The 2008 edition of the J. League Cup, officially the 2008 J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup, sponsored by Nabisco began on March 20. The top team in each of the four qualifying group automatically qualified for the quarter-finals along with the best two remaining runners-up. Both Gamba Osaka and Kashima Antlers received a bye to the quarter-final stage due to their participation in the group stage of the Asian Champions League.
Oita Trinita defeated Shimizu S-Pulse 2–0 in the final on November 1 at the Tokyo National Stadium. They qualified for the 2009 Pan-Pacific Championship and the 2009 Suruga Bank Championship.
Group stage Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals First leg
Second leg
Gamba Osaka advances to the semi-finals on Away goals rule.
Semifinals First leg
Second leg
Final
Oita Trinita: GK 16 Seigo Shimokawa RB 4 Yuki FukayaCB 6 Masato MorishigeLB 22 Taikai Uemoto DM 3 RobertoDM 5 EdmilsonRM 20 Daisuke TakahashiLM 33 Yoshiaki Fujita AM 8 Mu Kanazaki CF 10 UesleiCF 13 Daiki Takamatsu (c) Substitutes:GK 29 Keisuke ShimizuDF 25 Hiroyuki Kobayashi MF 2 Ryo KobayashiMF 7 Teppei Nishiyama MF 14 Akihiro IenagaFW 18 Hiroshi KiyotakeFW 9 Yasuhito Morishima Manager: ChamuscaShimizu S-Pulse: GK 29 Kaito YamamotoRB 5 Keisuke IwashitaCB 4 Kazumichi Takagi (c) CB 26 Naoki AoyamaLB 2 Arata Kodama RM 28 Masaki Yamamoto CM 7 Teruyoshi Ito AM 8 Takuma Edamura LM 13 Akihiro HyodoCF 19 Kazuki Hara CF 23 Shinji OkazakiSubstitutes:GK 21 Yohei NishibeDF 3 Takahiro YamanishiDF 25 Daisuke Ichikawa MF 16 Takuya HondaMF 6 Marcos Paulo FW 11 Mitsuhiro TodaFW 9 Takuro Yajima Manager: Kenta Hasegawa
Awards MVP: Daiki Takamatsu (Oita Trinita) Top Scorer: Keita Sugimoto (Nagoya Grampus) New Hero Prize: Mu Kanazaki (Oita Trinita)
External links J.League Official Site