Football Japan Minutecast

Japan star Yasuhito Endo got the better of his World Cup midfield partner Yuki Abe on Sunday evening with a last-gasp goal to give Gamba Osaka a dramatic 3-2 victory over deadly rivals Urawa Reds at Banpaku.

Little more than 60 seconds after Edmilson�fs second goal of the game looked to have rescued a point for the visitors, Endo collected the ball from debutant Lee Keun-Ho - a recent Gamba arrival from Jubilo Iwata - to fire an unstoppable winner past Norihiro Yamagishi with 94 minutes on the clock.

Edmilson had headed Urawa in front midway through the first half, before 18-year-old Takashi Usami equalised right on half time and Nobuhisa Yamada unwittingly deflected the ball past his own goalkeeper twenty minutes into the second period. Gamba forward Lucas was then shown a straight red card for a tackle from behind, but numerical parity was later restored moments before the injury time excitement when Yamada completed a calamitous performance with a second bookable offence.

The win takes Gamba up to eighth in the table, nine points behind new leaders Kashima Antlers after their 2-1 win over fellow title contenders Kawasaki Frontale. Felipe Gabriel scrambled the ball home to open the scoring for Kashima on 21 minutes, but although Masaru Kurotsu levelled proceedings six minutes before half-time, Frontale�fs momentum was lost almost immediately with a second yellow card for Junichi Inamoto - one of the few World Cup players left in the squad following the departures of goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima and North Korean striker Jong Tae-Se. Lee Jung-Soo later headed home his third league goal of the season to seal victory for the three-times defending champions.

Shimizu S-Pulse fall a point behind in second following an insipid goalless draw in their Shizuoka derby match with Jubilo Iwata, while Nagoya Grampus are now just one point behind them in third after Joshua Kennedy�fs late header secured a 1-0 win at Omiya Ardija despite the earlier sending off of Igor Burzanović.

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A solitary strike from Yoshiro Abe was enough to lift Shonan Bellmare up to 16th position - despite only mustering three shots on goal to the 23 recorded by a Kyoto Sanga side that now prop up the table in their stead. Vissel Kobe needed a 96th-minute penalty from Yoshito Okubo to steal a 2-2 draw at FC Tokyo and stay out of the relegation zone, while Sanfrecce Hiroshima bounced back from a crushing 5-0 home defeat to Cerezo Osaka last Wednesday with a 3-0 win over Yokohama F Marinos.

Cerezo could only draw 1-1 at Albirex Niigata in their weekend match, while Montedio Yamagata moved up to 11th with a 3-1 win at home to Vegalta Sendai.


J1 results (matchday 13)
Omiya Ardija 0-1 Nagoya Grampus
FC Tokyo 2-2 Vissel Kobe
Shimizu S-Pulse 0-0 Jubilo Iwata
Montedio Yamagata 3-1 Vegalta Sendai
Kashima Antlers 2-1 Kawasaki Frontale
Albirex Niigata 1-1 Cerezo Osaka
Kyoto Sanga 0-1 Shonan Bellmare
Gamba Osaka 3-2 Urawa Reds
Sanfrecce Hiroshima 3-0 Yokohama F Marinos


J1 results (matchday 11 - postponed matches, played 14 July)
Kashima Antlers 1-0 Shonan Bellmare
Kawasaki Frontale 0-0 Omiya Ardija
Gamba Osaka 1-1 Kyoto Sanga
Sanfrecce Hiroshima 0-5 Cerezo Osaka