Japan Football(Soccer) Guide Blog

Tag: Asian Football Confederation

  • Lose Before the Final. Win the Title. That’s Gamba Osaka.

    May 16. History Is About to Be Made in Riyadh.

    Gamba Osaka will play in the AFC Champions League 2 (ACL2) final on May 16 local time — May 17, 3:15 AM Japan time. The ACL2 is a continental club competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Think of it as Asia’s version of the UEFA Europa League.

    Their opponents are Saudi Arabian powerhouse Al Nassr. The match takes place at King Saud University Stadium — Al Nassr’s home ground.

    Al Nassr have some of the biggest names in world football. Their squad includes Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Sadio Mané (Senegal), Kingsley Coman (France), Marcelo Brozović (Croatia), and João Félix (Portugal) — all former stars at Europe’s top clubs. In the group stage, Al Nassr won all six matches, scored 22 goals, and conceded just two. They have been almost unstoppable.

    Gamba have matched them step for step. They also won all six group stage matches. In the knockout rounds, they beat South Korean side Pohang Steelers, then Thai clubs Ratchaburi FC and Bangkok United — to book their place in the final.

    Now Gamba are chasing their 10th club title. Their previous nine are:

    • 2005 J1 League
    • 2007 Nabisco Cup (Japan’s domestic League Cup — a knockout competition for J1 clubs, now called the Levain Cup)
    • 2008 AFC Champions League
    • 2008 Emperor’s Cup (Japan’s oldest cup competition, open to both professional and amateur teams — similar to England’s FA Cup)
    • 2009 Emperor’s Cup
    • 2014 Nabisco Cup
    • 2014 J1 League
    • 2014 Emperor’s Cup
    • 2015 Emperor’s Cup

    A win on May 16 would also be Gamba’s first Asian title in 17 years, since their 2008 ACL triumph.

    Gamba Lost — Six Days Before the Final

    With six days until the ACL2 final, Gamba played a home match in Matchday 16 of the Meiji Yasuda J1 League — Japan’s top division — against Sanfrecce Hiroshima on May 10.

    They lost 0–1. A defeat, six days before the biggest game of their season.

    You’d be forgiven for worrying. But Gamba fans know something the rest of the world might not.

    Gamba Osaka almost always lose — or fail to win — the match right before they lift a trophy. And then they lift the trophy.

    This is not a coincidence. History proves it.

    2005 J1 League: First Title, After Three Straight Defeats

    Gamba’s trophy-winning story begins with the 2005 J1 League title.

    They started the season slowly. But from July, they went on a long winning run and climbed to the top of the table in September. It looked like they would hold on.

    They didn’t.

    In November, they lost three matches in a row. After the third defeat — against JEF United Chiba in Matchday 33 — Gamba dropped out of first place.

    Matchday 34 was the final day of the season. Five clubs still had a chance to win the title.

    Gamba beat Kawasaki Frontale. Meanwhile, league leaders Cerezo Osaka needed only a draw to be champions — but Yasuyuki Konno, a defensive midfielder from FC Tokyo (a man who would join Gamba himself seven years later), scored a last-minute equaliser. Cerezo drew. Gamba moved above them on points.

    The title was theirs.

    Three defeats in a row. Then a miraculous first championship.

    2007 Nabisco Cup: Lose on Saturday, Celebrate the Next Weekend

    The Nabisco Cup is Japan’s domestic League Cup. It is a knockout competition for J1 clubs, similar to England’s Carabao Cup. (The competition was renamed the Levain Cup in 2016.)

    In the 2007 Nabisco Cup final, Gamba faced Kawasaki Frontale.

    One week before the final — on October 27 — Gamba lost a league match to Shimizu S-Pulse.

    Then, on November 3, they walked out at the National Olympic Stadium (the old one, built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics — not the current venue), beat Kawasaki 1–0, and lifted the trophy.

    2008 AFC Champions League: Beaten Mid-Week, Asian Champions by Month’s End

    In 2008, Gamba reached the AFC Champions League final for the first time. Their opponents were Australian club Adelaide United.

    Three days after losing to Shimizu S-Pulse in a league match on October 26, Gamba hosted Adelaide in the first leg of the final at home — and won 3–0.

    Three days after that, they returned to J1 League duty and were beaten heavily by FC Tokyo. Center back Sota Nakazawa was out with a back injury, so defensive midfielder Tomokazu Myojin had to step into the defensive line. The team was far from full strength.

    It didn’t matter. On November 12, Gamba flew to Australia for the second leg and won 2–0. The aggregate score was 5–0. Gamba Osaka were champions of Asia.

    2014 Nabisco Cup: The Fans Sang — and the Players Responded

    The 2014 season was Gamba’s first year back in J1 after spending a season in J2. (In Japan’s football pyramid, clubs are promoted to J1 or relegated to J2 based on their final league position. J2 is the second division, similar to England’s Championship.)

    Gamba chased league leaders Urawa Reds hard that season. But on November 2, they conceded a last-minute equaliser against Vegalta Sendai. It felt like a defeat.

