Olunga on the brink of winning Golden Boot, money

Kashiwa Reysol star striker Michael Olunga is confident that he can bang in 30 goals per season in Japan’s top-tier (J1 League).

He disclosed this to Japanese news outlet, Mainichi, ahead of Kashiwa’s last away fixture in the 2020 J1 League slated for Wednesday against Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Asked whether he can pull off that number of goals, the Kenyan international's emphatic response was that he was equal to the task.

“The expectation for 30 goals is entering a match based on hard work, and as a result, goals are born. It's only a matter of time."

He has scored 26 of Kashiwa’s 57 goals in the 18-team league this season and is on course to be crowned the Golden Boot winner.

Engineer, as Olunga is nicknamed by Kenyan fans, is ahead of Everaldo Stum (Kashima Antlers) and Leandro Pereira (Sanfrecce Hiroshima) in the Golden Boot race. The Brazilians have netted 17 goals and 15 respectively. The winner of the accolade will also walk away with about Sh530,000.

However, Olunga, the J1 League’s August Player of the Month, has not scored in the last three matches. He will be desperate to end that goal drought against Sanfrecce.

He scored against Sanfrecce when these two teams met in Hiroshima on October 6, 2018. On that day, Reysol triumphed 3-0 with Olunga’s goal coming after a brace from Junya Ito.

Since 2015, Kashiwa has enjoyed a good outing in Hiroshima after registering three victories, including in the last two, and drawn once.

Kashiwa’s last four visits have yielded an aggregate score of 8-0 against Sanfrecce. The last time coach Nelsinho’s men lost in Hiroshima was in October 2014 when they surrendered 2-0 in Nabisco Cup (now known as Levain Cup).

Sanfrecce threw away an early lead in a one-all draw when these two sides met in the league this season in the first leg in September in Kashiwa. Brazilian Douglas Vieira put Sanfrecce ahead in the ninth minute.

Kengo Kitazume equalized just before halftime in the match which Olunga played the entire 90 minutes.

Both seventh-ranked Kashiwa and eighth-placed Sanfrecce will enter the pitch desperate to end their winless runs of three matches.

Kashiwa lost against Nagoya Grampus 1-0 (December 5), before drawing against Oita Trinita 1-1 (December 9) and Cerezo Osaka 0-0 (December 12). Sanfrecce drew with Shonan Bellmare 1-1 (November 25) and Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo 2-2 (November 28), before losing 1-0 against FC Tokyo (December 12).

If Olunga gets a goal against Sanfrecce or champions Kawasaki Frontale on the last day of the season (December 19), he will equal the 27 goals he scored in 2019 J2 League as Kashiwa won a ticket to return to the top-tier (J1 League).

Players currently ahead of Olunga for the highest number of goals scored in one season in the history of J1 League are Masashi Nakayama (36), Brazilian Araujo (33), Masahiro Fukuda (32), German Frank Ordenewitz (30), Argentinian Ramon Diaz (28) and Brazilian-Qatari Emerson (27).