Kashima at the double!

Six months ago the suggestion that Kashima Antlers would be crowned double winners in Japan seemed ludicrous. Yet with the long campaign having wrapped up with the season-ending Emperor's Cup final on New Year's Day, Kashima Antlers stand alone as the dominant force in Japanese football.

Kashima predictably beat Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2-0 in front of a packed National Stadium in Tokyo, with young defender Atsuto Uchida and surprisingly Brazilian misfit Danilo scoring the goals.

Kashima had reached the final with a clinical 1-0 victory over Kawasaki Frontale three days earlier, with Masashi Motoyama's stupendous volley belying the fact that the Antlers spent almost the entire match doing everything possible to dampen the attacking threat of Kawasaki's Juninho and Chong Te-Se.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima sprung an upset in beating Gamba Osaka 3-1 at Ecopa Stadium in the other semi-final, but while plenty of hearts hoped for another Hiroshima upset in the final, there were just as many heads that predicted a routine Kashima victory.

So it turned out, as flying defender Atsusto Uchida continued Kashima's trend of relying upon goals from anyone but their strike force of Yuzo Tashiro and the pedestrian Marquinhos. Uchida smashed an unstoppable opener in the ninth minute, as fans tuning in on TV settled in for an afternoon feast of Kashima casually knocking the ball around for eighty minutes in an attempt to hold on to a one goal lead.

Kashima were never really threatened, and with NHK switching to a shot of the suspended Yosuke Kashiwagi sitting high in the stands every sixty seconds or so, the point that Hiroshima would have presented far more of an attacking threat with the effervescent Kashiwagi in their side was made with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

This being Japan, all that was left - besides the final whistle, was an appropriate cameo from Kashima's aging veteran Atsushi Yanagisawa. Kashima's club captain appears to be on his way out of the Ibaraki giants, with his average of about two league goals every five or so seasons not even satisfying the often goal-shy Antlers these days. Nevertheless Yanagisawa came on to set up a second goal for perhaps the only player at the club even less effective than he, as Brazilian midfielder Danilo surprised everyone by proving that he does indeed know what a football looks like, as he smacked the round thing into the back of the net in stoppage time.

So Kashima end the season as by far-and-away Japan's best team. Urawa fans will probably disagree - why wouldn't they, when their club can afford to splash out a cool 300 million yen for the likes of Oita Trinita's star Tsukasa Umesaki? The trophy count tells the tale, however, and while Urawa end the season as Asian champions, it's Kashima who have trumped them as they end the season as double winners in Japan, and deservedly so.