J.LEAGUE: Reds top J1 table

SAITAMA--The Urawa Reds claimed first place in the league table for the first time this year with a seesaw 4-2 win over Consadole Sapporo at Saitama Stadium on Tuesday.

After falling behind twice in the first half, the Reds took the lead early into the second and held on for their sixth win in seven matches to move into first place past former league leaders Nagoya Grampus, who fell 2-1 to Kawasaki Frontale, and the idle Kashima Antlers, who play Vissel Kobe today at Kashima Stadium.

Edmilson was the eventual hero for the Reds, scoring both the winner and the insurance marker in the second half after Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Yuki Abe bagged first-half equalizers.

"It was my first goal at home and of course it's important to put them away here," Edmilson said of the winner, before tipping his hat to fellow forward Naohiro Takahara for the pass that set up his second. "Our partnership is getting better with every game," he said.

Makoto Sunakawa and Shingo Shibata scored for Sapporo.

The Reds are now unbeaten in nine matches in all competitions under manager Gert Engels, who took over from Holger Osieck three games into the season after management deemed the latter was no longer able to motivate his players to victory.

The Reds have only tasted defeat once under Engel's stewardship, a 1-0 Nabisco Cup loss to Vissel Kobe in the German's first match in charge.

Since then, the 2006 league champs have risen from 17th to first, tied with Nagoya on points but with a better goal differential.

It's a remarkable turnaround that Engels says is partly due to a change in attitude among his players.

"The mood in the team wasn't really good early in the season and that was the first thing I tried to change," he said. "I wanted the players to look forward to training, to have fun and be excited about playing again."

The Reds scrapped hard in the first half to level twice, first on a freak shot from Abe that took on the appearance of a stone skipping over water. Consadole keeper Takahiro Takagi flopped to the ground inexplicably early and as he waited for the mercurial orb to reach him, it dipped and darted before finally jumping over him and crossing the goal line.

Abe was so amazed his long-range blast went in that he looked embarrassed to even celebrate the goal.

But Consadole retook the lead a minute later on a header from Shibata, who was left spectacularly unmarked in the area on a Claiton free kick.

Three minutes after that the game was deadlocked yet again, this time thanks to some aggressive work at the far post from Tulio, who outmuscled his marker to head home a corner kick from Tsukasa Umesaki.

It was Tulio's fifth goal of the year and a testament to how well he's fitting into his role as a midfielder after being moved out of the backline by Engels earlier this season.

"Tulio's move from defense to midfield is another reason behind our revival," Engels said. "And I think if he can play this well for us in this position, he can do the same for the national team."

Edmilson had a ho-hum first half but came to life when it mattered in the second, scoring in the 51st and 87th minutes to seal the victory.

It was a victory made all the more impressive by the fact that Urawa was missing a slew of top players, including Robson Ponte, Alessandro Santos, Keisuke Tsuboi, Keita Suzuki, Yuichiro Nagai and Tatsuya Tanaka.

Elsewhere, Shimizu S-Pulse defeated Kashiwa Reysol 2-0, Jubilo Iwata downed Kyoto Sanga 2-0, Albirex Niigata and Tokyo Verdy played to a scoreless draw, F.C. Tokyo beat Oita Trinita 1-0 and the F Marinos blanked the winless JEF United Chiba 3-0.(IHT/Asahi: April 30,2008)