Reds look to change image in ACL final

BY ANDREW MCKIRDY
STAFF WRITER
OCT 19, 2017
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SAITAMA Urawa Reds defender Tomoaki Makino hailed his teams composure and
resilience after holding off star-studded Shanghai SIPG to book its place in the
Asian Champions League final on Wednesday night.

Rafael Silva scored in the 12th minute to give Urawa a 1-0 win over Shanghai in the
semifinal second leg at Saitama Stadium, sending the club through to its first ACL
final since 2007 with a 2-1 aggregate win.

Wealthy Shanghai began the game with Brazil internationals Hulk and Oscar in its
expensively assembled lineup, but Makino and his Urawa teammates kept them on a
tight leash to set up a final showdown with Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal.

Even the players didnt imagine this kind of result, said Makino. The scariest
part was when the game began and we tried not to drop back or play defensive
football. Thats what we had been talking about all along. We had a good start,
scored and then played our football.

I didnt want to let Hulk play with freedom. I got booked in the first half, but
that was a good chance for me. Everyone was telling me to be careful not to give
away fouls, but if I took a step back he was just too dangerous. So thanks to the
booking, I was defending from the front foot and going looking for the ball. It was
a fun 90 minutes.

Urawa will face Al Hilal in the two-legged final on Nov. 18 and 25 with the
second leg at home in a bid to lift the trophy for the first time since beating
Irans Sepahan for the crown a decade ago.

The Saitama side has gained an unwanted reputation for choking in big games since
then, and Makino is determined to set the record straight.

The fact that we could beat a great team like this on the big stage is proof that
weve grown, said the Japan international, who was part of the Urawa side that
lost last years J. League championship decider to Kashima Antlers despite taking a
two-goal lead.

But weve only reached the final we havent achieved anything yet. If we let
ourselves be satisfied with this, itll be the same old Urawa. We dont need the
runner-up prize. We have to take the trophy.

Shanghai was the favorite going into the semifinal but allowed Urawa to score a
crucial away goal in a 1-1 draw in the Sept. 27 first leg.

Shanghai manager Andre Villas-Boas, who the Chinese side recruited at great expense
to help it win the continental title, admitted that Urawas game plan had worked to
perfection and wished his opponent all the best in the final.

I think Urawa are a very good team, said the former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur
manager. They play wonderful football, and now, if its not us, I will support
them for the football they play. Because its beautiful, its attacking and
technical and I like it. Today it wasnt so attacking but that was the problem that
we faced.

We couldnt create the chances in the end. Im not surprised because they have
international players and they have quality. They created a lot of chances. It was
a problem for us. As time went on in the second half, we started playing more long
balls.

Urawa has endured a disappointing season in the J. League and currently sits
seventh in the table 19 points behind leader Kashima with five games remaining.

The club replaced manager Mihailo Petrovic with Takafumi Hori in late July
following a poor run of results, and Hori now stands two games away from glory,
just months into the job.

It was a difficult game but the players fought and ran and I appreciate their
efforts, said Hori. The first thing was to defend as a team. Our opponents had
some really strong players in attack so we had to be compact and work together to
get the ball off them.

I would have liked us to win the ball earlier, and I would also have liked to have
spent less time defending. Thats something that we need to be careful about in the
next game.

Urawa captain Yuki Abe is one of the few remaining Urawa players who played in the
2007 ACL-winning campaign, but the 36-year-old admits he knows little about this
years final opponent.

Im happy that were back in the final after 10 years but we havent achieved
anything yet, said Abe, who was named man of the match. Were playing against a
Saudi team but we dont know much about them. All we know about them is that they
won the first leg of their semifinal 4-0 and drew the second leg. Weve been too
busy concentrating on this game to think about them. Well start looking at them
now.