Grampus Advance to ACL Semis

A late Josh Kennedy strike, sees Nagoya advance to the next stage of the ACL with a 3-1 win in the home leg. After a first half which saw the ties finely poised at 2-1, Nagoya's slightly fresher legs eventually began to tell. Their ever increasing pressure towards the Frontale goal eventually resulted in Magnum being left free as the defenders followed the Aussie in pursuit of a cross. Although Kawasahima managed to parry Magnum;s effort the ball fell loose for Josh to stab home from all of a few inches.

More details and starting lineups to follow (when I am sober again ).

Grampus Crash Four Past Whinging Wallys

Pixie's gamble pays off as Kashima crash to a 1-4 home defeat. The curse of Kashima Stadium is now well and truly exorcised. Igor Burzanovic played a blinder, reveling in the role of creative force. His touch and vision proved a constant threat to a jittery Antlers defence.

Kennedy got Grampus off to a good start, tucking home the rebound after Igor's initial effort had been parried by Sogahata. The Aussie's height and close control proved a constant thorn in the side of Iwamasa and Iwa at the centre of the Kashima defence. He almost added to his tally with a header from Abe's cross a few minutes later, but it was left to the hapless Sogohata to double Nagoya's lead. The scatter-brained keeper, completely missing an attempted bunt upfield, and allowing the alert Burzanovic to dance past him and slot the ball into the unguarded net.

Having found themselves trailing by two goals after only 13 minutes, the Antlers proceeded to pepper Hirono's goal with long-range efforts. First, Araiba sent one fizzing over from 20 metres, then it was Motoyama's turn to send a couple of shots over the bar. Meanwhile Abe and Tanaka calmly dealt with any attempts to break down the flanks, and Bajalica and Yoshida easily dealt with anything through the middle. The increasingly frustrated Antlers, wilted under our constant pressure and rapid-fire passes in the buildup. This lead to some more crude challenges to try and stifle Kennedy's influence, which resulted towards the end of the half with Iwamasa collapsing after jostling with Josh in the area. There seems little doubt that the Aussie's elbow caught the defender as they jockeyed for space, but whether it was intentional only the mild-mannered forward can tell. Certainly, NHKs coverage makes it hard for the whinging Antlers to make much of a case.

HT: 2-0 to the good guys.

The argy-bargy as the players left the pitch after the first half, gave Stojkovic the perfect excuse to bring on Maki for Kennedy at the start of the second half. A change that would probably have occurred early in the half anyway, but the manager prudently chose to rest his key striker for the return leg of the ACL 1/4 final on Wednesday. Kashima continued to pepper Hirono's goal, but only a Marquinhos shot forced the Grampus custodian to make a save. The Brazilian finally got on the score sheet, heading home a low Ogasawara free kick. This pulled the home team within two goals, after Sugimoto had earlier sent a looping header into the goal to extend our lead. Unfortunately for the home fans, the error ridden defending had not finished gifting us chances. Igor blasted home from 20 metres after an errant pass near the edge of area gave him a clear sight of goal. Indeed, Sogahata almost managed to give him a hat-trick, but a last ditch challenge saved the keeper any further embarrassment.



Overall, this was a good team performance, with Yoshimura and Santos proving effective in midfield without being outstanding. Ogawa and Tamada made brief appearances as subs, but should be fresh for the encounter with Frontale on Wednesday. Despite his goal, Sugimoto did not create much, but bustled effectively in midfield, especially in the second half. The surprise was how effective the combination of Santos, Yoshimura, Magnum and Burzanovic proved. The team was still able to close down the opposition well, but was much sharper in its own buildup. Kawasaki will prove a more realistic test of how effective this prove than the disintegrating Antlers.

