Kashima storm past Warriors

W.Ng
info@sleague.com

SAFFC were left rooted to the bottom of the AFC Champions League (ACL) Group G after a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Kashima Antlers at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Masashi Motoyama opened the scoring for the visitors, but the J-League champions were rocked by Hafiz Osman’s quick equalizer before Atsuto Uchida restored his side’s lead shortly before half-time.

Yuya Osako extended the Antlers’ lead with a neat header two minutes into the second half, before SAFFC captain Aleksandar Duric missed the chance to reduce the arrears for his side when his penalty was saved by custodian Hitoshi Sogahata.

Daniel Bennett’s own goal in injury time then wrapped up a result that saw Kashima move level on points at the top of Group G with Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings, who fell to a shock 2-1 defeat against Shanghai Shenhua of China.

SAFFC coach Richard Bok chose to begin the match with a revised defensive lineup as Shaiful Esah was left out of the starting eleven, and the Singapore leftback took his place on the bench alongside Japanese centreback Kenji Arai, who missed out on a start against his countrymen with an ankle injury.

As a result, the young Zulfadli Zainal Abidin, a close-season acquisition from the Young Lions, was handed a rare starting berth – his second of the year – as was Razaleigh Khalik.

The artificial surface they were playing on and the humidity of a Singaporean evening were both issues that Suwon barely managed to cope with weeks ago, but if the Antlers were struggling to come to terms with either of these, their game hardly betrayed it.

The Japanese side took just two minutes to rattle the nerves of their hosts, as Takuya Nozawa’s pass into the box was allowed to run on by Motoyama, but Korean winger Park Joo Ho’s shot went harmlessly over.

For all their billing as rank underdogs, SAFFC refused to play the part of bystanders on local soil, as Park Tae Won’s free-kick two minutes later went narrowly wide of Sogahata’s near post after Therdsak Chaiman, employed in a more advanced role, was brought to ground by Masahiko Inoha.

Therdsak was proving a thorn in the Antlers’ side, and on nine minutes, the diminutive midfielder picked up the rebound off an SAFFC defender from a Motoyama effort and sent a long ball upfield for Duric, only to see the veteran striker remained rooted to the spot.

The Antlers continued to pour forward in waves, with Therdsak happy to orchestrate swift counter-attacks, but the lack of chemistry between the former Thailand international and Duric was embarrassingly apparent when the two were involved in a collision on 11 minutes.

Therdsak’s first shot on goal following a pass from Masahiro Fukasawa elicited rapturous applause from the adoring home crowd, but the shot hardly tested Sogahata; the Warriors came much closer on 14 minutes when Zulfadli’s superb cross-field pass found Therdsak on the right, but the 35-year-old’s slide-rule pass into the path of Duric was dealt with excellently by the last-gasp sliding tackle of Daiki Iwamasa.

Kashima meanwhile were not letting up on the pressure, and Uchida’s mesmerizing footwork on 19 minutes brought him all the way into the box before Shahril Jantan was forced to save at the feet of Marquinhos – and with 23 minutes gone, the inevitable happened.

The visitors’ precision had been remarkable all game, and it proved devastating when teenage prodigy Osako, given the nod by Kashima’s Brazilian coach Oswaldo de Oliveira to partner Marquinhos upfront, knocked the ball into the box where the unmarked Motoyama was left with the easy job of side-footing the ball into the net past a hapless Hafiz at the far post to draw first blood.

SAFFC, however, were far from stunned into inactivity, and delivered a response as immediate as coach Bok could have demanded as they demonstrated their refusal to allow the competition to descend into an exhibition two minutes later.

Therdsak’s free-kick was floated alluringly toward the far post, and Hafiz needed no invitation to rise above a static Antlers defence and nod home to draw the defending S.League champions level.

Marquinhos’s thunderous shot on the turn just evaded Shahril – and the left upright – just moments after the restart, and the custodian was called into action to tip a corner over the crossbar and contain a powerful Takeshi Aoki shot from inside the penalty area within minutes.

Nozawa was then culpable of missing a glorious opportunity to put his side ahead on 34 minutes, when his hesitation on the shot, after collecting the ball unmarked on the left of the box, allowed Razaleigh to recover in time and clear the danger.

