I once had my photo taken with Takeda Shingen. It wasn't the real Takeda Shingen - he died in 1573, according to Wikipedia - but rather a friendly local dressed as the legendary "daimyo" for Kōfu's annual Takeda Shingen festival. I was especially impressed with the moustache our modern Takeda Shingen had drawn on in thick black texta for historical accuracy.

Yamanashi-ken may be isolated, but it's a friendly place full of students and young families - not to mention several Takeda Shingen impersonators - so I was looking forward to making the train trip out passed Fuji-san and on to capital Kōfu. Unfortunately the apocalyptic rain  lashing Shimizu Station as I awaited the Limited Express (one assumes the "limited" refers to how infrequently the train runs) suggested a wet afternoon was in store. 

Lo and behold, the clouds parted just long enough in Kōfu to enjoy an action-packed afternoon in the congenial company of Ken Matsushima, editor of The Rising Sun News and all-round encyclopaedia on the Japanese game, as we sat down to enjoy Ventforet Kōfu's clash with Consadole Sapporo in J2.

A crowd of 11,252 packed into Kose Sports Park for Ventforet's home opener with the Hokkaido outfit - slightly less than the 13,734 fans the home side averaged in J2 last season - but no doubt the menacing clouds that hung low over the mountains kept some fans at home and in front of their TV screens.

The swirling wind blowing down off the Southern Alps made life difficult for both keepers, and no doubt it contributed to Ventforet's opener. Yohei Onishi surprised everyone - including himself - when his attempted cross from a free-kick flew straight into the top corner of Yuya Sato's goal.

If there was any doubt about Onishi's finishing ability, he dispelled it soon after with a well-taken strike, as the lively front man steadied himself following a swift counter-attack, before thumping a skidding drive across Sato and into the far corner of the goal. 

The goals were slightly harsh on a Sapporo side that looked well up for this hard-fought encounter, and following a sustained period of pressure after the restart, they pulled one goal back when defender Hiroyuki Nishijima flicked a header home on the hour mark.

Nevertheless it was the hosts who finished the stronger, and they should have added to their lead late on, only for some wayward finishing from Korean striker Kim Shin-Young and Brazilian front man Maranhao to let them down.

They may hail from one of the most isolated regions in the country, but Kōfu fans can be forgiven for dreaming of a return to the top flight, where they stunned many under the guidance of popular coach Takeshi Oki by managing to stay up in 2006.

The "swarm defence" is long gone and so too is Oki - incredibly he was dismissed when Ventforet suffered relegation in 2007 - but with fans as passionate as the Kōfu faithful, I have no doubt the mountain men will be in the mix when it comes to promotion this season.

So much for that.

It took all of a quarter of an hour for Gamba Osaka to underline their total supremacy in the AFC Champions League final, as the Kansai club romped to a 5-0 aggregate win over Adelaide United.

Questions will now be asked of how a team currently lying seventh in their domestic championship, who were beaten 3-1 away at Shimizu S-Pulse in the match preceding the first leg of the final and 3-1 at home to FC Tokyo in the match sandwiched in between, could prove so technically superior to a team regarded as one of Australia's premier club sides.

That a player like Hayato Sasaki caused so many problems for the Adelaide defence when the Gamba winger has started the total of TWO games in the Japanese top flight, and has played the full ninety minutes in J1 on a total of ZERO occasions, surely speaks volumes for the alarming disparity between the two sides.

The unsubstianted rumours suggesting that Sydney FC are willing to offer Sasaki a reputed $A600,000, three-year contract perhaps says more about the A-League's questionable scouting policy than it does about the financial gulf between the two leagues.

A-League fans who harp on about Brazilian strikers in Japan generally miss two key points.

The first is that, for complex cultural reasons, Japanese strikers are far more reluctant to shoot than their Brazilian counterparts. That's precisely the reason that Brazilian strikers are brought to Japan in the first place. But it's the fact that Brazilian strikers ply their trade in Japan at all that is key. 

If A-League clubs were after a lesson in scouting, they might consider giving Kawasaki Frontale a call. In Carlos Alberto Carvalho dos Anjos Junior, better known in Japan as Juninho, they found a match made in heaven. Converted from an attacking midfielder, Junhino has scored more than 130 goals in a little over 200 league appearances for the Kanagawa side. 