Kashima Antlers
Hitoshi Sogahata
Atsuto Uchida, Daiki Iwamasu, Go Iwa, Toru Araiba
Takeshi Aoki (Koji Nakata 61), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Danilo 57), Takuya Nozawa
Junzo Koroki (Yuya Osako 75), Marquinhos
Scorer: Marquinhos 74

Nagoya Grampus
Koichi Hirono
Hayuma Tanaka, Milos Bajalica, Maya Yoshida, Shohei Abe
Keita Sugimoto (Yoshizumi Ogawa 61), Keiji Yoshimura, Alex Santos, Magnum (Keiji Tamada 70)
Igor Burzanovic, Josh Kennedy (Yuki Maki HT)
Scorers: Kennedy 5, Burzanovic 13, 83, Sugimoto 53

Pixie Gambles on Experimental Squad

Nagoya manager Dragan Stojkovic gambles on a faltering Antlers team continuing to do so, as he names an experimental starting lineup for tonight's game. A lineup that suggests that we are concentrating on progressing in the ACL.

Keeper: Koichi Hirono
Defence: Hayuma Tanaka, Milos Bajalica, Maya Yoshida, Shohei Abe
Midfield: Keita Sugimoto, Keiji Yoshimura, Alex Santos, Magnum
Forwards: Igor Burzanovic, Josh Kennedy

Subs
Koji Nishimura, Akira Takeuchi, Yoshizumi Ogawa, Sho Hanai, Keiji Tamada, Yuki Maki, Tomohiro Tsuda

Honda Strikes Again in Dutch Cup

A couple of Keisuke goals see VVV return to winning way after the 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Ajax at the weekend. Good to see them bounce back so emphatically.

Asian CL Quarter Final (1st Leg): Kawasaki Come From Behind To Defeat Nagoya 2-1

Goal.com's take of last night's game. A bit over the top, but reveals the European prejudice towards anything that apes the Champion's League.

Asian CL Quarter Final (1st Leg): Kawasaki Come From Behind To Defeat Nagoya 2-1 - Goal.com

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Kennedy Bags Away Goal in ACL Quarter-final

In the opening 45 minutes, iIt looked like Frontale had half a mind on the league title. (If they duly close out their downpour interrupted game against Kashima, they will close the gap to four points, with eight games to go. Close enough for Frontale to entertain realistic hopes of catching them. But also close enough to force the Antlers to concentrate on what they are doing.) However, having allowed Joshi Kennedy to give Nagoya an away goal with a header, they fought back in the second half to grab a 2-1 lead.

Inevitably, one of the scorers for Frontale was Juninho, who has tormented our defenders every time we have met this season. No matter who Pixie chose alongside Yoshida, they were always likely to struggle to contain the lively Brazilian. He embarrassed Bajalica in the last meeting between the two sides, and Masukawa was never really like to do much better. However, Grampus made a better game of this encounter than pervious meetings this year and bring an away goal beck for the home leg next week. (Whether they can stop Frontale scoring an away goal of their own, remains to be seen.)

Jesus's goal came from a well-placed header that crept inside the near post. The lanky Soccceroo fearlessly out jumping his marker, despite some fairly crude attempts foul him earlier in the game. Kawasaki's equalizer came from a free kick that saw Moses Nakamura's kick part our wall like the Red Sea. Ogawa jumping out of the way to leave the ball a clear path into the near corner that gave Hirono little chance of making a save. The winner has been credited to Juninho, who tapped home the rebound after Hirono parried an effort onto the bar. None of the replays have shown a view along the goal line, and it looked suspiciously like the ball may have crossed the line before bouncing out to the Brazilian.



Kawasaki Frontale
Eiji Kawashima
Tomonobu Yokoyama, Hiroki Ito, Yusuke Igawa
Kosuke Kikuchi, Kengo Nakamura, Hiroyuki Taniguvhi, Yusuke Mori
Juninho, Chong Tese, Renahtinho (Satoru Yamagishi 79)
Scorers: Nakamura 59, Juninho 63

Nagoya Grampus
Koichi Hirono
Hayuma Tanaka, Maya Yoshida, Takahiro Masukawa, Shohei Abe
Yoshizumi Ogawa, Naoshi Nakamura (Alex Santos 87), Keiji Yoshimura (Igor Burzanovic 71), Magnum
Keiji Tamada (Yuki Maki 87), Josh Kennedy
Scorers: Kennedy 27