Kashiwa Antlers and Avispa Fukuoka met at Kashiwa Soccer Stadium on Saturday in the third round of the J-League 1 regular season. The hosts held on for a 3:2 victory after a match that swung between advantage and collapse. Kashiwa now sit third on four wins in five games, while Avispa remain rooted at eighteenth after four defeats.
Nara Tatsuki handed Kashiwa luck early with a thirty-first minute own goal, then picked up a yellow card eight minutes later. Shu Morooka doubled the lead before half-time with a thirty-ninth minute strike, giving the hosts a cushion they would not keep. Léo Ceará made it three at the hour mark, but Čavrić pulled one back for Avispa in the sixty-fourth.
The match turned when Ceará scored against his own side in the seventy-sixth minute, levelling the score and leaving Kashiwa scrambling. Three substitutions followed immediately for the hosts — Yu Hashimoto, Masato Shigemi and Kazuki Fujimoto — as they tried to stem the pressure. Werik Popó came on for Avispa in the seventieth minute, while Kokoro Maeda entered their ranks in the seventy-eighth.
Kashiwa kept possession at fifty-six per cent but managed only four shots on target compared to Avispa's seven. The visitors launched more attacks overall — 102 to the hosts' 78 — yet could not convert their pressure into a winner. Both sides created two big chances, and neither team could find a decisive edge after the equaliser.
Rikuto Hirose and Gaku Shibasaki came on for Kashiwa in the eighty-fifth minute as the hosts held their shape. Ikuma Sekigawa had picked up a yellow card in the sixty-seventh minute, and his side kept a clean sheet of disciplinary infractions after that. Yuta Matsumura had already been introduced in the sixty-eighth minute as Kashiwa closed out the game.
The result extends Kashiwa's unbeaten run to five matches across all competitions, while Avispa's run of defeats continues. The hosts now hold a nine-point gap over the visitors in the table, a margin that feels comfortable but could evaporate quickly if the away side finds any consistency. The goal difference tells a similar story — Kashiwa have scored thirteen goals and conceded nine, Avispa eight for seventeen.