That didn't stop Frontale from recalling Tokyo Verdy's former goal machine Hulk from his loan spell in the capital. It was Kawasaki who originally brought the combustible youngster to Japan, and while things didn't work out for Hulk at Frontale, he now plys his trade for FC Porto, where he featured against Arsenal in this season's UEFA Champions League.

To replace him, Frontale signed Santos midfielder Vitor Junior on loan. Supremely skilled, the tricky midfielder promptly set up one and scored another on debut against Urawa Reds at Saitama Stadium. He joins 21-year-old ex-Santos striker Renatinho in the squad, who scored a goal in his first start for the club, before scoring two more in his next J. League match, nailing down a regular starting role in the process.

Plenty of big name Brazilians have pitched up in the J. League in recent years, including current Urawa Reds midfielder Robson Ponte and Kashiwa Reysol striker França, both once of the German Bundesliga. Yet plenty more Brazilians arrive unheralded.

Omiya Ardija can take credit for attracting two of them, although the Saitama side didn't quite have the foresight or financial clout to keep hold of them. These days bustling striker Leandro plays his football for Vissel Kobe, for whom he's scored seven league goals this season, while laying on several more for team-mates Yoshito Okubo and Takayuki Yoshida.

Baré is a more well-known case. He played much of his club football in Japan in the Second Division - having been lured to the country by Omiya Ardija, before eventually becoming the fulcrum of the Gamba Osaka attack until his departure for the oil-rich Gulf. 

In the A-League, only Melbourne Victory's Fred can be considered an unqualified success, although Adelaide United duo Diego and Cassio are more than useful acquisitions, with the jury still out on striker Cristiano. 

The fact that Fred departed the A-League for Major League Soccer after a solitary championship winning season with Melbourne Victory provides a sobering reality check as to just how much money A-League clubs have to splash. Yet with "marquee dollars" being spent on Socceroos like John Aloisi at Sydney FC, Archie Thompson at Melbourne Victory and now Jade North at the puzzlingly-named North Queensland Fury, it's a wonder that A-League clubs don't look north to try and lure some of the Brazilian talent on offer in the J. League a sunny sea-change Down Under.

That may be easier said than done - money is the first obstacle, but clearly Japanese clubs have spent years building their extensive scouting networks in Brazil, and with Japan and Brazil having forged socio-economic ties long ago, the A-League must also compete with the J. League's long history of signing Brazilians.

Still, with Lucas Severino having scored both goals in Gamba's 2-0 win over Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium, A-League apologists may be quick to jump on the "Brazilians in Japan" bandwagon all over again. They're entitled to do so, but they might also want to consider how the A-League could be improved by signing one or two of the kinds of Brazilians who regularly lob up in Japan in the first place.

On the surface, things look fairly bleak for Adelaide United going into the second leg of their AFC Champions League final clash at Hindmarsh Stadium on November 12. 

3-0 down from the first leg to Japanese outfit Gamba Osaka, missing key men Eugene Galekovic and Angelo Costanzo through suspension and with a 17-year-old goalkeeper in the form of Mark Birighitti between the posts. 

Still, if ever there was a chance for an Australian team to demonstrate the kind of "fighting spirit" they're always banging on about, it is now.

All tickets for this match were snapped up within hours of going on sale, so it will be a disappointment if anything less than a capacity crowd of 17,000 crams into Hindmarsh Stadium. With a vocal crowd behind them - hopefully former United skipper Ross Aloisi has managed to fire up the locals with another impassioned pre-match call to arms - United should at least be able to put Gamba under pressure, whether they can pull the three goals back or not.

Should United lose this game then both clubs will go through to the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. That will likely herald another showdown between the two, provided United can overcome New Zealand side Waitakere United in a qualifying play-off, and the South Australians won't want to go into a one-off clash with Gamba on the back of another demoralising defeat.

The return of the hard-running Paul Reid from injury is a bonus for United in midfield. It's a cliché as old as the game itself, but if United can pull an early goal back then they can put Gamba under an inordinate amount of pressure. Gamba are not quite from the same stock as a team like Kashima Antlers - able to control possession in midfield and used to the pressure cooker of title showdowns.

The Osakans have choked before. How cool they are under pressure in Adelaide may go a long way to determining whether Gamba chokes again.

