Ogasawara met a cut-back from striker Atsushi Yanagisawa with a left-foot shot from 15 metres that took a wicked deflection off defender Masami Ihara and flew into the bottom corner, giving Kashima a deserved lead in front of 56,000 in Tokyo.

It proved to be sufficient for the Japanese champions, however, as Urawa mustered just one shot on target in a disjointed performance.

Kashima, who had knocked Urawa off the top spot in the J-League with a 2-1 win on October 23, started brightly and created a number of clear-cut chances in the first half.

Right-back Akira Narahashi brought a fingertip save from Reds goalkeeper Norihiro Yamagishi with a clever chip in the 10th minute.

Urawa escaped again in the 24th minute after a flowing move involving Japan trio Koji Nakata, Yanagisawa and Ogasawara, who brilliantly skipped past two tackles only to drag a right-foot shot wide of the post.

Ogasawara was inspirational on his return from a thigh strain and it was from his free-kick that Kashima almost forced the breakthrough three minutes before halftime.

Defender Yutaka Akita rose above his marker but his powerful header forced Yamagishi into a wonderful reaction save low to his left.

However, the Antlers finally broke the deadlock on the hour when Ogasawara finished off a three-man move with a mis-hit shot that caught Ihara in the face and completely wrong-footed Yamagishi.

BRAVE BLOCK

'I didn't catch it right but luckily it got a nice deflection off the defender and went in. But I think we definitely deserved to win today,' said Ogasawara.

Indeed, Urawa rarely threatened, with Brazilian striker Emerson limited to one long-range effort that flashed over the bar in the 65th minute.

However, Kashima almost gifted Urawa an equaliser in the 75th minute when Augusto gave the ball away to Tuto but Antlers goalkeeper Hitoshi Sogahata raced off his line to make a brave block from the Brazilian.

An equaliser would have flattered Urawa, who were lucky not to concede a second in stoppage time when substitute Yoshiyuki Hasegawa headed wide from point-blank range after another Ogasawara delivery.

'We had a few key players back from injury, so the confidence and motivation were there for us today,' said Kashima coach Toninho Cerezo.

'We knew that Emerson and Tuto represented a danger but we defended well and we could have scored a number of times ourselves today.'

Kashima, who won the Nabisco Cup in 1997 and 2000, have struggled by their standards this season, finishing fifth in the J-League first stage and currently occupying fourth place, one spot behind Urawa.