Yuto Suzuki and Ayase Ueda have been off to red hot starts in 2022 and that continued in Matchweek 5. The Júbilo Iwata striker scored his fourth goal of the season to take the sole lead on the scoring chart, while Ueda scored his third to stay on Suzuki’s heels.

Suzuki’s goal came in a losing effort, but it was still an impressive headed finish off a Júbilo free kick.

Ueda’s goal was a pure solo effort. He got the ball in transition, cut towards the middle and, with three defenders closing down on him, hit a fabulous strike from 20 yards to help Kashima Antlers pick up the win.

While Suzuki is the only J1 League player with four goals, Yokohama F·Marinos’ Teruhito Nakagawa and Kyoto Sanga’s Peter Utaka are level with Ueda on three goals. It’s still very early in the season, but we have some outstanding goal scorers to watch in the J.League and they are giving us the start of what will hopefully be a tantalizing race for Top Scorer.