Hope springs eternal, so the old saying goes, and if Adelaide United were looking for signs that they can claw their way back into their two-legged AFC Champions League final clash with Gamba Osaka, they may have just found them in Gamba's 3-1 home defeat to FC Tokyo in the J. League at the weekend.

It wasn't that Gamba lost in a match in which neither side looked particularly impressive, but rather the way that Gamba conceded their goals that should pique interest in South Australia. 

Missing tall defender Sota Nakazawa through a back injury, Gamba coach Akira Nishino switched to an 3-4-3 formation that saw former Yokohama F. Marinos striker Roni handed a rare start, with Gamba still harbouring slim hopes of winning just their second J. League crown.

They could have been on their way had ex-Japan international Ryuji Bando not missed two golden opportunities in the first eight minutes. First Bando raced through one-on-one with FC Tokyo shot-stopper Hitoshi Shiota in just the second minute of the match, but as Bando picked his spot, Shiota guessed right and stuck out a lunging foot to deflect his effort wide.

Then Bando ran on to an excellent chip over the defence, only to turn and volley his effort straight at Shiota, with the former Japan international looking rusty in front of goal after missing most of the campaign through injury.

Those misses proved costly as FC Tokyo took the lead with the first attack of the game. There appeared little danger when winger Naohiro Ishikawa floated an innocuous looking cross deep towards the far post, but powerful Brazilian striker Cabore had only the diminutive Yasuhito Endo as his marker, and the ex-Gyeongnam FC striker Cabore simply shrugged the midfielder off and headed the ball back across the face of goal and into the far corner.   

FC Tokyo scored again with practically their next attack of the game. A long throw seconds after the half-time interval was aimed at the 192cm tall Sota Hirayama, but with the ball sailing over Hirayama's head and the Gamba defence paying far too much attention to the former Heracles Almelo front man, Naohiro Ishikawa dashed in behind the defence to side-foot a half-volley passed Yosuke Fujigaya for FC Tokyo's second.

Sota Hirayama was proving a real handful in this match, vindicating coach Hiroshi Jofuku's decision to leave top scorer Shingo Akamine on the bench, and Hirayama then scored the goal his dominant performance warranted. With his back to goal Hirayama used his powerful frame to shield the ball from Gamba midfielder Tomokazu Myojin, before turning and firing into the far corner of the goal.

The hosts pulled one back in front of a disappointing crowd of just 13,515 at Expo '70 Stadium, with Lucas Severino flicking on a chipped assist from Takahiro Futagawa to register a goal against the club he left in January. Yet Gamba never looked like winning this match, and it was FC Tokyo - and not the Osakans - who kept their faint hopes of winning an unlikely J. League title alive.

Three things stood out from the defeat. One is that Gamba missed Sota Nakazawa more than they would care to admit. While Michihiro Yasuda and ex-FC Tokyo man Akira Kaji are adequate in attack, they struggle in defence - particularly when Gamba are being put under pressure, and particularly when that pressure comes in the form of crosses into the box.

The second is that chipped passes over the defence are very much the modus operandi for Gamba's attack. Several times Gamba caught out the FC Tokyo back four this way, indeed that's how Lucas Severino scored his goal, but cutting off the supply line from midfield and in particular from Endo and Futagawa, seems like a sensible option in halting Gamba's forays forward.

Most importantly, Gamba tend to struggle under pressure. Since lifting their one and only J. League crown thanks to a dramatic final day in 2005 (ironically it was a stoppage-time FC Tokyo equaliser against Cerezo Osaka that saw Gamba win the title), Gamba have been involved in three subsequent title races. They've choked in all three of them.

Admittedly the J. League is as tough a domestic competition as it gets. But there's no doubt that pressure seems to affect Akira Nishino's team, especially when they're away from home.

Food for thought for Aurelio Vidmar then. He could do worse than demand a red-hot atmosphere from the home fans at Hindmarsh Stadium, while instructing tall timber Robert Cornthwaite and Sasa Ognenovski to get amongst it at set pieces. Overly simplistic it may seem, but that might be all that Adelaide United have to hold on to having been comprehensively outplayed in the first leg of this tie.    

"Mike Tuckerman has a massive problem with the A-league.

And is always making comparisons. Ignore any article he writes, I could fill this forum with his anti-aussie diatribe.

That said it is ridiculous to compare the J league with the A league, and many Australians need to stop doing this, it just gives idiots like Mike the ammunition they require."

