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January 1, 2007 Emperor's Cup Final. National Stadium, Tokyo

Michael Tuckerman

Urawa Reds have won the 2006 Emperor's Cup.

They defeated Gamba Osaka 1-0 in front of 46,880 fans at the National Stadium in Tokyo, becoming the first team to win the double since Kashima Antlers in 2000.

The victory was the perfect send off for Urawa's popular German manager Guido Buchwald, who returns to Germany after three years at the helm of the Saitama club.

Urawa qualified for the Final after a hard-fought 2-1 semi-final victory over Kashima on December 29.

Former Japan international Shinji Ono was inspirational in that match, opening the scoring, before setting up ex-Bayer Leverkusen striker Robson Ponte for the winner.

Gamba Osaka won through to the Final with a 2-1 victory over Second Division outfit Consadole Sapporo. Tsuneyasu Miyamoto laid on the opening goal for fellow Japan international Akira Kaji, before Masafumi Maeda added a second.

Shinya Aikawa pulled a goal back for Sapporo with a piledriving volley, but Gamba's win meant that Miyamoto – who captained Japan at the 2002 and 2006 World Cup, would play at least one more match in Japan.

Miyamoto has signed for Red Bull Salzburg in Austria next season, as has another Japanese international, Urawa midfielder Alessandro Santos - although Santos did not feature during the latter stages of the Emperor's Cup.

Thus the stage was set for an emotional send off for Miyamoto and Urawa manager Buchwald, although there would clearly only be one winner on the day.

Images From The Japanese J-League © Michael Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com

Gamba were the more fluid side from the outset, as they went in search of an early goal. Their high profile strike partnership of Japan international Ryuji Bando and Magno Alves was wasteful, however, and ex-Gamba goalkeeper Ryota Tsuzuki was equal to everything the pair threw at him.

Urawa seemed strangely disjointed, failing to string any meaningful passes together, and never seriously threatening Naoki Matsuyo in the Gamba Osaka goal.

The Reds seemed to be missing their star striker Washington - who was at home in Brazil, and with Shinji Ono hampered by injury, it was difficult to envisage where a goal would come from for Urawa.

With Bando and Magno Alves seemingly on different wavelengths up front, Gamba likewise never really looked like finding an opener. For all their industry and hard-running, Akira Kaji and Akihiro Ienaga were guilty of taking the wrong option on far too many occasions, and Yasuhito Endo was off-target with his set-pieces for the entire afternoon.

Having spent the entire match on the back foot, Urawa then conjured an unlikely eighty-eighth minute winner. Pacy substitute Masayuki Okano burst through, before pulling the ball back from the byline to an unmarked Yuichiro Nagai, whose scrappy sliding finish was deflected into the back of the net by a diving Matsuyo.

The wall of Urawa fans massed at the northern end of the National Stadium erupted into wild celebration, and there was no way back for a demoralised Gamba Osaka.

It was a harsh end to Tsuneyasu Miyamoto's stellar Gamba career – he has been with the club since 1995, and was desperate to sign off with a victory in their first ever Emperor's Cup Final. It was not to be for the popular Miyamoto, however, and instead Guido Buchwald was the man popping the champagne corks at the end of the match.

Gamba Osaka failed to beat Urawa on four occasions in 2006. After losing 3-1 in the season-opening Xerox Super Cup, the two teams met in the first round of the J-League, playing out a 1-1 draw. They met in the final round of the J-League as well, with Urawa sewing up the title with a 3-2 victory.

After claiming the final piece of silverware available for the season, Urawa will now take a well earned break, before they begin preparations for the 2007 season. They will make their debut in the Asian Champions League in March, where they have been drawn in Group G against Australian champions Sydney FC, Chinese runners-up Shanghai Shenhua and Indonesian champions Persik Kediri.

Michael Tuckerman

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