A brace by Daiju Sasaki and a Haruya Ide header shortly before halftime gave Vissel Kobe a commanding 3-1 win over Kashima Antlers on Saturday, as the team continued its seemingly unassailable march towards its first-ever J. League first-division title.
Sasaki put Kobe, playing a ¡°home¡± game at Tokyo¡¯s National Stadium that nevertheless drew a near-capacity crowd, put the team ahead with his 16th-minute header, before all but sealing the result with a tight-angled volley in the 83rd minute that threaded the needle between Antlers goalkeeper Tomoki Hayakawa¡¯s outstretched hands and the crossbar.
¡°We all fought and ran together to earn this result,¡± Sasaki said. ¡°Even if I felt like I was dying, even if my leg was hurting, I wanted to do whatever I could for this win.¡±
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