Kenyan Footballer Micheal Olunga has been trending for the right reasons since Wednesday following Samurai Blue’s 14-0 win over Mongolia in a 2022 Fifa World Cup Asian second Qualifying Group “F” match on Wednesday.
The win brought back memories of Olunga’s eight-goal blitz in Kashiwa Reysol’s 13-1 demolition of Kyoto Sanga in a J2 League match on November 24, 2019.
Reysol’s victory remains the biggest win in Japan’s Professional Football League history.
“For some reason, Olunga has entered the trend in Yahoo! real-time search behind the “historical victory”, which is a record for the most goals in the World Cup qualifying for the Japanese national team,” reports said in Japan where nine different scorers netted for Hajime Moriyasu’s side against Mongolia.
Due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions preventing the game from being held in Mongolia, the game took place behind closed doors at Fukuda Denshi Arena, with Japan designated as the away team.
The unusual setting proved to be of little concern to Hajime Moriyasu’s men, who found their way onto the scoreboard through Takumi Minamino’s 13th-minute grounder and were rarely troubled by Mongolia’s spirited attempts to press forward on the attack.
Daichi Kamada, Yuya Osako and Hidemasa Morita all netted goals of their own in the first half, while Ken Matsubara’s cross was deflected in by a Mongolian defender for an own goal in the 39th minute.
Mongolia’s man of the match was undoubtedly goalkeeper Monkh-Erdene Enkhtaivan, who delivered a number of highlight-worthy saves.
But the 25-year-old, who plies his trade for Ulaanbaatar-based Athletic 220, was no match for Japan’s mostly Europe-based squad, which reached double digits after 80 minutes and plowed to 14 by the final whistle. Junya Ito, Kyogo Furuhashi and national team debutant Sho Inagaki netted braces, while Osako closed out his hat trick with the team’s 13th goal and Takuma Asano also found the back of the net.
Japan remained atop of Group F with 15 points.
