OSAKA -- The J. League second-stage title race has come down to the wire after the Kashima Antlers and Kashiwa Reysol both won Thursday. The stage champion will now be decided Sunday, the final day of the stage, in a showcase between these two teams at Tokyo's National Stadium.

The Antlers beat Gamba 2-1 in Osaka, putting an end to Gamba's title hopes. Forward Takayuki Suzuki scored one himself and set up Atsushi Yanagisawa's goal in the first half for Kashima's victory. Reysol, meanwhile, rallied past Nagoya Grampus Eight 2-1 at home with second-half goals from Mitsunori Watanabe and Hideaki Kitajima.

With the results, Kashima improved its point total to 32 to Reysol's 31. Gamba remained on 28 points.

The six-point clash at Osaka's Expo Memorial Stadium saw pulsating play between the Antlers and Gamba before a sellout crowd of 21,543.

Kashima took advantage of Gamba's loose marking with a variety of attacking forms from the outset. Yanagisawa hit the bar in the ninth minute and midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara shot a stunning lob from near the halfway line, which Gamba goalkeeper Ryuta Tsuzuki barely punched out in the 14th minute.

The opener came in the 31st after Suzuki played a neat one-two with Yanagisawa before firing an 18-meter blast, which deflected off Gamba defender Claude Dambury in front of Tsuzuki and into the net. Two minutes later, Suzuki sent a though pass to set up Yanagisawa for his 50th career goal to give Kashima a 2-0 lead.

Gamba cut the deficit in first-half injury time when Toru Araiba got a close-range goal. The home team, which couldn't afford a loss in order to stay alive in the title race, continued to fight after the break.

Gamba employed two forwards off the bench and shifted defensive midfielders Junichi Inamoto and Brazilian Vital closer to the front.

That seemed to trouble Kashima and Gamba came close to scoring late in the match. But blasts from Araiba in the 86th minute and substitute Masanobu Matsunami in the 87th sailed over the bar before Croatian striker Nino Bule's 88th-minute header glanced off the post.

"Our players all knew this was a vital game for us, but that seemed to have put extra pressure on them in the first half and we had to start the game as a totally different team," said Gamba manager Hiroshi Hayano. "We couldn't score when we had our chances."

Kashima's Brazilian manager Toninho Cerezo said: "The match turned out to be a tough one as we had expected. Our opponent was desperate for a win and we lost our composure in the second half to let them back into the game, but I'm glad we won."

At Hitachi Kashiwa Stadium, Nagoya's young midfielder Ryuta Hara put the visitors ahead in the 34th minute. But Reysol, attacking hard from the start, equalized on Watabane's 71st-minute goal. Eight minutes later, Kitajima headed in a free kick from Harutaka Ono for the winner and his league-leading 18th tally. Nagoya midfielder Dragan Stojkovic was substituted in the 69th minute.

Elsewhere, Jubilo Iwata striker Masashi Nakayama scored three times in his team's 3-0 win over Sanfrecce Hiroshima at home. The former Japan striker improved his tally to 18, tying Reysol's Kitajima.

Kyoto forward Kazu Miura also scored a hat trick as Purple Sanga rallied 3-2 past Verdy Kawasaki at home to keep his team's J1 survival hopes mathematically alive. Kyoto's rival JEF United Ichihara fell to FC Tokyo 1-0 in extra time at Tokyo's National Stadium. Ichihara has 28 points to Kyoto's 25.

The first-stage champion Yokohama F. Marinos lost 1-0 in extra time at J2-bound Kawasaki Frontale. S-Pulse beat 10-man Vissel Kobe 1-0 on Sotaro Yasunaga's last-minute goal in Shimizu. Cerezo Osaka beat host Avispa Fukuoka 1-0 with Nobuo Hara's goal.

Training sites OK'd

The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee approved on Wednesday a total of 84 facilities for 2002 World Cup training camp sites in Japan. The sites include stadiums used for J. League matches, such as the Urawa Reds' Komaba Stadium and Kashiwa Reysol's Hitachi Kashiwa Stadium, as well as the brand-new 50,000-seat Tokyo Stadium in Chofu City.