Michael Olunga scores again as Kashiwa fall to Kawasaki in season finale

Michael Olunga completed his first full season in J1 League as the top scorer with 28 goals after scoring once on the last day of the 2020 season as Kashiwa Reysol threw away a two-goal lead in a 3-2 loss to champions Kawasaki Frontale at Sankyo Frontier Stadium on Saturday.

Olunga, who joined Kashiwa mid-season in August 2018 when the side was relegated to the second tier, went one goal better than last season’s 27 goals in the J2 League.

On Saturday, the Kenyan international put Kashiwa ahead in the 14th minute after winning an aerial battle against defender Yamane to slot home into an empty net after side-stepping goalkeeper Jung Song-ryo.

He had gone down in the fourth minute after colliding with Song-ryo in Kawasaki box. Kashiwa had anxious moments as the 26-year-old stayed down for a few minutes to receive treatment before returning to play in the eighth minute.

More chances fell to Cristiano, Ataru Esaka and Olunga as well as opposition’s Leandro Damiao cleared by Ominami and goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu before half time.

Yusuke Segawa doubled Kashiwa’s lead with the first move of the second half. However, when Kashiwa thought victory was in sight, Kawasaki reduced the lead through Akihiro Ienaga on 48 minutes. A blunder by Seung-gyu saw Kawasaki equalise through Damiao in the 55th minute before a sucker punch from Ienaga, who had also scored twice when these two sides met in the first leg when Kashiwa fell 3-2 away.  

Odds were stacked against Kashiwa as they went into the match without a win against Kawasaki in four matches after losing the last two away fixtures with an aggregate score of 6-1.

Brazilian coach Nelsinho made three changes from the team that hit Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1-0 in midweek, replacing Takahashi, Kamada and Kureya with Yamashita, Kitazume and Cristiano. Kawasaki rung six changes to the team that floored Urawa Red Diamonds 3-1, bringing on Yamamura, Tanaka, Saito, Damiao and Hasegawa for Taniguchi, Nakamura, Wakisaka, Patric, Kobayashi and Mitoma.

For Olunga, there was no replicating his season-ending heroics of 2019 when he scored eight goals in 13-1 win over Kyoto Sanga.

However, for the second consecutive season ‘The Engineer’ finished the season as Kashiwa’s highest scorer and this time went on to win the Golden Boot with 28 goals.

His closest rival, Brazilian Everaldo, scored 18 goals. Kashiwa ended the season in seventh place with 52 points.

History maker

Olunga is the first ever Kashiwa Reysol player to emerge J1 League top scorer since the J1 League started in 1993.

He is the third African player to emerge top scorer after Cameroonian Patrick M’Boma who scored 25 goals for Gamba Osaka in 1997 and Nigerian Peter Utaka who got 19 goals for Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2016.

Olunga will get Sh530,000 prize money during the 2020 Japan Professional Football League awards on December 22 for winning Golden Boot.

Kashiwa’s focus turn to 2020 Levian Cup final slated for January 4, 2021 against FC Tokyo. This fixture was postponed from November 7, 2020 due to 16 coronavirus cases in Kashiwa camp.