BY FRED VARCOE Staff writer KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. -- The Kashima Antlers and their fans had to go through a lot of anguish before celebrating the opening of the rebuilt Kashima Stadium with a 99th-minute goal from substitute Yoshiyuki Hasegawa and a 3-2 win over Kashiwa Reysol.
Four minutes before the winner, South Korean striker Hwang Sun Hong had blown a chance to wrap things up for Reysol when he saw his penalty saved by the man who had brought him down, Antlers keeper Hitoshi Sogahata.
It was a lively opener for one of the Kanto region's World Cup venues -- one of the few in Japan without a running track -- with both sides contributing to an open game, not always intentionally. Reysol, missing the suspended Yoo Sang Chul and the injured Hideaki Kitajima, gave the Antlers the runaround in the first half and deservedly went ahead in the ninth minute through a thumping Hwang shot after a free-kick from Norihiro Satsukawa. Atsushi Yanagisawa could have evened things up halfway through the first half when he saw a delicate shot come back off the post, while Reysol's Tomokazu Myojin forced Sogahata into a sharp save with a blistering 30-meter shot. Ironically, it was an injury to influential Kashima's Mitsuo Ogasawara after a hard challenge from Hwang that changed the pattern of the game. Takayuki Suzuki came on for Japan midfielder Ogasawara, who broke his arm in the challenge, and Tomoyuki Hirase, who had looked pretty dreadful up front, dropped into a deeper role.