That was just one of the responses posted on the message board of a well-read Australian football website, after I wrote this suggesting that perhaps Australian football doesn't have as much in common with the J. League as we think.

Well, after watching Gamba Osaka demolish Adelaide United in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final, the suggestion that the J. League is the current benchmark of Asian football seems about right to me.

What have we learned from Gamba Osaka's astonishing 3-0 thrashing of Adelaide United in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final? 

The first thing is that Gamba should have won by a wider margin. If I were a cynic I might suggest that referee Bashir Abdul Malik looked suspiciously like he was trying to keep the score down, by not sending off Adelaide keeper Eugene Galekovic for a blatant professional foul and then ruling out Yasuhito Endo's "goal" after he subsequently curled his free-kick past Galekovic and into the top corner. But that is to miss the point. 

The point is that Gamba Osaka proved that Australian football is light years behind the Japanese game in terms of technical skill.    

How this fact has been overlooked by so many in Australia, I'm not really sure. But I have some idea. I caught the intro to Adelaide station Fresh FM's otherwise excellent radio coverage of the game - and bravo to the station for sending a team over to Osaka at considerable expense in the first place - but when presenter Dom Rinaldo told guest reporter Andrew Montesi that he wouldn't ask for his opinion on Gamba Osaka, I had to ask myself why.

If Lucas Neill can "google" Pim Verbeek, then why can't Andrew Montesi "google" Gamba Osaka? Is it acceptable that a paid sports reporter is not expected to present an opinion on the opposition? How hard is it to look up even the most cursory information in an age where this kind of stuff is supposed to be available at our fingertips?

To be fair to Fresh FM, at least they were at the game, and there have been more galling oversights from other media outlets.

How often do we have to put up with the following cliché?

"Aurelio Vidmar leads his team into the unknown."

You what? Isn't this the same Aurelio Vidmar who spent a season at Sancrecce Hiroshima in the late 90's? Wouldn't that mean that he himself has played at Expo '70 Stadium in Osaka? And wouldn't that make him a decent judge of Japanese football? Leading his team into the unknown! Sounds like he's taking his team to Osaka via Mars.

The build-up and subsequent crushing defeat prompted the usual round of soul-searching from the Australian blogosphere and message boards. Some of it exposed the total naivet'e of Australian fans. One proposal had the A-League playing an All-Star game against a J.League XI. A great idea - except for the fact that the J. League already plays an All-Star game against the K-League.

Other suggestions include implementing "free player loans" between J. League and A-League clubs. How does that work? After a J. League team thumps their Aussie counterparts, they then take some Australian players "on loan" to teach them the basic skills that are drilled into Japanese players from the age of five? Why on earth would the J. League agree to that? And why would the J. League want to develop Australian players in the first place? The J. League is a business, not a charity.

Everywhere I turn, I see myth reported as fact. Gamba Osaka as a "giant" of Japanese football. The crumbling Expo '70 Stadium as one of "the best" in Japan. Even the incredulous descriptions of Gamba's "wonderful chanting fans" leaves me irate. How hard is it to look this stuff up? I can't help but feel that if the Australian football community hadn't approached the AFC Champions League final with eyes wide shut, it wouldn't have been so surprised by the level of Gamba's play.

As for me, suggestions that I'm "anti A-League" are well wide of the mark. I was a season ticket-holder when Sydney FC lifted the inaugural toilet seat, and was at all three of Australia's group stage games at the World Cup in 2006. I missed the second round clash with Italy because I was getting married. Even then, it was a close call.

I am just as proud of Australian football as the next fan, but it seems to me that unless we begin to embrace Asian football there are going to be plenty more nasty surprises in store. We could do worse than starting to pay some attention to the J. League.

"At one of the press conferences, I said it was imperative that one of the Japanese teams become the champions, but I lied," said Gamba Osaka coach Akira Nishino to the Yomiuri Shimbun ahead of his side's AFC Champions League first leg final clash with Adelaide United.

"I know deep down inside it has to be Gamba." 

Gamba coach Nishino may have his wish come the end of the two-legged AFC Champions League final, but in the build-up to tonight's clash at Expo '70 Stadium in Osaka he has highlighted the different physiques of the two sides.

