Two-time defending J-League champions Kawasaki Frontale delivered their most convincing effort of the young season on Saturday, a 2-0 win at Kashima Antlers.
Early goals from Kei Chinen and Asahi Sasaki put the champions in the driver's seat at Ibaraki Prefecture's Kashima Stadium, and they survived a string of second-half near-misses to keep a clean sheet and improve to two wins and a loss.
Chinen pressured Antlers into a defensive mistake and exploited it to open the scoring in the second minute.
The Frontale forward harassed midfielder Yuta Higuchi into passing back into the penalty area to defender Ikuma Sekigawa. Chinen spun to face Sekigawa, snagged the defender's careless pass, rounded him and fired home for his second goal of the season.
Poor passes plagued Antlers, preventing them from turning early possession into scoring opportunities, while opening the door for Frontale counters.
Sasaki made it 2-0, the 22-year-old defender scoring his first career goal when a 17th-minute corner was headed in his direction at the far post, from where he did well to slam it home.
"In practice, I'm always looking for that kind of opportunity, and I thought if I were to score, that's how it would happen," Sasaki said. "The header missed, came to me and I struck it as well as I could."
Antlers did a much better job of testing the visitors in the second half. Higuchi grazed the bar with a shot early on as Frontale's defense lacked the sharpness it showed through the first 45 minutes.
Frontale began the season with an unconvincing 1-0 home win over FC Tokyo, but were beaten 4-2 on Wednesday by Yokohama F Marinos.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Katsuhiro Nakayama's 67th-minute goal settled the Shizuoka derby in Shimizu S-Pulse's 2-1 win at promoted Jubilo Iwata, while Yuya Fukuda scored the 83rd-minute winner as Gamba Osaka won 1-0 at Urawa Reds.
Promoted Kyoto Sanga remained unbeaten, holding Cerezo Osaka 1-1, while Sanfrecce Hiroshima at Consadole Sapporo and Shonan Bellmare at Sagan Tosu all finished with the same score. Avispa Fukuoka played to a scoreless draw at Vissel Kobe.
