Ventforet Kofu

Japanese second-tier side advance to Asian Champions League knockout rounds with a second-string team

- Mike Plastow

J League second-division club Ventforet Kofu have lived the Asian dream since lifting the Emperor's Cup (Japan's FA Cup) in 2022. Nobody gave them much chance when that win qualified them for the 2023-24 Asian Champions League, but they have since defied the odds by winning their group and becoming the first-ever J2 club to advance to the knockout stage. In the last 16, they were drawn against South Korean champions Ulsan HD.

Ventforet's dream commenced with a spectacular Emperor's Cup run in 2022 under former manager Tatsuma Yoshida. They wound up 18th in the second division that season but claimed five consecutive top-flight scalps on the way to winning their first major trophy, including Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the final. Ventforet also put up a strong showing in the 2023 season opener at the National Stadium, a 2-1 Super Cup defeat to the 2022 J. League champions Yohokama F. Marinos, but that should have been the end of the fairy tale.

It was not. Instead, 2023 was a season of great highs and lows for Ventforet. In the league, they challenged strongly for promotion, only to face final-day heartbreak when two late goals by Montedio Yamagata denied them a place in the play-offs. But in the Asian Champions League, it was a very different story.

Kofu is a provincial city located in a mountain basin north of Mount Fuji, about 90 minutes by express train from Tokyo. The club has no big corporate sponsor but is financed jointly by a large number of small local companies. Though based in Kofu, it regards the whole of Yamanashi Prefecture as its home.

The Kofu Basin - ferociously hot in summer and icy in winter - has long been known for its wine rather than its football. Until the Emperor's Cup success, Kofu's biggest claim to football greatness was as the birthplace of Hidetoshi Nakata, the first Asian player to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or.