Kobe lifted the Emperor's Cup for the second time in their history after a 1-0 victory over Gamba Osaka in Saturday's final at the National Stadium, and Alan Gibson joined Jonny and Ben to recap a cagey game won by Taisei Miyashiro's 64th minute goal, and then chat about potential offseason personnel changes at both clubs (to 39:10).

Then Alan shares some nuggets from his trip to Kashiwa on Sunday (to 45:15), we round up Urawa 1-1 Kawasaki, and look ahead to ACL and J1 Matchday 37 action on the horizon (to 1:00:30).

Then in Part 2, Jonny and Ben hand out Player of the Season awards for Tosu, Sapporo, Iwata, Kashiwa, Niigata and Shonan.

Please follow us on Bluesky!

In another (15-minute) standalone mini-pod, Mike 'The Magic' Innes rounds up all of the big stories from yesterday's Round 38 games in J3 (the final match day of the regular season).

There's also a look ahead to the trio of Play-Off games involving J3 coming up this weekend, as four clubs vie for J2 promotion, & YSCC face the first leg of their Promotion/Relegation Play-Off against JFL runners-up Kochi United!

We hope everyone enjoys the show!

Jon and James begin their big review of the J2 season by looking at the five teams that finished in the bottom quarter of the standings in 2024.

In Part 1 of this episode, the relegation zone comes under the microscope as the boys cover Gunma (Start to 08:00), Kagoshima (08:00 to 12:50), and Tochigi SC (12:50 to 19:40).

Then in Part 2, the focus shifts to just above the drop zone, with Ehime (19:40 to 26:45) and Oita (26:45 to Finish) being analyzed in detail.

We hope everyone enjoys the pod - more review episodes coming soon!

Jonny and Ben welcomed Dan Orlowitz back to the pod to chat about Japan's World Cup qualifying victories over China and Indonesia, and how Hajime Moriyasu might approach more than a year of 'dead rubbers' after the Samurai Blue clinch qualification, which will almost certainly come in the next international break, in March (to 27:20), and also Peter Cklamovski's departure from FC Tokyo, after a year and a half in charge (to 39:35).

Then in Part 2 we round up the two J1 games played last weekend, and look ahead to the resumption of Urawa v Kawasaki on Friday, and the big one: The Emperor's Cup Final between Gamba Osaka and Kobe, at the National Stadium on Saturday.

If you are of the persuasion, follow us on Bluesky!

In this week’s standalone J-Talk: Short Corner, Mike Innes has a full review of all the action from anentertaining penultimate round of J3 fixtures, and a preview of what promises to be a dramatic final day of the regular season.

Thanks as always for your support of JTET, JTSC, and the J-Talk Podcast!

• Join the JLeague chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/p6PVbF9E

Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/jtalkpod

Jon Steele and James Taylor have all the important action from the final day of the regular J2 season, with the second automatic promotion spot and the playoff participants still to be decided. In Part 1, Jon talks us through the matches that decided 2nd place, Yamaguchi v Yokohama FC and Nagasaki v Ehime (start to 17:25). In part 2, James leads a clockwatch roundup of the playoff contenders’ games: Kagoshima v Okayama, Yamagata v JEF United, and Sendai v Oita (17:25 to 42:25). After that, there’s a look far ahead into the future to preview the playoff semi finals (42:25 to 58:00), and then it’s time to elect the final Most Bravo Player of the regular season (58:00 to end).

Thanks as always for your support of JTET, JTSC, and the J-Talk Podcast!

• Join the JLeague chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/p6PVbF9E
• Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/jtalkpod

In this standalone episode of 'J-Talk: Short Corner', Mike 'The Magic' Innes looks back at another big weekend of J3 results as Japan's third tier enters the final stretch. Congratulations are in order for Imabari, as they seal promotion to J2 for 2025!

There's also a preview of the upcoming Round 37 fixtures, and a handy explainer for the post-season J3 Play-Offs and the Relegation Play-Off between J3 and the Japan Football League.

Enjoy the show!

On this week's episode Ryo Nakagawara makes a very welcome return, to chat about the big games involving the top three teams in J1 in Matchday 36.

We begin with Hiroshima's dirty Sunday afternoon at Saitama Stadium, where their title hopes took a massive blow as they slumped to a 3-0 defeat to hosts Urawa, then move on to Kobe's trip to Tokyo Verdy - the champions stunned by a late equalizer but actually pulling a further point clear of Sanfrecce. And finally with Ryo we do a deep dive on Machida 3-0 FC Tokyo at the National Stadium on Saturday (to 1:10:35).

In Part 2 Jonny and Ben run through the other seven games, including some amazing late drama in the relegation dogfight.

Check out Ryo's Shogun Soccer newsletter, and he's definitely worth a follow on Twitter if you aren't already.