Kashiwa Reysol crashed to a 2-0 loss against visiting South Korean side Jeonbuk Motors in the Asian Champions League on Wednesday night.
Jeonbuk, the 2016 ACL winner, cemented its place atop Group E thanks to goals from Brazilian forward Ricardo Lopes and former South Korean national team stalwart Lee Dong-guk at Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium.
The visitors, who came into the match leading the ACL with 17 goals from their four previous outings, took 16 minutes to open the scoring when an intricate movement down the right side culminated in Lopes tapping in from close range.
Defender Ryuta Koike attempted to draw Reysol level in the 39th minute following a corner, but fired high and wide after Junya Ito found him in the box.
Ito had his own shot from the center of the penalty area blocked five minutes later by Jeonbuk keeper Song Beom-keun.
Reysol turned up the pressure in the second half, dominating possession but failing to break down their opponents, who were content to soak up pressure and hit back on the break.
Veteran striker Lee came off the bench in the 67th minute and doubled the lead 10 minutes later, firing past goalkeeper Kazushige Kirihata from just wide of the penalty spot after Reysol's defense failed to clear a corner.
The result leaves Reysol with one win, one draw and three losses from their five round-robin matches.