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0 - 3

Kashima had some injury problems in the preseason, which left them at a slight disadvantage to S-Pulse. Naoki Soma, who had a knee operationin late January, will miss the entire first stage. Most importantly, as it turned out, Fabiano was injured in a warm-up match two days before the Xerox Super Xup, and was not even available on the bench. Though striker Atsushi Yanagisawa and midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara have minor health problems (a thigh bruise for Yanagisawa and a stomach ulcer for Ogasawara) both were able to start the match. Shimizu's one scratch was goalkeeper Masanori Sanada, who was replaced

For the first 15 minutes of the match, the two teams seemed fairly cautious, with exactly the sort of strategy that one would have expected. Kashima controlled the greater share of posession, stringing together a lot of passes in midfield, while S-Pulse hung back and looked for the counterattack down the wings. Though the Antlers had more of the ball, they repeatedly tried to create one too many passes and as a result, got almost no shots off on goal. By contrast, S-Pulse managed to produce a couple of dangerous chances by using the overlap down the wing to either Alex or Daisuke Ichikawa.

Throughout the match, S-Pulse would play a more intelligent game. With a reserve keeper in the net, one would have expected the Antlers to try to test him early and often, but their continued overpassing let S-Pulse off the hook time and again. By contrast, S-Pulse discovered early on that youngster Seiji Kaneko was not able to provide the sort of marking in the center of the penalty area that the Antlers usually get from Fabiano. Furthermore Yasuto Honda, who inexplicably started the match at one of the two defensive midfield positions instead of Koji Kumagai, was too small to cover either of S-Pulse's two offensive midfielders, Masanori Sawanobori or Kazuyuki Toda, on high balls. Since the Antlers Yutaka Akita had his hands full covering the tall and dangerous Baron, this meant that S-Pulse repeatedly found a player or two free in front of net when they sent in a high cross from the corner. They continued to exploit this weakness throught the match, and would get both of their legitimate goals on this sort of play.

In the 17th minute, Alex worked a nice combination with Sotaro Yasunaga in the left corner -- Alex making a low throw-in which Yasunaga tapped softly into the corner, giving Alex space to center the ball. As was the case throughout the match, Kaneko failed to cover the high ball properly, and Sawanobori leapt over him to head home the first goal.

This was the only score that either team would get in the first half, but the flow of the game remained the same for the entire first stanza. Antlers passed the ball around well at midfield but never managed to create any shots on goal, whereas S-Pulse's attacks, though fewer, were far more dangerous.

In the second half, the Antlers came out with a more aggressive attitude. Both Atsushi Yanagisawa and Takayuki Suzuki were running harder, and aiming to penetrate or take a shot rather than simply stringing together an endless series of short passes. Although S-Pulse was continuing to create good chances of their own on high balls to the middle, it looked like the Antlers micht be able to equalise. However, from about 10 minutes into the second half, an unfortunate series of extremely bad calls would change the shape of the match entirely.

In about the 55th minute, Suzuki dummied a post play on the left side. As the ball came to him near the top left corner of the box, he let it run past, beating his defender into the corner and sending a hard, low shot at goal. The shot was from a very low angle and the S-Pulse keeper had no trouble parrying it, but the ball bounced out to Bismarck at the top of the box, on the right, and he blasted in the rebound. However, the Antlers' celebration was cut short as referee Masayoshi Okada claimed that there had been a foul off the ball, and disallowed the goal.

Though the Antlers were furious with the call, their ire would only increase a few minutes later. S-Pulse created a very nice counterattack which caught the defence too far forward, and Baron picked up the ball with no one betwen him and the goal. However, goalkeeper Daijiro Takakuwa reacted well, and closed in on Baron before he could get off the shot. Baron tried to flick the ball over him, but Takakuwa smothered it. . . .

. . . then, inexplicably, Okada blew his whistle, pointed to he penalty spot and awarded a yellow card to Seiji Kaneko, who had been trailing the play. Replays failed to show any significant contact between Kaneko and Baron. The Antlers players went ballistic, with Bismarck picking up a yellow for dissent, but the damage had already been done. Alex converted from the penalty spot to put S-Pulse up 2-0.

The Antlers immediately brought in Masashi Motoyama, but the defence had their heads down in disgust following the PK, and S-Pulse took full advantage of the confusion. Less than two minutes after converting the PK, Alex found space down the left sideline and crossed the ball in to Baron. For the first time in the match, Baron had managed to elude Akita, who defended him fairly well throughout the match. As Akita went out to try to pick up Alex, Kaneko and Honda were the only defenders left in the middle, and Baron had no trouble outjumping them to score the third goal. Thus, by the time Kashima had recovered fully from the shock of the PK, they were in a 3-goal hole, and the match was effectively over.

The rest of the game was anticlimactic. Although the Antlers brought in rookie midfielder Takeshi Aoki and replaced Kaneko with newcomer Tomohiko Ikeuchi, they were unable to create any real danger for S-Pulse, who sagged back in a defensive posture and were content to run out the final 30 minutes. All in all, S-Pulse deserved the win for playing a very intelligent match and exploiting the one clear weakness that the Antlers showed on high balls to the center of the box. It was a bit disappointing that poor refereeing interfered, as the match could have been a very exciting contest, but in fact ended up as a runaway win for S-Pulse that left a bad taste in the mouth, and certainly was not a good way to start the season off with a bang.

Film clips courtesy of Internet Soccer Program J-Ole. Visit their web site at http://www.j-ole.com/ for results and highlights of all J.League matches.