League Cup clash exposes a few home truths

It's been mentioned elsewhere, but the worst kept secret from the "Kop-end" at Nihondaira Stadium is true - I'm going home. So hectic have attempts to organise the move back to Australia been that I almost forgot about Shimizu S-Pulse's home clash with Montedio Yamagata in the League Cup group stage on Wednesday night. That probably says something about the tournament itself.

In the end I shuffled down to Nihondaira at the last minute as part of a respectable crowd of 8,245 - and the fans on display were treated to a tolerable affair, albeit one that the tiny band of travelling Yamagata supporters were more inclined to celebrate in the end.

Having brought their physical brand of football down from the north, the mountain men left Shimizu with a well-deserved 1-0 win that puts them top of the table with two-wins-from-two in Group B.

A well-taken strike from midfielder Katsuyuki Miyazawa - who then spent the rest of the game throwing elbows in the direction of any Shimizu player with the temerity to go near him - coupled with an excellent performance from stand-in keeper Yuki Uekusa, was enough to get the visiting team over the line.

But the League Cup group stage has problems - not the least this new two-group format that the J. League has been forced to adopt because of changes to this year's Asian Champions League.

While the diehards generally tend to turn out for any competitive fixture - and the fact that League Cup group stage games are practically thrown in for free with season-ticket packages surely helps - more and more casual fans are realising that the League Cup group stage holds very little allure.

Shimizu S-Pulse and Montedio Yamagata could hardly be accused of not wanting to win this match. Both sent out strong squads, and Yamagata celebrated their goal like it had just won them a league title. But with J1 teams already facing each other on such a regular basis, surely the time to revamp a tired-looking League Cup is now.