Cerezo Osaka held Kashiwa Reysol at bay with a 2-0 victory in the J-League 1, Regular Season round five at Kintcho Stadium on Tuesday. The hosts moved off the bottom of the table while the visitors saw their unbeaten run snap after four consecutive wins.
Solomon Sakuragawa opened the scoring in the twentieth minute, finishing a tight exchange inside the box. Jackson Irvine picked up a yellow card forty-two minutes in after a late challenge, and by then Cerezo had settled into their rhythm. Things came to a head around half-time when three fresh legs entered the fray for the hosts.
Koki Kumasaka, Yuki Kakita and Hinata Yamauchi all came off together at the break for Kashiwa, while Keita Endo and the experienced Shinji Kagawa — making his return — were among the changes for Cerezo. The visitors tried to respond but Sakuragawa doubled his tally from the spot in the sixty-eighth minute. Yoshio Koizumi was brought on shortly after, and Ricardo Rodríguez Suárez went into the referee's book for a second caution in the seventy-ninth minute.
Cerezo finished the game with more than they started, but Kashiwa dominated possession at 52 per cent and registered five shots on target compared to three. The visitors won nine corners to six and completed 480 passes against 456, yet they could not convert their advantage. Shots accuracy tells the story — 45 per cent for the away side against 27 per cent — but one mistake ends it when you're defending a lead.
The result leaves Cerezo Osaka tenth with six points from four matches, while Kashiwa Reysol remain top of the table with twelve points. Both sides have played the same number of games, but the gap between them is now eight points. The hosts have hit a wall in their search for consistency, but this was a day when three moments mattered more than the rest.
