Antlers on the charge

By their lofty standards Kashima Antlers have gone far too long without a trophy, but there’s a sense that the beast may be about to reawaken under Ranko Popovic… (日本語版)

Is anyone else starting to feel like something is stirring out in Ibaraki?

Kashima Antlers were for so long the immovable object of the J.League, a club that swatted all comers aside through sheer force of will to claim title after title and dominate the J.League for two decades.

Between 1996 and 2016 Antlers won J1 eight times to establish themselves as the most successful side in the top flight, in the process also picking up a handful of Emperor’s Cups and six League Cups as well as becoming the first club to win a domestic treble (2000) and the only one to be crowned first division champions in three consecutive seasons (2007-09).

After ascending to the summit of the Asian game by winning their maiden Champions League title in 2018, however, the silverware has dried up for the club of Zico and Oliveira and Ogasawara, with Kashima enduring five barren years since. 

It felt like there was something about the old Antlers bubbling under the surface in their last game before the international break on 17 March though, as they put in a powerful display to beat Kawasaki Frontale 2-1.

There was an energy crackling between the home players and their fans from the very first whistle at Kashima Soccer Stadium, with Antlers looking to impose their will on the game and strangle the life from Frontale.

“Before entering the stadium today I saw the fans and it gave me goosebumps,” Ranko Popovic said of the welcome he and his players were given upon arrival. “I could feel the tears welling in my eyes on account of their passion and affection.”

That spark drove the home side up the pitch at every opportunity, and with Koki Anzai and Kimito Nono always looking to push on down the flanks and Aleksandar Čavrić, Yuma Suzuki, and Shintaro Nago harrying and pressing from the front Kawasaki were never able to settle.

“The thing I’m most disappointed about is that we weren’t able to see the game out playing our style,” Frontale manager Toru Oniki said after his side’s defeat. “We couldn’t bring our game to proceedings and fought the match on the opponents’ terms. That’s the thing I most regret.”

Indeed, despite managing to go in 1-0 up at the break thanks to Marcinho’s 36th-minute strike Kawasaki always looked like they were struggling to gain a foothold in the contest, and the hosts completed their turnaround in electric fashion within five minutes of the restart as Čavrić and then Suzuki struck in the 47th and 50th minutes.

Frontale’s desire to play their way neatly around the pitch was thwarted at every flick and cushioned pass by Kashima’s boundless aggression, the home players flying ceaselessly around to destroy Kawasaki’s rhythm and leave Oniki’s men with just 348 completed passes across the 90 minutes – almost 400 fewer than they put together when losing 5-4 at home to Jubilo Iwata two games previously (728).

Kashima’s season opener against Nagoya Grampus had followed a similar pattern, with their forcefulness overwhelming Kenta Hasegawa’s side and ensuring the Popovic era started with an emphatic 3-0 win at Toyota Stadium.

Things cooled a little after that as Antlers were made to settle for a 1-1 draw against Cerezo Osaka and fell to a frustrating 1-0 loss to early-season pacesetters and surprise package Machida Zelvia, but the manner in which they stuck to their guns and fought back to claim all three points against Frontale was reminiscent of the belief shown by Antlers teams of seasons past.

While encouraged by the application of his players so far, Popovic is doing his best not to get carried away and believes the best is still to come.

“You have to be a long time with the team to introduce your personality in the boys,” he said after the win over Frontale. “It’s not easy to push the button and say, ‘Ok, now we do that’.

“I told to them against Machida, we was concentrated on set pieces everything fantastic, but didn’t concentrate that [we] have to make something. 

“We was in ‘reaction’. You know my philosophy is not ‘reaction’. Action, action, and again action. Push opponent to think about you.”

With Kashima having gone so long without adding to its enviable trophy cabinet, the Serbian is aware that his players need to form the requisite belief to become champions.

“Many of them they [weren’t] in this situation, they don’t know how it is to win [titles],” he said. “Big club [doesn’t] mean big team. You must work on them to make the team on the level.

“Of course we want to do that – we ‘want’, but we also have to be conscious if we ‘can’. What we can do: to try. To do, to try, day for day and to have this in mind. If not this year to be ready for next year. To prepare.”

Popovic is delighted with the personnel he has at his disposal towards achieving that aim, and was effusive in his praise of the team’s talisman Suzuki.

“Yuma is like an Argentinian or former Yugoslavian player,” he enthused. “Pow! He wants to win everything. He is old Japanese. A dinosaur. This new generation, they [are privileged] to have Yuma in the team.

“And we are waiting for Gaku (Shibasaki). Gaku is one player who is really, believe me… I played with good players, against the best players in the world, but when I see how Gaku touches the ball, wow (pretends to drool). Amazing.”

As well as these two established stars, Popovic has also been excited by the manner in which Nono has adapted so swiftly to the professional game after joining from Kwansei Gakuin University ahead of the season.

“Nono is still young, but Nono feels the game,” he said. “He is a ‘sense’ player, you know. He smells the game. And this is like a diamond, when you have a player like [that]. If I said to him ‘No, you have to do this’ [maybe] he is not so good. No, no, play, boy! Play. Play and enjoy.”

The ingredients are all there, then, and with a relatively kind schedule over the next month and a half Kashima could be set to play themselves back into a position as one of J1’s front-runners.