The fight for the Meiji Yasuda J1 League title is going to be one for the ages, with five teams all within five points at the top of the table. Kashima Antlers find themselves right in the thick of the fight, sitting in second place and in need of every win possible, beginning on Saturday at 18:00 JST when they meet Urawa Reds in a match that will be live on JLeague.co and broadcasters around the world.
Antlers and Urawa played to a thrilling draw in their first meeting of the season, with Yuma Suzuki scoring twice to put Kashima in front before the Reds came back through a Hidetoshi Takeda for the draw.
That was not the last time Kashima dropped points from a winning position, having also lost last week after scoring first. Their title hopes may rest upon their ability to make their leads stand up and take full points.
Underlying that Antlers flaw is that they feature one of the league’s best attacks and often find themselves in front. They’ve scored the second-most goals in J1, led by Suzuki’s 11 tallies and the emergence of Kimito Nono.
The 22-year-old right back has added a whole new dimension to the Kashima attack, bringing an attacking threat from defense and scoring seven goals as he has emerged as one of the best young players in the league.
Suzuki, Nono and Co. will present quite the challenge for the Urawa defense, which is not in its best form. They’ve conceded nine goals in their last three matches and Shusaku Nishikawa was shown a red card in their last contest so the Reds will be without their goalkeeper against the Antlers.
Urawa have the attacking firepower to go toe-to-toe with Kashima, though, led by Thiago Santana’s 10 goals and a depth of creative talent. Atsuki Ito, Shoya Nakajima and Ryoma Watanabe are all dangerous with the ball at their feet and have four assists each, making Urawa a danger from all over the pitch.
Will Urawa be able to ride their front line to victory? Or will Kashima run through the Reds and move closer to the top of the table in their bid to claim the J1 title?
Find out live on JLeague.co!