    The Gamba fans inside the stadium did not boo. They did not panic. After the final whistle, they began to sing — chanting “Grab the cup!” — to lift the players.

    Six days later, Gamba faced Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the Nabisco Cup final. They went 0–2 down. Then they scored three goals and won 3–2. A stunning comeback.

    History Repeats Itself

    The pattern is clear. Before almost every Gamba title, the club loses — or at least fails to win — in the match immediately before the final.

    (There are some exceptions. Competitions like the Emperor’s Cup have many matches concentrated at the end of the year, so the pattern does not always apply there. But in the cases above, it holds almost every time.)

    The 0–1 loss to Sanfrecce Hiroshima on May 10 is not a reason for alarm.

    For fans who know Gamba’s history, it might actually feel like a good sign. Sound familiar? It should.

    Playing Al Nassr — a squad full of global superstars, on their own pitch, with their own fans — will not be easy.

    But Gamba Osaka did something very similar in 2008, in Australia, against Adelaide United. Now, under Head Coach Jens Wissing, they travel to Riyadh carrying 17 years of ambition.

    Gamba Osaka win when it matters. That is who they are.

    This article is written for overseas football fans who are new to the J.League.

  • Gamba Osaka vs Al-Nassr — A Final Like No Other(ACL2)

    The Two Finalists Are Set

    The two clubs that will meet in the AFC Champions League 2 (ACL2) final for the 2025/26 season have been decided.

    The ACL2 is the second-biggest club competition run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is similar to the UEFA Europa League in European football.

    From the East zone, Gamba Osaka (Japan, J1 League) advanced to the final. From the West zone, Al-Nassr (Saudi Arabia, Saudi Pro League) claimed their spot. The two clubs will face each other on May 16.

    Two Clubs From Very Different Worlds

    There is a huge gap between these two clubs in terms of financial size.

    Gamba Osaka’s total revenue for the 2024 season was approximately ¥7.2 billion (around $50 million / approx. €44 million). This ranked sixth in the entire J1 League — Japan’s top professional football division — and was the highest figure in the club’s history.

    Al-Nassr, on the other hand, is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), a government-owned investment fund. The club’s estimated value in 2024 was around $1 billion (approx. ¥150 billion). Their reported annual player wage bill is approximately €364 million (approx. ¥60 billion / around $419 million). That is roughly 13 times Gamba Osaka’s entire annual revenue.

    Al-Nassr’s squad includes global superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mané, and Kingsley Coman.

    Please note: Full financial details for both clubs are not always made public. The figures above are estimates based on available official reports and media sources.

    Group Stage: Both Clubs Won All Six Games

    In the group stage — a round-robin format where each club plays against all others in their group — both Gamba Osaka and Al-Nassr won all six of their matches. They started from the same point.

    However, once the knockout rounds began — where one loss ends your tournament — the two clubs took very different paths.

    Al-Nassr: Dominant and Unstoppable

    Al-Nassr showed consistent, powerful football through the Round of 16, the quarterfinals, and the semifinals.

    In the quarterfinals, they defeated Al-Wasl (UAE) 4–0. Ronaldo scored his first goal of the tournament, and manager Jorge Jesus’s side showed no weaknesses at all.

    In the semifinals, Kingsley Coman scored a hat-trick — three goals in a single match — as Al-Nassr crushed Al-Ahli (Qatar) 5–1.

    They dominated every opponent in the West zone.

    Gamba Osaka: Surviving Crisis After Crisis

    Gamba Osaka’s journey looked completely different. They won matches, but they were pushed to the edge again and again.

    Round of 16 vs. Pohang Steelers (South Korea)

    This round used a two-legged format — each club plays one home match and one away match, and the winner is decided by the total goals scored across both games. Gamba won one leg and drew the other to advance. But in the closing moments of the second leg, Pohang nearly scored a late equaliser. A VAR check — a video review by the Video Assistant Referee — ruled the goal out. Gamba survived by the narrowest of margins.

    Quarterfinals

    After both legs, the scores were level. The tie went to extra time — two additional 15-minute periods played when the match is still level after the standard 90 minutes. Gamba scored the winning goal in extra time to advance.

    Semifinals

    Gamba lost the first leg at home. But they turned it around in the away second leg, winning on aggregate — total goals over both matches — to reach the final. It was a true comeback from the edge of elimination.

    Two Opposites Meet in the Final

    The financial difference between these clubs is enormous. Their paths to the final have also been completely different.

    Al-Nassr brought a squad of superstars and won comfortably in each round. Gamba Osaka fought through difficult moments, relying on teamwork and never giving up.

    This final may be more than just a football match. It asks a deeper question about the sport: What can money buy — and what can it not?

    The final takes place on May 16. A J1 League club will face the big money of Asian football head-on.

    About ACL2: The AFC Champions League 2 launched in 2021 with a new format. Clubs from leagues across Asia compete through a group stage and then a knockout tournament. The highest-level club competition in Asian football is the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE). The ACL2 sits one level below that.