Ryo Germain's fourth goal proved the winner as promoted Jubilo Iwata won 5-4 away Friday at Kawasaki Frontale in the J-League first division for their first win of the season.
Moments after Frontale had come back from an early three-goal deficit, Germain had a goal called back at Kawasaki's Todoroki Stadium by the VAR for a handball by a defender.
Given a second chance from the penalty spot, the forward, who scored nine times last season in the second division, struck the 97th-minute winner.
With Jubilo leading 1-0 after Hiroto Uemura's sixth-minute goal, Germain bagged a brace to make it 3-0, only for Frontale to come back thanks to two goals from their new forward Elison. The Brazilian twice had solid shots at a hat-trick blocked, with his compatriot Marcinho knocking in one of those to equalize in the 59th minute.
Germain made it 4-3 to Jubilo from the spot in the 80th minute, before Shin Yamada did the same for Frontale five minutes later.
The Jubilo striker appeared to seal the win when he kicked the ball away from a defender early in added time and fired past keeper Jung Sung Ryong, only for the VAR to intervene and call the ball dead upon contact with the defender's arm and give Germain another penalty kick.
"This (four goals) is something that pretty much never happens," Germain said. "The ball kept coming to me right in front of the goal, so it was pretty lucky. But to get the win we had to fight hard for 90 minutes."
"My teammates got some good balls into the area, and that was key for us tonight."
In Friday's other game, Kazuya Konno's second-half goal lifted Avispa Fukuoka to a 1-0 away win at Yokohama F Marinos.
