Kashima Antlers and Urawa Reds reach J-League Cup final

Antlers needed 120 minutes to beat hosts Nagoya Grampus, while the Reds dominated the visiting Gamba Osaka to bring about a rematch of the 2002 and 2003 Cup finalsKashima Antlers and Urawa Reds punched their tickets to the 2011 J-League Cup final after each winning one-legged semifinals on Sunday.Antlers reached their seventh cup final, and first since 2006, by beating reigning league champions Nagoya Grampus on the road in a game that gave all 8,562 attendees 120 minutes of entertaining soccer.The visitors took the lead early on with a 10th-minute strike by Yuya Osako, but Grampus forced extra time with an 80th-minute goal by veteran Marcus Tanaka Tulio.The first half of extra time went scoreless, but Antlers regained the lead in the 107th minute thanks to Gaku Shibasaki's goal. With five minutes remaining, Ryota Isomura was given a second caution and the hosts finished with 10 men.In the evening match, longtime rivals Urawa Reds and Gamba Osaka added another memorable match to their history, with Urawa the 2-1 winners via goals by Tsukasa Umezaki and Sergio Escudero. Over 23,000 fans turned out to see Urawa reach the final, who will have a chance to raise some silverware for the first time in four seasons.While the Antlers are in seventh and Urawa will be lucky to stave off relegation, the championship matchup between teams with a long and storied history should mean another sell-out success for the J-League tournament. The two squads faced each other in two consecutive finals in 2002 and 2003; Kashima won the former 1-0 while Urawa won the latter 4-0.The J-League Final will take place on October 29 at Tokyo National Stadium.