Kraut Donkeys 0 - Pixie Gazelles and Giraffes 3

Urawa's manager Finke was forced to eat his words (where he dismisses our new Aussie hero as a flash-in-the-pan), as Grampus' new strike force of Tamada and Kennedy demolish the Reds in front of 45,000 fans. You would think a supposedly experienced manager would have more sense than to motivate the opposition so effectively.

This game saw Grampus custodian Narazaki become the first J.:eague 'keeper to keep a clean sheet in 100 games. Not that he had to work particularly hard guarding barn doors that the Reds did not look even remotely like hitting. (Urawa had eight 'shots' over the course of the 90 minutes, none of them on target. In contrast, Grampus scored three from their 12 efforts and got another five on target.)

Tamada, reveling in the space the Kennedy's presence, gave him, opened the scoring after Ogawa pulled a deep ball back from the byeline for Keiji to turn his defender as slot the ball under Yamagishi. Ogawa should have added a second later in the half, but his weak shot was easily saved. Tamada doubled the lead after a neat exchange of passes with Ogawa, firing an angled shot from the edge of the box that ricocheted in off the underside of the bar. Kennedy powered home a header, which proved too hot for Yamagishi to handle, from Magnum's excellent cross to complete the scoring. The Australian should really have added a second towards the end, a neat touch on the edge of the box sending him clear, but his scuffed shot dribbled past the far post.

Urawa Reds
Norihiro Yamagishi
Nobuhisa Yamada, Keisuke Tsuboi, Yuki Maki, Shunki Takahashi (Naoki Yamada 33)
Hajime Hosogai, Keita Suzuki, Genki Haraguchi, Ponte (Yoshiya Nishizawa 73)
Naohiro Takahara (Escudero 68), Edmilson

Grampus
Seigo Narazaki
Hayuma Tanaka, Maya Yoshida, Takahiro Masukawa, Shohei Abe
Yoshizumi Ogawa (Keita Sugimoto 86), Naoshi Nakamura, Kei Yamaguchi, Magnum (Keiji Yoshimura 76)
Keiji Tamada, Joshua Kennedy (Yuki Maki 81)
Scorer: Tamada 14, 61, Kennedy 72

Other Views
Japan Times: Nagoya strikers provide much-needed boost
Goal.com: Australia's Joshua Kennedy Scores Again As Nagoya Grampus Thump Urawa Red Diamonds
Daily Gomiuri: Hallelujah: Kennedy answering Nagoya's prayers