Emperor's Cup 2001

3 - 2

The first mistake came towards the end of the first half. Kashima got a free kick on the left side after Mitsuo Ogasawara was fouled on the break. The referee did not blow his whistle to stop play, and it was clear that several Antlers recognised this, but inexplicably, no Shimizu player stepped in front of the ball to prevent a quick kick. As the S-Pulse keeper was lining up his defensive wall, Ogasawara stepped up and drilled the ball into a wide-open net. The S-Pulse players were all stunned, but nobody else in the stadium had any doubt that the goal was valid. Mental blunder No. 1.

To S-Pulse's credit, they counterattacked furiously in the final few minutes of the period, and got the equaliser on the stroke of halftime by exploiting the cracks in Kashima's defence. Veteran midfielder Santos, who began his career in Japan as an Antler, sent a long floating pass to Oliva, who had managed to get behind the Antlers defenders. Oliva made a pretty play, taking the ball over his shoulder and hitting it on the volley, lobbing it past Takakuwa for the equaliser.

Despite the fact that S-Pulse had exposed the weakness of the Antlers back line (with Soma out and Akita and Narahashi hobbling), they inexplicably failed to resume the pressure as the teams came out for the second half. This has to count as mental error No. 2, since the worst thing you can do against the Antlers is to hand them the initiative at midfield. less than ten minutes in, S-Pulse was made to pay for this mistake. Rookie defender Yuichi Nemoto -- who had a very good match even if he wasnt quite able to fill Soma's shoes -- was left wide open about 40 meters from goal. sizing up the defence, Nemoto hit a long ball into the corner that was collected by Koji Kumagai. Kumagai cut towards the net and unleashed a wicked shot at a low angle. Although Sanada was well positioned, all he could do was deflect the screaming drive. As the ball bounced in front of the net, Takayuki Suzuki rumbled into the penalty area and banged home the rebound

Only after they conceded the lead did S-Pulse resume the pressure, but when they did, they had the same good results as they did towards the end of the first half. The Antlers back line was a step slower than usual, and Shimizu created one scoring chance after another. However, good covering play from the midfielders and some great saves by Takakuwa kept the Antlers in the lead until ten minutes from time. After repeated probes failed to penetrate the Antlers zone, Alex pulled the ball back out towards midfield to create some space, and as he did so, he spotted 20-year-old Daisuke Ichikawa on the right sideline with green space in front of him. Ichikawa took the lead pass to the end line and crossed in. As he had done so many times before, Takakuwa managed to deflect the first shot, but it took a lucky bounce off the right post and fell back into the path of midfielder Teruyoshi Ito, who knocked in the rebound to level the score once more.

Then came the final mental blunder of the day. S-Pulse tried to keep the pressure on, but a late substitution of Masashi Motoyama gave the Antlers someone up front who could take the clearing pass and create opportunities on his own. With about a minute to play, the Antlers got the clearance pass they were looking for, and Motoyama beat his man to create a three-on-two break from about 40 meters out. Seeing the danger, Shimizu defender Kazuaki Toda pulled down Motoyama with a hard, but not flagrant sliding tackle. Motoyama rolled immediately to his feet and put the ball down, hoping to keep the break rolling, and Toda committed a crucial blunder, pulling Motoyama off the ball to prevent the kick. Naturally, Motoyama did his best to accentuate the offence, but it probably wasnt necessary. Toda already had one yellow, and the referee had been calling a tight match right from the opening whistle. There was no way he was going to ignore such a flagrant foul at this stage of the match. S-Pulse were reduced to ten men just a minute from full time.

While the Antlers had been a bit shaky on defence in this match, there was no problem with their striking capabilities despite the absence of Atsushi Yanagisawa. Once S-Pulse went down a man, the pressure on the defenders was eased, and Antlers took charge from the first tap of extra time. It took less than two minutes for them to seal victory. Koji Nakata sent a long cross in for Motoyama, which the S-Pulse defence headed out of the zone, but Bismarck collected the rebound just outside the penalty area. As the defenders responded to him, Bismarck lobbed the ball to Ogasawara, who was open at the top of the circle. Ogasawara hit the ball on the volley, and the shot spun sharply into the high right corner of the net to give the Antlers their third piece of silver.