Defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka scored a second-half winner Saturday as Urawa Reds came from behind to beat Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1 at home and close in on the second-stage title of the J. League.
Tomoyuki Sakai of the Urawa Reds scores in the
68th minute of Saturday's J. League match against Shimizu
S-Pulse. Urawa won 2-1.
Hideaki Kitajima silenced a raucous crowd of 43,853 at Saitama Stadium 2002 with a 28th-minute strike on a swift counterattack and Urawa missed the target a number of times in an unwelcome reminder of its penalty shootout defeat in the Nabisco Cup final three days ago.
After 68 frustrating minutes, Tomoyuki Sakai's long-range shot took a cruel deflection off the head of Shimizu defender Ryuzo Morioka and flew into the right-hand corner beyond the reach of goalkeeper Yohei Nishibe.