John Hutchison’s J1 League side suffered a 7-3 defeat against Gwangju FC in their opening game of the continental championship but made amends with a well-earned victory in a re-run of last season’s AFC Champions League™ semi-final.
Kota Watanabe put the home side in front in the fourth minute and Takuma Nishimura added the second a minute before the interval while Anderson Lopes hit a late third and Kota Mizunuma scored a fourth to give Marinos their first three points of the campaign.
Ulsan, meanwhile, remain without a point having also lost their opening game against Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale in last month’s first matchday of the league phase.
Marinos, much changed from the side that had struggled in Korea Republic last month, made the perfect start as John Hutchison’s side opened the scoring in the fourth minute.
Lopes dropped deep to pick up possession from Ken Matsubara and quickly shuttled the ball to the left to Elber, allowing the Brazilian to pull his cut back to Watanabe and the midfielder made no mistake as he calmly side-footed home.Ulsan escaped going further behind soon after when referee Mohammed Al Hoish ruled out Yan Matheus’ strike, the Brazilian judged to have handled before rolling the ball over the line after a poor clearance by Jo Hyeon-woo looked to have gifted the home side a second.
Yago Cariello had a rare sight of goal for the visitors in the 28th minute but his deflected shot was too weak to trouble Hiroki Iikura while Yan Matheus was only marginally wide with an effort at the other end moments later.
With little more than a minute remaining in the half, Marinos launched a devastating counterattack to double the lead.
Nishimura started and finished the move, bringing the ball out of defence to feed possession to the left to Elber, who in turn released Lopes. His pass found Matheus, the Brazilian teeing up Nishimura as the midfielder arrived late in the box to slot past Jo.
Elber was close to adding a third for Marinos less than a minute after the restart while Yago’s towering header almost allowed Ulsan to put themselves on the scoreboard, the ball bouncing across the face of goal.
Lopes put the result beyond doubt with seven minutes remaining, picking up possession just inside the Ulsan half and powering forward to strike from the edge of the area, beating Jo with a vicious left-foot shot via the inside of the post.
Substitute Mizunuma scored Marinos’ fourth from close range in injury time with the backpedalling Ulsan defence run ragged by Kenta Inoue.
Up next for the Marinos are China PR’s Shandong Taishan in an away fixture on October 22 while Ulsan will host Japan’s Vissel Kobe a day later.
