Tochigi City saw off Sagan Tosu 3-1 at Ekimae Real Estate Stadium on Saturday in the third round of the J-League 2 regular season. The visitors took control in the opening exchanges before adding two more to seal their second away victory of the campaign.
K. Abe gave Sagan Tosu the lead at the 14th minute, and for a while it looked as though the home side might keep their heads after that early boost. To be fair, they had the territory and the possession to back it up, but the goal did not bring a second. By then Tochigi were already lining up their response.
T. Nguen evened things up at 56 minutes and then struck again just four minutes later to put the game beyond doubt. The hosts threw bodies forward after that, but the visitors kept their structure and took their substitutions carefully. T. Nguen was withdrawn at the 65th minute alongside R. Hyon and T. Takahashi, while Sagan Tosu brought on M. Yoshida, A. Toyoda and T. Mori in search of something.
Kato Jo added a fourth at 85 minutes to put the game to bed early, and the visitors saw out the remainder without panic. They made two more changes at the hour-and-a-half mark through Y. Koike and K. Nishiya, but the result was already settled. The hosts had created space in wide areas, but could not convert it.
Sagan Tosu dominated the possession numbers at 0.64 and registered 87 attacks with ten corners, yet only four shots found the target. Tochigi City, with 0.36 possession, managed nine shots on target from 68 attacks and three corners. They did not travel to make up the numbers, and they did not need to.
The victory moves Tochigi City up to tenth place on six points from four matches, while Sagan Tosu remain twelfth with five. The home side had won once and drawn twice before this setback, but the pattern of last season did not carry over into this one. Three or four moments decided the afternoon, and the rest was just noise.