3 Aug 2009(Mon)

July 31, 2009: One minute we were purring about Antlers, and what a classic Kashima performance it had been, and the next minute...

Well, what an astonishing game that was at Todoroki on Wednesday night, as Frontale came back from 1-0 down in the first leg to win 3-0 and book a place in the Nabisco Cup semi-finals.

For 90 minutes, everything went according to plan for Kashima. They had played so well, not only containing Frontale but creating chances at the other end, too.

The four minutes of stoppage time seemed generous for Frontale, as there had been no major incidents in the second half, but Antlers kept their heads down and even kept attacking.

When a member of the Antlers coaching staff on the bench waved his arms to inform his players that the four minutes were up, everyone waited for the final whistle.

But the whistle did not come, and then the unthinkable happened -- Juninho scored to send the home fans into a frenzy and instantly silence the big away following at the opposite end.

At first I could not believe Juninho's shot had nestled in the net. From my angle in the main stand, and from Juninho's angle, with the imposing frame of Iwamasa in front of him, I thought the ball must have gone wide and hit the stanchion behind the goal.

But no, there it was, and Juninho was racing away into the night to celebrate with the Frontale ultras in the corner. Iwamasa could not be blamed for the goal. I thought he made the right call in holding his ground and not diving in to challenge Juninho. If he had done that and made contact with the slippery Brazilian it would be an obvious penalty, and if Juninho had flicked it past him he would have been clear to shoot. Iwamasa probably worked out the odds of Juninho scoring from that angle, and presumed those odds would be stacked in the defender's favour. On this occasion, however, he was wrong, and somehow Juninho found the tightest of spaces to score his remarkable goal.

Antlers were fuming, because by their reckoning the four minutes of stoppage time was up and the goal had come in the 95th minute, hence the post-match comments of Oswaldo Oliveira. There was only time for Antlers to restart when the final whistle blew, and now the match had swung dramatically in Frontale's favour.

With the Frontale "A" team in action -- substitutes Renatinho, Chong Tese and Kurotsu supporting Juninho, and Kengo Nakamura in his central playmaking role rather than wide -- the home team were on fire. If Juninho had inserted the dagger into Kashima's heart, Renatinho and Chong twisted and turned it to complete the kill.

Is Frontale manager Sekizuka really following Philippe Troussier's philosophy and deliberately finishing games -- as opposed to starting them -- with his strongest team?

ends