Emperor’s Cup Japan

 

Reds, Gamba advance to Emperor’s Cup final

Substitute Tadanari Lee headed an extra-time winner as Urawa Reds edged Kashiwa Reysol 1-0 on Tuesday to advance to the Emperor’s Cup final.

On target in the previous two rounds, Lee struck in the 117th minute of a tightly contested match to set Reds up with a meeting on Friday against holders Gamba Osaka.

“This is the greatest feeling,” said Lee. “I was watching...

Defending champion Gamba Osaka gained a measure of revenge to advance Tuesday to the Emperor’s Cup final, where they will face a team looking for some payback of their own.

Takashi Usami scored in each half and Shun Nagasawa added a late clincher as Gamba defeated J.League champion Sanfrecce Hiroshima 3-0 at Osaka’s Yanmar Stadium.

In the final on New Year’s Day at Tokyo’s Ajinomoto Stadium, Gamba will face Urawa Reds, who squeaked past Kashiwa Reysol 1-0 in the other semifinal on Tadanari Lee’s extra-time goal at Ajinomoto.

The final will be a rematch of the J.League championship semifinal, in which Gamba beat Reds 3-1 to advance to the two-leg final against Sanfrecce, who beat them 4-3 on aggregate.

Looking for payback, Gamba struck early. In the seventh minute, Patric received a long cross just outside the box and flipped it to Usami, who stepped to his left and fired a low shot against the grain into the right corner of the net.

“I kept my cool and was able to finish it off,” Usami said.

In the second half, Sanfrecce had two good chances to equalize, but Gamba keeper Masaaki Higashiguchi tipped a deflected shot over the goal, and then stopped Yusuke Chajima on a breakaway.

Usami struck again in the 74th minute, although most of the credit has to go to midfielder Shu Kurata.

Kurata intercepted a pass near midfield and fended off a defender as he advanced up field. Just outside the box, he pivoted to shed a defender and flipped a pass to Nagasawa, who volleyed it over to Usami.

Usami chested the ball down, turned and again fired an angled shot into the right corner.

While Sanfrecce put the pressure on in a desperate bid to get back into the match, it was Nagasawa who broke free one minute into injury time to chip in Gamba’s third goal.

Reds made it to the final for the first time since 2006, when they won the second of back-to-back titles.