Duric found himself entangled with Sogahata and a Kashima defender four minutes from half-time following another long pass upfield by Therdsak, and all three turned and watched as the ball trickled wide – yet it was the visitors who benefited from the resultant corner as they pulled ahead once again.

Doing brilliantly well to capitalize on Razaleigh’s stumble from the short corner, Nozawa dribbled down the expanse of the Jalan Besar field unchecked; Marquinhos’s intelligent run drew a defender away, allowing Uchida all the space he needed on the left of the box and, receiving the pass from Nozawa, the defender duly sent the ball into the corner beyond the outstretched arm of Shahril.

Kashima emerged from the dressing room after the half-time break firing on all cylinders, eager to extend their lead, and the manner in which they found the net a third time two minutes into the half was beautiful in its simplicity.

Getting past Zulfadli on the right of the box, Marquinhos chipped the ball into the centre, where Osako rose past Bennett to establish a two-goal lead for his side.

The Warriors were handed a lifeline on 56 minutes when Iwamasa held back Park Tae Won in a bid to prevent the Korean from getting on the end of a cross by Hafiz, but Duric, who had looked out of sorts throughout the game with a string of misplaced passes and missed chances, disappointed once again.

The 38-year-old struck low to his left, but Sogahata guessed correctly, diving to his right to preserve the Antlers’ two-goal advantage and cap a miserable night for the S.League’s leading all-time goalscorer.

The home side were granted little respite in the final 20 minutes of the match as the Japanese outfit pushed forward incessantly in search of a fourth goal, with Motoyama narrowly failing to connect with a Marquinhos cross on 71 minutes after his team-mate had surged down the left, and seven minutes later, it was the Brazilian’s turn to miss as his venomous shot flashed wide of the upright.

Osako’s pass to Marquinhos for that shot was his last contribution of the night as he was taken off seconds later for Shinzo Koroki, while Chikashi Masuda, who had himself come on for Nozawa minutes earlier, saw his chip tipped over the crossbar by Shahril.

The custodian needed to be on top of his game in the dying minutes of normal time to deny a Marquinhos toe-poke after the pony-tailed striker had sprung the offside trap, and then the keeper used his knee to keep out a Masuda shot after the Japanese midfielder had done well to slalom into the box past three SAFFC defenders.

There was nothing Shahril could do, however, as the SAFFC defence was breached for the fourth time three minutes into injury time, this time by a member of their own ranks.

Having been a calming influence in the heart of the SAFFC rearguard throughout the match, Bennett saw his attempted clearance from an Aoki cross spin past himself and loop over his keeper before nestling in the corner of the net to round up the third 4-1 result of the group that leaves SAFFC still looking for their first ACL point.

“I thought we played well at a certain stage,” said Bok after the match. “Overall, in the ACL, we have given a good account of ourselves, and we were unlucky to have lost to a better team, one of a higher level.

“We always raise our game in the ACL, and I hope that translates onto the S.League, where sometimes we bring ourselves a level down.”

The former defender also sprang to the defence of his captain, stating that he maintained full faith in Duric despite some less-than-convincing performances in the ACL to date.

“He is still my captain, and gives his all in every game. He might be going through a lean spell, but he is still a trusted Warrior.”

Bok showed that his sense of humour was still intact as he drew comparisons between his charges and the other three sides in the group, but was decidedly more serious when he identified the gaps between the teams.

“They’re all big teams, and Suwon and Kashima are definitely the top teams in this group. Hopefully when Shanghai come (to Singapore), we can give them a Shanghai surprise in Singapore!

“The passing and movement of the three teams are things we can learn a lot from, but another issue is the budget.

“We have less than $2m to work with every year, while Kashima have a budget of $23m every year. But we really gave our best given the resources we have.”

Visiting coach Oliveira was in a much less forgiving mood after the match despite the win, as he lambasted the standard of the refereeing during the match.

“The referee came here to arrange the game, gave a penalty that wasn’t, and gave a lot of yellow cards to my players, you know?”

The Brazilian, however, expressed his satisfaction with his players’ performance, but stressed that securing the victory was most important.

“We won the three points, and that was important for us. We came here to win.

“Now we think of the next game, and the next three points. Our goal is qualification for the next round.”