The Hindmarsh outfit were paired with the 2007 J-League champions at the official AFC Champions League knockout stage draw in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday afternoon.

The Antlers, who finished top of Group F, will host the first leg on Wednesday 17 September 2008 before the second leg will be held in Adelaide a week later on September 24.

The Japanese club scored a staggering 28 goals in the Group Stage (conceding only three) with a five win, one loss record.

United coach Aurelio Vidmar, who played with Japanese club San Frecce during his playing career, said: "They will be pretty much similar to what we’ve experienced with the Chinese and the Koreans.

"They will be strong, quick and powerful and at this point I don’t know too much about the players they have in their squad but over the coming months we’ll be doing as much homework as possible on them.

“It doesn’t really matter who you draw because all the other seven teams are extremely strong but logistically it is going to be nice and easy for us because we should be able to get a direct flight from Melbourne or Sydney straight to Tokyo.”

Kashima is a port city on the eastern side of Japan located 80 kilometres east of Tokyo with a population of approximately 63,500.

There was a strong likelihood that Adelaide United would be drawn against a Japanese side, as all three Japanese teams were kept apart in the draw.

If United was to progress to the semi-finals it would meet the winner of the first quarter-final between Saipa (Iran) and Kuruvchi (Uzbekistan) in a two leg semi final in October.

At the completion of the quarter finals, the semi finals will be played on October 8 and October 20 before the two legs of the final will take place on November 5 and November 12.