Jubilo Iwata poured cold water on Kashiwa Reysol's attempts to reignite their J.League title challenge while adding fuel to their own ambitions with a 3-0 win over the defending champions on Saturday night.
Reysol went into the match at Hitachi Stadium having seen their tremendous recovery from a poor start to the season — rising from 15th to fourth in the table in the space of two months — checked by three draws from their last three games.
But goals from Jubilo's Hiroki Yamada and Yuichi Komano and a red card for Reysol defender Naoya Kondo all within the first half-hour complicated the Chiba side's chances of getting back on track, and a third from Ryoichi Maeda 12 minutes from time completed the rout as Jubilo leapfrogged their hosts into fourth place.