizu and an early brace in a wild 3-3 Osaka Derby at Cerezo.

Gamba lost for the first time at Júbilo Iwata but bounced back with Wada scoring the only goal at home to Shonan and Fortuin followed suit at FC Tokyo. They suffered a surprise 4-1 defeat at Yokohama FC but bounced back with an impressive 2-0 win at home to YFM. That sent them into the halfway point of the season with a narrow lead, but the top four are split by 3 points and YFM are 6 points back with three games in hand. Gamba’s fine form has been led by the league’s top scorer Wada, who has 10 goals in J1 and has shared 23 goals in all competitions with strike partner Fortuin.

Cup Progression

Gamba eased past Blaublitz Akita and Júbilo in the first two rounds of J.League Cup, before edging a 3-2 aggregate win over Avispa. Hokkaido followed in the semis, while Kashima faced Urawa in the other. And Wada’s early goal was enough for a 1-1 away before Fortuin and Wada earned a comfortable 2-0 home victory to send Gamba into the Final for the first time since 2016! An easy run of early games in the Emperor’s Cup saw rotated sides defeat the brilliantly named J3 side ReinMeer then J2 Tochigi and Sagan Tosu. But they exited in the quarters with a 1-0 defeat at home to Nagoya.

Dropping Out of Title Contention

Gamba had a tough start to the second half of the season. They slipped to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to 4th-place Sanfrecce before losing 2-1 at Kawasaki, who jumped above them to the top of the league. But they steadied the ship with a 2-2 at Urawa before Wada’s double led their first win in five games at home to Shimizu. However, they now trailed Kawasaki by 5 points, having played a game more, and were level on points with YFM, who had three games in hand.

The wheels came off somewhat as Gamba focused on cup and continental matters, but a solid end to the season, including a 2-2 at YFM, saw them record another 3rd-place finish. They finished on 71 points (3 more than last season), 10 behind YFM reclaiming their crown with a late surge, after 20 wins, 11 draws and 7 defeats, scoring 67 and conceding 37 (10 more and 1 fewer than last season). The impressive Wada was J1’s joint-top scorer with 19 in 35, with Fortuin 7th with 14 in 36. And Okanishi topped the assists chart with 10, with Vorel and Tsunoda joint-6th with 8. Fortuin came 2nd in the Fair Play award as he didn’t get a single booking, and Mahtal won Manager of the Year for the first time.

First Taste of AFC Champions League

Gamba’s first AFC Champions League campaign for 30 years saw them drawn in a group alongside China’s SH Port, Korean side Ulsan and Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers. The Champions League begins towards the end of the Japanese campaign, with the first group game in September and the final two taking place in the two weeks following the conclusion of the J1 League.

They opened up with Tsunoda, Fortuin and Wada leading a 4-2 win at Ulsan before a tired team struggled to a 2-0 defeat at home to WSW. Young striker Aito Hiraoka’s first senior goal nicked a 1-0 over SH Port before Wada’s brilliant hat trick inspired a 3-2 win in Australia. Fortuin’s goal at home to Ulsan took Gamba top of the group for the first time before signing off with a trip to winless SH Port. Gamba ensured that remained the case in style as another Wada hat trick led a 6-0 domination of the Chinese side. That saw Gamba qualify in 1st place with 15 points, scoring 15 and conceding 6, and Wada is the second-top scorer with 7 goals in 5 games.

J.League Cup Final

Gamba had only played in five J.League Cup Finals since the competition began in 1998, winning it in 2007 and 2014 and losing finals in 2005, 2015 and 2016. They faced off against holders Urawa Red Diamonds in Mahtal’s first trip to the Japan National Stadium.

The final didn’t start well as Borowski picked up a foot injury after 14 minutes and Urawa scored from a free kick 4 minutes later. But Gamba fired back in style as Tsunoda drilled a powerful 25-yarder into the top corner, and the midfielder repeated the feat after half an hour with a delicious curling 25-yard strike. But their lead lasted just 3 minutes as they conceded a scrappy goal from a corner. Nothing else happened and it went to extra time, which Urawa dominated but couldn’t score. So it went to penalties. Both teams scored their first four to take it effectively to sudden death, and new boy Ishizaki sent his spotkick wide, so Urawa deservedly defended their cup success.

Gamba Moving in the Right Direction

Gamba were definitely making progress under Mahtal so, while he was disappointed by the cup final defeat, he was pleased with how his young squad was shaping up. That said, he was a little concerned about how the Champions League knockout stages could affect their league campaign next season.

Wada set a new club record for most goals in a season with his 32 in 50 surpassing the 21 scored by Hidemasa Ohgihara in 2042. Fortuin scored 29 in 51 and K Kikuchi managed 12 in 45, of which just 20 were starts. But a surprise star former was Tsunoda, who led the way with 16 assists, along with 8 goals, followed by Vorel (14), Okanishi (13) and Wada and right wingback Takuya Kikuchi (9).

Mahtal felt like this squad was edging closer to delivering the silverware he desired. But could they win a trophy in 2066? Join us on Monday to find out!