Olunga: Kenyan striker dedicates Kashiwa Reysol hat-trick to teammates

Kenyan international Michael Olunga has dedicated his hat-trick for Kashiwa Reysol against Vegalta Sendai to his teammates.

The former Gor Mahia striker added three goals to his J1 League tally after a 5-1 win over Sendai in a top-flight match played on Sunday.

After going for three matches without a goal since the Japanese league resumed on July 4, after taking a break owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, Olunga has so far scored in the last three matches and went top of the scorers’ chart.

Olunga has now dedicated his latest goals to his teammates, who he said have perfected the art of picking him out with great passes, thus helping him to do the job of scoring the goals.

“It was a good game, basically we tried to push from the very beginning and I want to thank the whole team for providing the platform for me to be able to score three goals today [Sunday],” Olunga told reporters after the match.

“I want to thank the whole team because my work is to stick at the danger zone and put the chances away and I did it again today [Sunday] because they provided the passes, it is great to play alongside such great players.”

In a recent interview, after the team’s 3-2 win against Shonan Bellmare, Olunga claimed he had regained his scoring boots and will make sure he scores in every match.

“Of course as a striker when you go into games your main aim is to score goals but at the end of the day in football, there are moments where you will have a goal drought and you cannot find the back of the net again,” Olunga told reporters after the match.

“But of course it is a good feeling to get my scoring boots back again and I know now the gates are open and it is going to be a different ball game altogether and today [Saturday] I scored two goals and I am looking forward to the upcoming games.”

With eight goals now, the former Thika United forward has a four-goal cushion against his closest challengers, Yu Kobayashi of Kawasaki Frontale, Musashi Suzuki of Consadole Sapporo, Marcos Junior of Yokohama Marinos, Leonardo Perreira of Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Kyogo Furuhashi of Vissel Kobe.

Kashiwa Reysol will be up against Nagoya Grampus on August 1 in their next league encounter.