"I think it'll be them in the air, and us on the ground," Nishino told the Shimbun, and in a press conference ahead of the clash Nishino singled out Adelaide's defence - which houses 197cm Robert Cornthwaite and 195cm Sasa Ognenovski - as one of the keys to the clash.

Their height could nullify the attacking threat of full-backs Akira Kaji and Michihiro Yasuda, who are unlikely to bomb forward and rain in crosses with Gamba relatively weak in the air in the final third of the pitch. 

Instead Gamba will rely on talismanic midfielder Yasuhito Endo to drive the team forward with his short passing game and Gamba's strikers will expect to do plenty of off-the-ball running as Endo looks to slip incisive balls in behind the defence.

Nishino expects Adelaide to play for a draw at Banpaku, but United coach Aurelio Vidmar is likely to field goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic and midfielder Diego, despite both going into this clash under serious injury clouds. 

With the first of the winter winds having hit Japan temperatures are slowly dropping across the country, with this match expected to be played under cloudy skies and a temperature of around 15°C in the west of Japan.  

The 2008 AFC Champions League will feature a final showdown between Japan's Gamba Osaka and Australia's Adelaide United. 

Gamba saw off fellow J. League outfit Urawa Reds in their two-legged semi-final fixture, winning the second leg 3-1 in front of 53,287 baying fans at Saitama Stadium thanks to goals from captain Satoshi Yamaguchi, a rare strike from Tomokazu Myojin and another from influential midfielder Yasuhito Endo. 

Adelaide United qualified for the final despite a 1-0 defeat to Uzbek side Bunyodkor in Tashkent, with the South Australia's 3-0 home win in the first leg of the tie enough to propel the A-League club into the final. 

The victory marks a double coup for United, who will go on to represent the Asian Football Confederation at the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup in December, where they will be hopeful of winning through to a money-spinning semi-final clash with reigning European champions Manchester United at Yokohama International Stadium on December 18.

Whether United can overcome Gamba Osaka in the AFC Champions League final is another matter, but history would appear to be on Aurelio Vidmar's side after United knocked out the highly-fancied Kashima Antlers in the quarter-finals.

Gamba, meanwhile, beat fellow Australian side Melbourne Victory 4-3 in Melbourne and 2-0 in Osaka in the group stage of the competition before knocking out defending Asian champions Urawa Reds in the final four, despite many claiming the Kansai side to be the weakest of the Japanese representatives in this season's tournament.

The first leg of the final will take place at Expo '70 Stadium on the northern fringes of Osaka on November 5, and club officials will be hoping for even more than the 17,166 fans who packed into the compact ground for the first leg of their semi-final clash with Urawa, while Gamba's Emperor's Cup clash at home to J2 side Ventforet Kofu has now been pushed back to November 16.

Adelaide United chief executive Sam Ciccarello has ruled out moving the second leg of the final - set down for November 12 - from United's 17,000-capacity Hindmarsh Stadium, claiming that his side does not wish to give up "home advantage" by playing away from the boutique, purpose-built football stadium.

Both the AFC Champions League final and the FIFA Club World Cup will mark a financial windfall for United, with the Asian champions awarded $AU860,000 in prize money - the runner-up is guaranteed $AU575,000 - while the minimum amount earned for participation in the FIFA Club World Cup is $AU750,000.

Pierre Littbarski may have been one of the finest midfielders to grace Die Mannschaft in the past thirty years. But he doesn't quite seem to be cut out for the coaching caper.

As reported by Kicker Magazin, Littbarski has apparently walked out on Iranian club Saipa just ten weeks after taking over as coach.

According to Saipa President Hamid Sadschadi, the former World Cup winner with West Germany travelled unannounced to Dubai several weeks ago and hasn't been heard from since. Not surprisingly, Saipa have now rescinded his contract.

In his ten weeks in charge Littbarski was the most unsuccessful coach in the club's history, with Saipa knocked out of the AFC Champions League while picking up just three points from seven games in the league.

It's a far cry from Littbarski's halcyon days as coach of Sydney FC, where he led the harbour side to the inaugural A-League championship.

Hey ho, fellow J. League lovers!

I recently sat down with Shimizu S-Pulse fan Yuichi Korenaga to discuss his opinion on Shimizu's season and chat about his attitudes towards football in general.

He had some interesting things to say about the J. League and overseas football, so check out the interview here.

Cheers!

