20 Dec 2007(Thu)

December 19, 2007: At times on Monday night at the J.League Awards, it was hard to remember that Kashima Antlers had actually won the championship this season.

Five Reds players in the Best XI; three from Nabisco Cup winners Gamba; Robson Ponte the Player of the Year; a special award to Reds for winning the AFC Champions League and finishing third in the FIFA Club World Cup...

But then all you had to do was look at the face of Oswaldo Oliveira and his beam told its own story: Antlers were the champions and he was still in a state of shock.

It was over two weeks since Antlers had beaten S-Pulse 3-0 and Reds had lost 1-0 away to Yokohama FC to enable Kashima to leapfrog Urawa and claim a fifth league title and 10th major trophy overall.

Despite this incredible achievement, including a run of nine straight wins to end the season, I was surprised to hear that Oswaldo was not signed up for next season.

"In the next two weeks it should be sorted out," he said.

Antlers fans will be keeping their fingers crossed that there are no late hitches, as Oswaldo did a fine job in his first season without the playing resources or the money available to previous championship-winning Antlers managers. Every player he brought in did his job, and the coach moulded a strong team spirit after a shaky start.

Regarding the subject of the Best XI, Oswaldo thought Kashima may have had two or three more players in there, notably Sogahata, the goalkeeper, and Uchida, the young right back, but was not overly concerned.

My choice for MVP, a player who typifies the heart and soul of the championship-winning team, had been Iwamasa, and he was the only Antlers player in the Best XI. When I asked Oswaldo for his choice of MVP he said Juninho, the Frontale striker, but thought he had not been picked because he had won the top scorer award with 22 goals.

And the Antlers player Oswaldo could not speak highly enough of in terms of natural talent and potential? Well, it was Nozawa, scorer of that beautiful, and critical, goal at Saitama Stadium which beat Reds in the penultimate round of games.

An Antlers league and cup double, of course, is still very much on the cards, as they play Honda FC in the Emperor's Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. Before looking ahead to next season, Oswaldo's Antlers are not quite finished in this one yet.

ends