Asian champions Urawa take J-League lead
TOKYO (AFP) — Asian club champions Urawa Red Diamonds snatched the lead from Nagoya Grampus in the standings after their 4-2 win over Consadole Sapporo in the J-league football on Tuesday.
Urawa lost two early goals, but Yuki Abe and Brazilian-born international Marcus Tulio Tanaka evened the score at 2-2 before Brazilian striker Edmilson added two goals in the 50th and 86th minutes to seal the victory.
"We got off to a slow start to lose two goals, but we got into our rhythm after 25 minutes. Their defence line put pressure on us, but it gave us spaces between them and their goal mouth," said Urawa's German coach Gert Engels.
"They started making errors and Edmilson scored a goal. I thought we were winning when he scored his second goal. We were able to keep putting pressure on them and not give them chances," he added.
Urawa stood with six wins, one draw and two defeats for 19 points to be tied with Nagoya for the lead, but topped the standings on goal differential of 17-7 against 15-9.
They were followed by defending champions Kashima Antlers, who were to play Vissel Kobe on Wednesday, and FC Tokyo, the winners over Oita Trinita 1-0, both on 17 points.
Nagoya suffered their second straight defeat when they watched their one goal advantage tumble to a 2-1 defeat to Kawasaki Frontale with Brazilian striker Juninho hitting home a decider in the 36th minute.
Yokohama Marinos followed them with 16 points after overwhelming bottom placers JEF United Chiba 3-0.
In other games, Jubilo Iwata downed Kyoto Purple Sanga 2-0, Shimizu S-Pulse defeated Kashiwa Reysol 2-0, and Albirex Niigata drew with Tokyo Verdy 0-0.
