It was sweet revenge for Osaka, who lost to Urawa in the Emperor's Cup final. They also lost their J-League title to Urawa in the final game of last season.

"It was really good that we defeated Urawa at last," said a relieved Osaka coach Akira Nishino after the official season opener.

"We couldn't beat them last season, so we just tried to prepare for the match and do what we could do at this moment. I was very surprised that my players did much better than I had expected."

Nishino said his team had lost 1-0 to Urawa in the Emperor's Cup final last month because they missed so many chances.

Osaka also lost to Urawa in last year's Super Cup -- a match between the league champions and the cup winners.

"We couldn't score a single goal in the Emperor's Cup final, although we had many chances. It was the same at the beginning of the game today, so my players had a strong intention to score afterwards," said Nishino.

"We were able to play well today in preparation for the J-League tournament. Hopefully, we can do the same in the league as well. We are going to work harder and make the team stronger," he added.

Osaka led Urawa 22-5 in shots on goal and controlled most of the game, with Alves -- last year's top J-League scorer -- opening the scoring in the 31st minute from a rebound off Urawa goalkeeper Norihiro Yamagishi.

Midfielder Takahiro Futagawa fired a shot from outside the area to make it 2-0 in the 42nd minute.

Alves hit the post in the 51st minute but made it 3-0 in the 77th minute, netting another rebound off the keeper.

And he scored his third in the 85th minute with yet another goal following a rebound from Yamagishi, becoming the first player to score a hat-trick in Super Cup history.