ICHIHARA, Chiba Prefecture--The Urawa Reds got a little bit of help Sunday from a couple of unexpected sources.

Heading into the day trailing the front-running Saitama club by seven points each, Gamba Osaka and JEF United Ichihara saw their title hopes come to a grinding halt after playing to a 2-2 draw at Ichihara Stadium.

``Well, I guess we and JEF just did them a big favor,'' said Gamba head coach Akira Nishino. ``If we took the initiative of the game a bit earlier, we'd have been a winner. Now we come away with nothing and it's going to be hard to catch the Reds.''

The outcome means Urawa could take the second-stage title as early as Nov. 10.

JEF took a 2-0 lead in the first half and must have figured they had the three points in the bag.

They looked like sleep-walking zombies in the second half and let Gamba get within one and then equalize.

That must have woke them up as JEF finally came to life in the waning minutes and attacked aggressively on goal, but they just didn't have enough punch to score the game-winner.

``In the last few minutes, some our players played selfish. That's why we failed to net the winner,'' said JEF head coach Ivica Osim after the game. ``Both teams took risky chances to try and win the game. But that's good, though. You have to play aggressive to win the match.''

Both teams came out strong at the onset, hoping to knock the other out of the title hunt.

It was a fierce battle in midfield for much of the first half, but the pressure caused both sides to commit costly mistakes.

JEF midfielder Yuki Abe went deep into the Gamba side to pass to forward Naotake Hanyu, who netted the opener in the 10th minute.

Gamba didn't help their cause any when they had an own goal in the 44th minute.

In the 60th, midfielder Yasuhito Endo came back with a brilliant volley shot to make it 2-1 after Hideo Hashimoto headed the ball to him.

Fernandinho set up an equalizer in the 73rd with a nice through pass to Oguro, who slotted home.(IHT/Asahi: November 1,2004)