It happened in Italy, it happened in Germany; now it's happened in Japan.
As Lazio and Bayern Munich had done in the last couple of weeks, the Yokohama F. Marinos stole the J. League first-stage title on Saturday after league-leader Cerezo Osaka crashed 2-1 in extra time to lowly Kawasaki Frontale at Osaka's Nagai Stadium and the Marinos beat JEF United Ichihara 2-0 at Tokyo's National Stadium. The result meant Yokohama won the title by one point.
It completed a remarkable return to Japan for Marinos boss Ossie Ardiles, the former Shimizu S-Pulse manager who took over at Yokohama at the beginning of the year after a year away from the J. League.