Jubilo Iwata, in a confident and entertaining performance, maintained the J. League Division One lead after beating last season's triple-crown winning Kashima Antlers 2-1 on Saturday at Tokyo's National Stadium.
Kashima forward Takayuki Suzuki gave the hosts a 1-0 lead only four minutes into the game, slotting the ball into the net after Jubilo's Dutch goalkeeper Arno van Zwam dropped the ball in a challenge from the Antlers forward in the area.
| J-League 1st-division | |||||||
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts. | |
| Iwata | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 12 |
| Nagoya | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| Sapporo | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Shimizu | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 9 |
| Osaka G | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 8 |
| Kashiwa | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 7 |
| Urawa | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 7 |
| Kobe | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Kashima | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Fukuoka | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| Hiroshima | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Osaka C | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
| Tokyo V | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 2 |
| FC Tokyo | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Ichihara | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 2 |
| Yokohama | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
But four minutes later, Jubilo equalized through Japan forward Naohiro Takahara, who ran into the box to receive a Hiroshi Nanami free kick near the post and turned around to hit an angled shot into the goal.
Jubilo, which will play in the World Club Championship in Spain in July, was better in all aspects of the game and its five-man midfield, featuring Japan midfielder Nanami, created passing plays which the Antlers couldn't cope with. Nine minutes after the break, Toshiya Fujita reacted well to a rebound after Takahara hit the left post for Jubilo's tie-breaking goal.
"Our players had suffered bitter moments against the Antlers in the past, which gave them additional motivation," Jubilo manager Masakazu Suzuki said. "I'm particularly happy with the performance from our midfielders." Iwata improved its head-to-head record against Kashima to 8-0-15.
Kashima went down to 10 men after Brazilian defender Fabiano received his second yellow card in the 62nd minute. But the Antlers, who won the J. League, the Nabisco Cup and the Emperor's Cup last year, fought on to threaten the Iwata goal late in the second half. But the Jubilo players remained coolheaded to sort out problems in the box.
"Jubilo have improved their game and their precision was much better than last year," said Kashima manager Toninho Cerezo. "Our players played hard to the very end even after we went down to 10. But we made mistakes to give up goals, and when we were about to fight back, we lost our another defensive player (Koji Kumagai) to an injury."
Consadole tops Verdy
Last season's J-2 champion Consadole Sapporo won for the third time in four matches as first-half goals from strikers Will and Ryuji Bando gave Takeshi Okada's side a 2-0 home win over struggling Tokyo Verdy on Saturday.
Sapporo moved onto nine points, ahead of Shimizu S-Pulse on goal difference.
Shimizu scraped a 1-0 home win against Vissel Kobe courtesy of a last-minute winner from substitute Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, while forward Hiromi Kojima came off the bench to snatch a 90th-minute winner as Gamba Osaka edged cross-town rival Cerezo 2-1 at Expo Stadium.
At Hakata-no-Mori Stadium, defender Takayuki Chano scored an extra-time "golden goal" to give JEF United Ichihara a 3-2 win at Avispa Fukuoka for the Chiba club's first points this season.
North 'door closing'
SEOUL (Kyodo) Officials of the FIFA inspection team currently in Seoul to check on cohost South Korea's 2002 World Cup venues said Saturday that "the door is closing" on the possibility of staging two first-round games in North Korea.
"It looks inevitable that FIFA will have to close the door (on North Korea's involvement)," said Peter Velappan, president of the Asian Football Confederation.
FIFA technical department chief Walter Gagg, who visited Pyongyang to meet North Korean soccer officials last December, poured more cold water on the idea by pointing to the poor state of repair of Pyongyang's main stadium.
"Technically, it's in absolutely no condition to stage World Cup matches," he said.
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