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November 3, 2006 League Cup Final. National Stadium, Tokyo

Michael Tuckerman

JEF United have won the 2006 Yamazaki Nabisco League Cup Final.

The team representing the cities of Chiba and Ichihara beat Kashima Antlers 2-0, before a crowd of 44,704 at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

Kashima Antlers went into the match at full strength but under intense pressure after a string of recent poor results. JEF United were missing regulars Ilian Stoyanov and Nebojsa Krupnikovic through suspension but hammered Kashima 4-0 when the teams last met in the J-League on October 14.

The National Stadium was awash with colour as both teams started the match nervously. Kashima, attacking the goal behind which more than 20,000 JEF United fans were congregated, looked eager to make an early breakthrough against an understrength United back three, which included midfielder Koji Nakajima as a makeshift libero.

Kashima's strikers Atsushi Yanagisawa and Alex Mineiro are in a dire run of form, however, and they failed to seriously test JEF United goalkeeper Masahiro Okamoto. Indeed it was United's own out of form striker Seiichiro Maki who had the best chance of an evenly-fought first half, when he squandered a one-on-one chance from substitute Masataka Sakamoto's incisive through ball.

Sakamoto was only on the pitch because of an injury to Austrian international Mario Haas. Haas had looked impressive - twice making defence-splitting passes, before he hobbled off in the twenty-eighth minute of the match. At the other end, Yanagisawa and Mineiro never seriously threatened, much to the chagrin of the tens of thousands of Kashima fans massed at the northern end of the ground.

Despite training with a 4-3-3 formation that included tricky midfielder Masashi Motoyama as a makeshift winger for most of the week, Kashima's much-travelled Brazilian manager Paulo Autori had opted to leave Motoyama on the bench in favour of a more conservative 4-4-2 starting formation.

Given that JEF United were not only missing defender Stoyanov through suspension, but also his natural replacement Kozu Yuki through injury, it is difficult to fathom why Autori should have acted so cautiously. Yet Autori's tactics - and the fact that they have yielded some disastrous results of late, merely added spice to the occasion.

Half-time offered the chance for Autori to influence the momentum of the match, yet he chose not to alter his starting formation. Thus the second half commenced in much the same fashion as the first, with Kashima lacking a clinical finish and United content to break on the counter attack.

Finally, after eighty minutes of intense, absorbing football, JEF United opened the scoring. Good work from the tenacious Sakamoto down the left saw his pinpoint crossfield pass find fellow midfielder Koki Mizuno. Mizuno took one touch, before flashing a half-volley across Kashima goalkeeper Hitoshi Sogahata and into his bottom right hand corner.

The goal sparked wild celebrations from the United fans behind the southern goal, but the best was yet to come as Mizuno then arrowed a corner onto the head of captain Yuki Abe. The talismanic Abe easily got in front of his marker, to power home from ten yards out and give his team an unassailable two goal lead.

United's second goal finally sparked Kashima manager Autori into action, as he made a triple substitution. Yet with just five minutes remaining, it was far too late to alter the outcome of this match. His tactical conservatism and indecisiveness will surely come under close scrutiny by club officials, who were hoping for more from the man who guided Sao Paulo to the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship.

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

So JEF United become the first team since the old Kawasaki Verdy to successfully defend their League Cup crown. It was no less than Amar Osim's men deserved and United's new manager will be delighted to have claimed his first piece of silverware for the club. The knives are out for Paulo Autori, however, and he seems to be living from day-to-day at the struggling J-League giants.

Michael Tuckerman

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