2015 J.League Cup

2015 J.League Cup
Yamazaki Nabisco Cup
Tournament details
Country	Japan
Teams	18
Final positions
Champions	Kashima Antlers (6th title)
Runner-up	Gamba Osaka
Semifinalists	Albirex Niigata; Vissel Kobe;
Tournament statistics
Top goal scorer(s)	Kazuma Watanabe
	← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 J.League Cup, also known as the 2015 J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup for sponsoring purposes, is the 40th edition of the most prestigious Japanese soccer league cup tournament and the 23rd edition under the current J.League Cup format.

Format

Teams from the J.League Division 1 will take part in the tournament. Gamba Osaka, Kashima Antlers, Kashiwa Reysol and Urawa Red Diamonds were given a bye to the quarter-finals due to qualification in the 2015 AFC Champions League. The remaining 14 teams started from the group stage, where they were divided into two groups of seven. The group winners and the runners-up of each group qualified for the quarter-final along with the four teams which qualified for the AFC Champions League.

Group stage

Group A

Standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
FC Tokyo	6	3	3	0	8	4	+4	12
Albirex Niigata	6	3	2	1	9	4	+5	11
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	6	2	3	1	9	6	+3	9
Shonan Bellmare	6	2	3	1	5	5	0	9
Sagan Tosu	6	2	2	2	3	4	−1	8
Matsumoto Yamaga	6	1	1	4	8	13	−5	4
Ventforet Kofu	6	0	2	4	4	10	−6	2

Source: ^[1]

Results

Home \ Away	TOK	SHO	VEN	YAM	ALB	SFR	SAG
FC Tokyo			2–1		2–1		2–0
Shonan Bellmare	0–0		1–0	2–1
Ventforet Kofu				1–3	2–2		0–0
Matsumoto Yamaga	1–1				0–3	2–4
Albirex Niigata		2–0				0–0	1–0
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	1–1	2–2	2–0
Sagan Tosu		0–0		2–1		1–0

Source: ^[2]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group B

Standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nagoya Grampus	6	4	1	1	12	11	+1	13
Vissel Kobe	6	3	2	1	11	5	+6	11
Kawasaki Frontale	6	2	3	1	7	6	+1	9
Montedio Yamagata	6	2	2	2	10	11	−1	8
Yokohama F. Marinos	6	2	0	4	7	7	0	6
Shimizu S-Pulse	6	2	0	4	6	11	−5	6
Vegalta Sendai	6	1	2	3	6	8	−2	5

Source: ^[3]

Results

Home \ Away	VEG	MON	FRO	YMA	SSP	GRA	VIS
Vegalta Sendai		1–2		1–0			0–0
Montedio Yamagata				0–2	3–1	3–3
Kawasaki Frontale	1–1	1–1				1–3
Yokohama F. Marinos			1–2		2–0		2–3
Shimizu S-Pulse	2–1		0–2			1–2
Nagoya Grampus	3–2			1–0			0–4
Vissel Kobe		3–1	0–0		1–2

Source: ^[4]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Knock-out stage

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Finals

Kashima Antlers	2	3	5

FC Tokyo	2	0	2
				Kashima Antlers	2	4	6

				Vissel Kobe	1	1	2
Vissel Kobe	2	2	4

Kashiwa Reysol	0	3	3
								Kashima Antlers	3

								Gamba Osaka	0
Nagoya Grampus	1	2	3 (9)

Gamba Osaka (a.e.t.) (p)	1	2	3 (10)
				Gamba Osaka	1	2	3

				Albirex Niigata	2	0	2
Urawa Red Diamonds	0	3	3

Albirex Niigata	5	0	5

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
FC Tokyo	2–5	Kashima Antlers	2–2	0–3
Kashiwa Reysol	3–4	Vissel Kobe	0–2	3–2
Gamba Osaka	3–3 (10-9 p)	Nagoya Grampus	1–1	2–2
Albirex Niigata	5–3	Urawa Reds	5–0	0–3

Semi-finals

First leg

7 October 2015

19:04

Vissel Kobe	1–2	Kashima Antlers
Iwanami 70'		21' Yamamura 39' Akasaki

Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium, Kobe

Attendance: 6,162

Referee: Nobutsugu Murakami

7 October 2015

19:03

Albirex Niigata	2–1	Gamba Osaka
Yamamoto 36' Usami 90'		33' Omori

Denka Big Swan Stadium, Niigata

Attendance: 9,018

Referee: Hajime Matsuo

Second leg

11 October 2015

14:04

Kashima Antlers	4–1	Vissel Kobe
Nakamura 16' Kanazaki 53', 74' Caio 82'		21' Watanabe

Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima

Attendance: 10,801

Referee: Kenji Ogiya

Antlers won 6–2 on aggregate.

11 October 2015

14:04

Gamba Osaka	2–0	Albirex Niigata
Endō 57' Fujiharu 90+4'

Osaka Expo '70 Stadium, Osaka

Attendance: 11,475

Referee: Hiroyuki Kimura

Gamba Osaka won 3-2 on aggregate.

Final

31 October 2015

13:10

Kashima Antlers	3–0	Gamba Osaka
Hwang Seok-ho 60' Kanazaki 84' Caio 86'

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 50,828

Referee: Masaaki Toma

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Kazuma Watanabe	Vissel Kobe	7
2	Takuma Asano	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	4
	Ryohei Yamazaki	Albirex Niigata
	Hiroshi Ibusuki	Albirex Niigata
	Mu Kanazaki	Kashima Antlers
3	Elsinho	Kawasaki Frontale	3
3	Kosuke Yamamoto	Albirex Niigata	3

Updated to games played on 12 October 2015
Source: J.League Data^[5]

References

^ "Data Reference Group A". data.j-league.or.jp. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
^ "Data Reference Group A". data.j-league.or.jp. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
^ "Data Reference Group B". data.j-league.or.jp/. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
^ "Data Reference Group B". data.j-league.or.jp/. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
^ "J.league.jp Japan Professional Football League". Archived from the original on 2015-11-25. Retrieved 2015-05-29.

[1] "Data Reference Group A". data.j-league.or.jp. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[2] "Data Reference Group A". data.j-league.or.jp. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[3] "Data Reference Group B". data.j-league.or.jp/. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[4] "Data Reference Group B". data.j-league.or.jp/. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[5] "J.league.jp Japan Professional Football League". Archived from the original on 2015-11-25. Retrieved 2015-05-29.

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v t e J.League Cup
Seasons	1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Finals	1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

v t e J.League Cup champions
6 titles	Kashima Antlers 1997 2000 2002 2011 2012 2015
3 titles	Tokyo Verdy 1992 1993 1994 FC Tokyo 2004 2009 2020
2 titles	Júbilo Iwata 1998 2010 Gamba Osaka 2007 2014 JEF United Chiba 2005 2006 Kashiwa Reysol 1999 2013 Urawa Red Diamonds 2003 2016
1 title	Shimizu S-Pulse 1996 Yokohama F. Marinos 2001 Oita Trinita 2008 Cerezo Osaka 2017 Shonan Bellmare 2018 Kawasaki Frontale 2019 Nagoya Grampus 2021 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2022 Avispa Fukuoka 2023