The defending J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup champion Kashiwa Reysol faced the South American Copa Total Sudamericana champion Lanus (Argentina) in the Suruga Bank Championship 2014 CHIBA at Hitachi Kashiwa Soccer Stadium and won the close match 2-1 to clinch the trophy for the first time in their club history.

In the 89th minute when the score was tied at 1-1, forward Leandro put Kashiwa back in front by scoring a penalty kick, which eventually brought the first international title to the club.

Japanese teams have now won the championship for five consecutive years since 2010 with their total record being 5 wins and 2 losses.
In the heated condition, Kashiwa, with the same line-up as they had for the last winning match of the J.League four days ago, handled the opponents’ attacks with great concentration from the beginning. Against Lanus who kept looking for scoring opportunities by switching around positions in the offensive end, Kashiwa started to show their offense in the middle of the first half by getting the ball in the midfield and delivering it up front.

The opener came up out of such a ball movement. Kurisawa Ryoichi intercepted the ball and passed it to Leandro. After the Brazilian forward delivered it to Takayama Kaoru running into the box, Takayama sent a left-footed shot into the net.

Lanus tried to rally back from one goal down as two forwards, Santiago Silva and Silvio Romero, got close to the box. One of their shots hit the crossbar in the 55th minute. Then in the 57th minute, midfielder Jorge Valdez Chamorro was sent onto the pitch to intensify their attacks.

In the 59th minute, Lanus finally levelled the score when Midfielder Leandro Somoza’s fine drive found the back of Kashiwa’s net after hitting off Kashiwa’s defender Masushima Tatsuya in the box.

Last month, Lanus lost the Recopa Sudamericana title to the Copa Libertadores winner in a close match that got into the extra time. The highly motivated Lanus looked for a go-ahead goal as Diego Gonzalez repeatedly showed up front from the midfield, but Kashiwa’s defence managed to hang on.
Meanwhile in the 77th minute, Hashimoto Wataru provided a cross ball from the left frank, and forward Kudo Masato rushed into the box. But his shot was denied by Lanus’s goalkeeper.

It was in the 89th minute when Kashiwa broke the deadlock. Kudo, running into the penalty box, was taken down by Diego Braghieri to earn the penalty kick. Leandro put it into the net with great composure to turn the score into 2-1.

In the added time, excited Lanus players repeated skirmishes with Kashiwa players only to have Lanus’s Diego Gonzalez ejected. But the score remained unchanged until the end of the match to give Kashiwa the victory.
As a side note, the beginning of the match, all people in the stadium offered a silent prayer for the president of the Argentine Football Association Julio Grondona, who suddenly passed away a few days ago.

Match Report

Comments

NELSINHO, Kashiwa Reysol Head Coach
We’ve got a very close match, and it was only this one match to determine winning or losing, but actually it wouldn’t have been possible without the fact that we had gone through the Nabisco Cup. With this victory, we could crown the finale in our favour. Players must be quite satisfied with what we’ve achieved and so am I. This is a big victory for the team as well. As you can see, our opponents tonight and the one Kashima beat last year were both South America’s leading clubs. That clearly shows Japanese football has been getting better. By winning a match like this one by one, you can prove how good Japanese football really is. (Even with only three-day break after the last J.League match) our players are all capable to fight out matches without many days in between. Today they responded just as usual.

OTANI Hidekazu, Kashiwa Reysol
It would have been better, if we had been able to limit spots where we challenged and got the ball actively and effectively as a whole team. But they moved around flawlessly and we couldn’t get the ball easily. They didn’t have howlers and played at a high level. Their intensity on the ball and ball control skills were also outstanding. Each one of them tried to get the ball every time there was an opportunity to do it in front of them and that was impressive. That was something Japanese teams don’t have. In the J.League I haven’t played against such a high-level team.

Guillermo BARROS SCHELOTT, Head Coach of Lanus
It was very close game. In the first half, Kashiwa was dominating the game for some minutes but we recovered our pace in the second half to equalize as we put much pressure on them. There were some scoring chances like the one shoot hitting the post. I think it can’t help BRAGHIERI’s play which resulted in PK in the situation like that. The tie score would be reasonable result. Arriving here one week before the game, the squad played as much as they can for extracting their best performance but I believe one of the reason for losing the game was we let them take control of the game in the first half. I am really sorry about not securing the important championship.

SURUGA Bank Championship 2014 Chiba
J.LEAGUE YAMAZAKI NABISCO CUP / COPA TOTAL SUDAMERICANA

Wednesday 6 August 2014 kick-off at 19:00 (schedule)
Hitachi Kashiwa Stadium

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