“I was a teacher in high school for 30 years and we won the All Japan tournament so I managed to create a top football team in high school,” Kuroda explained earlier this week.

“Then I was given this opportunity. Of course it was to do with the football. But my priority is to organise the team.”

Kuroda’s track record with Aomori Yamada High School, an institution based in the north of Japan’s main island that had never challenged for the national title, was unparalleled after a lengthy period laying the foundations to his team’s success from his appointment in 1994.

The first of the school’s three All Japan High School Soccer Tournament titles came in 2016 with two more to follow in 2018 and 2021.

The competition is one of the highlights of the sporting calendar in the country, with bumper crowds turning out for two weeks each winter to follow the exploits of Japan’s next generation of talent as they go head-to-head for their schools.

Under Kuroda, Aomori Yamada High School also tasted success in the Prince Takamodo Cup, winning the competition that pits schools against the academies of J.League clubs on a further three occasions.

That track record prompted Machida chairman Takehisa Otomo to hire Kuroda as the replacement for Ranko Popovic, under whom the club had finished in 15th position in J2 the previous season.

Kuroda’s impact was immediate. Machida won the J2 League title in his debut campaign and in his second season the club finished third in the J1 League standings to qualify for the AFC Champions League Elite.

And while Machida slipped to sixth in their second year in the top flight the club won their first trophy, lifting the prestigious Emperor’s Cup with victory over fellow AFC Champions League Elite qualifiers Vissel Kobe in last season’s final.

Now the club is one match away from a second major trophy and Kuroda continues to extol the virtues of his football philosophy.

“Team management is my forte and I have been doing this for ages,” he said. “On top of that we have built the technical aspects of the team. Football is the same in high school and professional football. This is sport, whether it’s at the professional level or not.”

And while it might not always be pretty or pleasing to the purists, Kuroda has a very clearly defined objective.

"To keep a clean sheet is our motto,” he said after the 1-0 semi-final win over Shabab Al Ahli that has set up the meeting with Al Ahli. “We managed to achieve that and that gave us confidence."