Veteran Peter Utaka ensured a massive 6-1 home victory for his side Kyoto Sanga against Giravanz Kitakyushu with a sweet hat-trick in the match day 8 of the J-League clash earlier today to propel club to third place on the table.
“Manpo” opened the floodgate of goals as early as the 17th minute to put his side in the lead.
He doubled Kyoto’s lead six minutes later, before putting the icing on his hat-trick cake in the 52nd minute to maintain a 4-1 lead in the excitingly one-sided game.
Dutch defender Jordy Buijs completed the rout in the 75th minute to ensure Kyoto’s fifth victory in the eight-week old league.
Utaka’s hat trick shoots him up to the top of the scorer’s chart with seven goals.
The former OB Odense striker scored 22 goals to win the top scorer’s award last season and most significantly, he led the scorers’ chart from start to finish and it appears he will repeat his feat this season.
Utaka also became the first African to emerge top scorer both in J-League 1 and J-League 2 as he continues to paint his Japanese adventure in glory.
The 37-year old hit man is now expected to land Kyoto the J-League 1 promotion ticket they missed for the past two seasons.
He had earlier emerged top scorer in Belgium and Denmark.
