Urawa who? Kashima Antlers - 2007 J-League champions!

With referee Yuichi Nishimura's whistle bringing an end to Kashima Antlers 3-0 demolition of Shimizu S-Pulse, Kashima players streamed on to the pitch, while coach Oswaldo de Oliveira pumped his fists in celebration. Suddenly the players stopped on the half-way line, transfixed by the video screen beaming images from Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. The match between bottom club Yokohama FC and defending champions Urawa Reds was still in progress. Score? Yokohama FC 1, Urawa 0.

For three agonising minutes the Kashima fans watched as Yokohama FC hoofed long balls forward, mimicking Rugby players as they attempted to find touch at every opportunity. Suddenly Toshimitsu Yoshida blew full-time at Nissan Stadium, and as the Urawa players dropped to their knees, pandemonium erupted inside Kashima Stadium.

Kashima Antlers are the 2007 J-League champions, after a day of sheer drama across Japan. The Ibaraki giants moved to the top of the table for the first time on the only day that matters, as they claimed their fifth J-League title, and reiterated that for all the misplaced media hype, they truly are the most successful team in Japanese football.

After a start to the season so poor that coach Oswaldo de Oliveira was under intense pressure, Kashima turned things around thanks in no part to the return of mercurial midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara from a failed spell at Italian club Messina. Ogasawara was immense against Shimizu, leading his team around the park in a manner that suggests that new Japan coach Takeshi Okada can ill-afford to overlook him for national team duty.

Yet Kashima's win was a triumph of attacking football over the dour style favoured by Urawa coach Holger Osieck. The two sides could hardly have experienced a more contrasting change of fortunes, with Kashima embarking on a club-record nine match winning run to claim the title at the death, whilst Urawa picked up just three points from the fifteen on offer in their last five J-League matches. The defending Emperor's Cup champions were also knocked out of that competition by J2 strugglers Ehime FC last Wednesday, and their loss to Yokohama FC capped an utterly miserable week for the Saitama side.

Urawa must now regroup for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, where they could face Iranian side Sepahan in a re-match of the recent AFC Champions League final, in which Urawa lifted their first ever continental crown. All the plaudits belong to Kashima Antlers, however. In a season in which the J-League proved once again that it is surely one of the most exhilarating competitions in world football, Kashima proved that perhaps, after all, slow and steady truly does win the race.