The curtain raiser for the 2023 Japanese football season is here - it’s Meiji Yasuda J1 League champion Yokohama F·Marinos vs. Emperor’s Cup winner Ventforet Kofu in the Fujifilm Super Cup at Japan National Stadium.

Here’s what to watch for as the two teams get set to kick off the new season.

The giant slayers take on another goliath

Ventforet earned their spot in the Super Cup by beating five straight top flight opponents to become the first J2 team to win the Emperor’s Cup since 2011.

Now, to kick off 2023, Ventforet get to take on the country’s best team of 2022 in Marinos.

Can they take down the biggest, baddest team they’ve faced yet? After their run to win their first major trophy last season, it would be foolish to write them off.

A first-time Super Cup winner

Marinos have been to the Fujifilm Super Cup on five previous occasions, but they have never won it. They’ve lost in each of their trips, most painfully in 2004, 2005 and 2020, when they were beaten on penalty kicks.

This will mark Ventforet’s first trip to Japan’s kick off spectacular, having just won their first-ever major trophy, so they’ve never lifted the Super Cup either.

Whoever holds the trophy above their head at the National Stadium will be a first-time winner.

How do new-look Marinos fare

Unfortunately, when you have an outstanding team, other clubs want your great players. Marinos learned that this winter, when reigning J.League Player of the Year Tomoki Iwata made the move to Europe with Celtic FC in the Scottish Premiership. Joint-leading scorer Léo Ceará also left the club, joining Cerezo Osaka, while Teruhito Nakagawa went to F.C.Tokyo.

The Tricolor lost a lot of great players, but they didn’t stand pat, bringing in Kenta Inoue, Takumi Kamijima, Asahi Uenaka and Yan to help replenish the squad.

Kevin Muscat loves to rotate his squad and keep players fresh throughout the season so the whole roster is crucial to their success. The Super Cup will be the first look we get at Marinos with so many great players gone, and a host of new players in. Let’s see how they look to start the 2023 campaign.

A breakthrough season for Kofu?

Ventforet haven’t been in J1 since 2017, but they’ve had plenty of reason for optimism lately.

In 2019 and 2020 they were just on the edges of promotion back to J1 and in 2021 they got even closer, making it to third place and missing out by a mere four points. Last season saw them tumble down the table, but they won the Emperor’s Cup for their first major trophy, showing that they can compete with anyone.

With a shiny piece of silverware in their trophy case, and maybe a Super Cup to add to it, could Ventforet take momentum into J2 and book their place in the top flight this season?

Goals, goals, goals

The Fujifilm Super Cup has been played since 1994 and as we get ready for the 30th edition of Japan’s showcase season kick off event, there still hasn’t been a scoreless match. In fact, there’s only been two 1-0 scorelines, a number far exceeded by the nine times the Super Cup has gone to penalty kicks.

The Fujifilm Super Cup has averaged 3.13 goals per game and there’s no reason to think that changes this season.

If you want goals and excitement, just tune into the Fujifilm Super Cup 2023 on February 11 at 1:35 pm JST on the J.League International YouTube Channel and watch live as the Japanese football season gets underway!