Sagan went into this having won three of their six games already, and surprising a few people in the process, while Albirex had struggled and, contrary to pre-season thoughts, were probably not expected to come out of this game with anything to show for their efforts. Sagan almost grabbed an early lead when Mizunuma latched onto a through ball in the 5th minute and, with the keeper beaten, saw his shot cleared off the line. Alan Mineiro came close with a free kick on 20 minutes for the visitors, but Tosu continued to look the more likely to score with Fujita coming close with a right footed free kick in added time of the 1st half – forcing a fingertip save from the keeper – but the game remained scoreless at the break.

It was Alan Mineiro again, hitting the post in the 65th minute, briefly raising the hopes of the visitors before a substitution for Sagan made the difference. In the 71st minute Koki Kiyotake – brother of Cerezo’s Hiroshi – made his debut in J. League and he immediately had an impact creating a chance that was spurned before delivering a classy through pass that saw Okada’s attempt stopped by the keeper, but the ball fell to Tozin who blasted the ball into the roof of the net from point blank range to give the points to Tosu!