Machida struck early, the recently crowned Emperor’s Cup winners converting from a set-piece.

 

Keiya Sento’s corner from the right was delivered deep into the penalty area and the late-arriving Shimoda was left unmarked to unleash a vicious strike back across the face of goal and into the bottom corner.

Ulsan’s Park Min-seo then thrashed his shot well wide of Kosei Tani’s goal in the 20th minute and just moments later the home side doubled their advantage.

 

Oh’s headed knocked down was shuffled forward by Keiya Sento into Nishimura’s path and he strode towards goal, hitting a right-foot shot from outside the area that flashed past Jo Hyeon-woo’s dive.

Ulsan should have halved the deficit three minutes before the interval when Lee Hui-gyun drove through the heart of the midfield, laying the ball off to Gustav Ludwigson and his deft touch into the area found Um, but he fired wildly over the bar.

 

Within two minutes of the restart, Machida had added to their lead. Oh capped a fine team move that saw Shimoda feed the ball out to the right to Masuyama and his cross looped up for the Korea Republic international to nod a downward header past the goalkeeper.

The K League outfit pulled one back in the 55th minute, however, when Ludwigson muscled his way past Gen Shoji after latching onto a ball over the top of the defence and set up Um to slam the ball into the roof of the net.

 

Tani then touched Um’s low shot onto his own post with his outstretched left boot as Ulsan threatened to reduce the deficit further in the 63rd minute while Yuta Nakayama squandered a golden chance to hit a fourth for Machida, dragging his attempt wide.

 

Um was denied again by Tani when he raced towards goal and Lee Dong-gyeong’s follow-up went over the bar to leave Ulsan frustrated.