Shimizu S-Pulse met Nagoya Grampus (Eight) at this stage in the 2000 incarnation of the J.League Cup, and the first leg, played 30 August, ended in a 6-4 victory for a Nagoya side then helmed by João Carlos. Current manager Dragan Stojković was a member of the winning Grampus team in a match in which S-Pa brought themselves level on three occasions and took the lead once, before goals from Tetsuya Okayama and then Motohiro Yamaguchi put the result beyond doubt. The second leg was a slightly more drab affair, a goalless draw ensuring Grampus’s passage into the semi-finals which they would lose to eventual champions Kashima Antlers.