Talk about redemption! If ever a man was in need of it, it was Adelaide United defender Robert Cornthwaite. His own goal in the first leg of United's AFC Champions League quarter-final clash with J. League champions Kashima Antlers was just about the best in the business. But it could have been a fatal blow for his side's chances of progressing to the final four of Asia's premier continental showdown.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man as they say, and who else but Cornthwaite should pop up to head home the winner in Adelaide's epic second leg victory over a ragged Kashima Antlers? It's a wonderful story that made for gripping drama, and Adelaide now march on to face Uzbek side Bunyodkor in what will be another money-spinning tie for the South Australian club, after seeing off Kashima 2-1 over the two legs.

For now Adelaide are basking in the glory of a superb Champions League win, and over the 180 minutes of football no one would dare suggest that they didn't deserve it. Any allusions that Kashima dominated possession or Shinzo Koroki missed a hatful of chances is a moot point; the business of football is putting the ball in the back of the net, and one might point out with a hint of irony that Adelaide managed to do that three times.

They can also thank a superb performance in both legs from goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic. It's a testament to the quality of Australian keepers that he could not dislodge Michael Theoklitos from the Melbourne Victory starting eleven, but in the kind of form he's in, surely no one would be surprised if Galekovic replaced Ante Covic in Pim Verbeek's Socceroos squad.

The big shot-stopper was outstanding again at Hindmarsh Stadium, pulling off a pivotal one-handed save to keep Koroki out after just eleven minutes. That save seemed to calm United nerves, and roared on by a capacity crowd of 16,965 United grew in stature, with veteran striker Paul Agostino proving a menace up front in the first half.

For their part Kashima clearly missed talismanic midfielder and captain Mitsuo Ogasawara - out for the rest of the season after picking up cruciate knee ligament damage in an incident-packed clash with Kashiwa Reysol last Saturday. Yet Kashima's bullish mood before the match now seems hopelessly optimistic. A glance through the team-sheet suggests that the Antlers shouldn't have missed Ogasawara as much as they did, but once again his Japanese team-mates appeared to be struck by a case of stage-fright, with Masashi Motoyama - making his return from injury - turning in a forgettable display.

Australian media headlines that Kashima would field a "$4 million Samba Soccer Trio" at Hindmarsh Stadium no doubt prompted howls of laughter in Japan. Danilo seems closer to the exit door than the starting eleven at Kashima, and last season the former Sao Paulo man was unable to dislodge Takuya Nozawa from the run-on team. He's been given more opportunities by coach Oswaldo de Oliveira in 2008, but the fact is that he never was and never will be a key player for the Antlers.

Another of Kashima's Brazilians in the form of Marcinho spent the grand total of zero minutes on the pitch against Adelaide, with only Marquinhos - now in his eighth season in Japanese football - expected to contribute anything of note against the Reds. How that less than illustrious trio is supposed to comprise a "$4 million Samba Soccer Trio" is anyone's guess, but the lack of attention to detail shown by the Australian media is irksome.

Indeed the constant failure of Australians to acknowledge the strengths of their opponents is a worrying trend. This obsession with Brazilian players in Japan is grating. The key players for Urawa Reds, Gamba Osaka and Kashima Antlers are Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yasuhito Endo and Mitsuo Ogasawara respectively - all Japanese. So too is the obsession with "money" in the J. League. The real money in Asian football is in the oil-rich Gulf States, and now, Uzbekistan. Whatever money J. League clubs possess, it's because they have earned it. A more salient point is that all three of the clubs mentioned have promoted countless numbers of professional footballers through their youth ranks.

None of that should take away from Adelaide's momentous achievement, however, and surely Kashima Antlers will likewise have learned some lessons. The half-heartedness with which the Ibaraki side seemed to approach the quarter-final fixture stood in glaring contrast to Adelaide United's eagerness. If Japanese clubs continue to approach the ACL with such reticence - hedging their bets by holding back key players for their domestic campaigns - it is their loss.

Adelaide United couldn't care less. It is they who will face off against Rivaldo's Bunyodkor in the semi-finals, it is they who can bank another sell-out crowd at Hindmarsh Stadium for the first leg of that tie, it is they who are marching onwards to continental glory, with the highly-fancied Kashima left to rue what might have been, and it is Aurelio Vidmar and his team who deserve all their plaudits after a gripping, and truly deserved quarter-final win over Kashima.