Kamatamare Sanuki vs Kitakyushu Match Recap - Oct 19, 2025

Kitakyushu’s Ruthless Second-Half Barrage Sinks Kamatamare Sanuki, Tightens J3 Midtable Race

On a cool autumn evening at Pikara Stadium, Kitakyushu delivered a blistering second-half display to overwhelm Kamatamare Sanuki 4-1, underscoring the chasm between these two J3 League sides and amplifying the urgent questions facing Sanuki as their campaign threatens to drift toward oblivion.

There was little to separate the teams at kickoff—both club histories are marked by spells of ambition and disappointment, but their present trajectories could hardly be more distinct. For Kitakyushu, who entered play sitting midtable and eyeing a late-season climb, the assignment was clear: pile pressure on the faltering promotion contenders above. For 19th-place Kamatamare Sanuki, deeply entrenched in a run of form now counting just one win in their last eight, the battlefield was survival itself.

The visitors wasted little time establishing their authority. In the 19th minute, Kitakyushu seized the first real opening of the match. A crisp exchange in the final third saw the ball teed up for a composed finish and an early 1-0 advantage—a blow from which Sanuki would never fully recover. The identity of the opener’s scorer was lost in the commotion, but the psychological effect was plain to see: Sanuki’s confidence, already brittle from recent drubbings, seemed to evaporate with the autumn dusk.

If the first half belonged to Kitakyushu in spirit, the second was theirs in totality. Just five minutes after the restart, R. Nagai drifted into space at the top of the area and unleashed a low drive that clattered in, doubling the lead and tilting the night decisively away from the hosts. Nagai’s third goal in two matches continued his emergence as Kitakyushu’s go-to attacking threat, a timely development as they chase a top-half finish.

Sanuki’s resistance—such as it was—crumbled further as the hour mark approached. In the 63rd minute, Koh Seung-Jin capitalized on more slack defending, steering home Kitakyushu’s third and stamping out any hopes of a Sanuki fightback. For the home faithful, it was familiar heartbreak; Sanuki have now conceded 15 goals in their last five league matches, a sequence that starkly narrates their defensive unraveling.

Kitakyushu’s attacking rotation gleefully exploited the gaps. Midfielder M. Yoshinaga added gloss to the scoreline in the 73rd minute, finishing off a sweeping move to make it four and seal the three points. By then, the home terraces had grown subdued, the sense of resignation unmistakable.

It was only in stoppage time that Sanuki spared themselves a shutout, notching a consolation goal as the game ticked past the ninety-minute mark. The source was anonymous, the impact negligible. It was a footnote, eclipsed by the larger story: another damaging defeat, another reminder of Sanuki’s season lost to inertia and inconsistency.

For Kitakyushu, the victory is a sharp rebuttal to recent stumbles—back-to-back matches in which their attack misfired and their ambitions dimmed. Tonight’s comprehensive showing, their third win in five and a fourth unbeaten, propels them into ninth on 44 points, just within touching distance of the congested promotion pack. The balance in manager’s squad seems to have returned, with both Nagai and Koh providing goals at crucial moments.

Contrast this with the home side’s trajectory. Sanuki have now tallied just one win—a 2-0 triumph over Sagamihara—since mid-September, losing four of their last five and slipping to 19th, perilously close to the league’s nadir. Their 28 points from 31 matches reflect not just a lack of bite up front, but a defensive unit leaking goals at an alarming rate. The recent 1-5 home collapse to Miyazaki felt calamitous; tonight’s reverse, if less dramatic, was every bit as conclusive.

Their head-to-head history offers little respite—Kitakyushu have become something of a bogey team in recent years, and tonight’s rout will do nothing to stem the sense of inferiority. The road ahead for Sanuki is grim: with only a handful of games remaining, both pride and their third-tier status are on the line.

For Kitakyushu, the night’s work was both dynamic and efficient—a team not just dispatching a struggling opponent, but also sending a message to their rivals. The midtable is compressed, the margins thin, and while promotion remains mathematically unlikely, finishing in the league’s upper echelon is suddenly a credible target.

For Sanuki, the “what’s next” has become deeply existential. Unless defensive frailties are urgently addressed and belief rekindled, this autumn could see Kamatamare slip from a cautionary tale to a cautionary example—a club in dire need of answers as winter draws close.