Mito's run in this year's Emperor's Cup ends with a win and a loss, being defeated at "home" in Kyoto by Kyoto. Due to a peculiarity in match placement, Mito was arbitrarily made the home team at a random location that happened to coincide with the away team's home stadium. In this match, of course, home and away would have no influence.
Mito has never beaten Kyoto, having previously had 8 chances in league play. Of possible J1 opponents though, Kyoto seemed like one of the better possibilities as the teams have a history of close or drawn matches and Mito's keeper Honma is a master at blocking PK attempts. Kyoto is doing well in its first year back in J1, though, and the result clearly and fairly showed the difference in team ability and financial support between them.
As for other results, there are still three matches in the round left to play and unless Tosu or Kofu surprise their opponents, no real underdogs will remain in the tournament. The only J2 team to win was Hiroshima and few would deny that this year's J2 champions aren't better than half of the teams in J1 right now. It seems all but decided that the Emperor's cup winner crowned on January 1, 2009 will be playing in Japan's top division that year.
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And Tosu shocks Nabisco Cup winning league championship contenders Oita to make it to round 5. Who'd have thought?
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