At the FIFA Club World Cup Asian champs Kashiwa Reysol from Japan defeated Mexico's Monterrey 4-3 on penalties after 120 minutes of soccer ended in a 1-1 draw.
This, of course is after Al-Sadd’s 2-1 win over Esperance in the other quarter final match.
Kashiwa's substitute Hayashi Ryohei scored the winning penalty and earn a semi-final date with Santos on Wednesday.
The J-League champions had dominated their opening match against Auckland City, but found themselves in tough as the Mexicans dominated from the opening whistle. Three minutes in Mexico's CONCACAF champs Humberto Suazo missed a chance after racing in on goal. The Chilean carried the ball around the keeper, but over-ran it, then back-heeled to teammate Neri Cardozo who rifled a shot of Japan's keeper Sugeno Takanori's palms (surname first for all Japanese names).
But... Japan started to press. At the 35-minute mark, they had their first great chance when Jorge Wagner sent a left-footed shot just wide from the 30-yard mark.
In stoppage time in the 1st half, Kashiwa's Tanaka Junya headed into the side-netting from a Sakai Hiroki cross.
Monterrey fell behind on the 53rd minute after Tanaka crossed to Leandro Domingues who hit a beautiful volley past Monterrey's keeper Jonathan Orozco.
The J.League champions’ noisy band of supporters erupted behind the goal, and those same fans should really have had a second goal to celebrate just four minutes later when Wagner’s inch-perfect corner was somehow headed over by Sakai Hiroki from inside the six-yard box. Missing such opportunities rarely goes unpunished as Monterrey tied it up one minute later.
The J.League champions’ noisy band of supporters erupted behind the goal, and those same fans should really have had a second goal to celebrate just four minutes later when Wagner’s inch-perfect corner was somehow headed over by Sakai Hiroki from inside the six-yard box. Missing such opportunities rarely goes unpunished as Monterrey tied it up one minute later.
Cesar Delgado again provided Monterrey’s attack centering the ball to Suazo who slid to knock the ball up into the net's roof.
After that... it was defense for both teams. Until extra-time, when Kashiwa had one glorious chance from Domingues who muffed an easy shot and gave an easy save to the Monterrey keeper.
With Penalty kicks now the deciding factor, Japan's keeper Sugeno saved the first shot from Monterrey's Luis Perez. And after his Monterrey equivalent went from villain to hero, striking the post with a penalty of his own before saving from Junya Tanaka, Hayashoi Ryohei slammed a shot into the bottom right-hand corner.
As for the other quart-final match between Asian champions Al-Sadd versus Esperance, Al-Sadd won 2-1, as the team from Qatar played most of the match playing defense against the Tunisian team (African champs).
For a full description on this match, visit HERE.
While Al-Sadd will now play Spain's FC Barcelona in one semi-final on December 15, 2011, Japan's Kashiwa will play Brazil's Santos FC in the other semi-final on December 14, 2011.
There will probably be some extra incentive for Japan to take on this powerhouse Brazilian team. This past summer, the Santos team when trying to create some positive publicity for the tournament stupidly created a racist ad. For that, check out my blog HERE.
Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife will keep you apprised of the results as they come in.
Files by Andrew Joseph
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