Yosuke Kashiwagi and Marcio Richardes both scored twice as Urawa Reds burst Kashiwa Reysol’s bubble with a 6-2 thrashing in Tokyo in the J. League on Sunday.

Genki Haraguchi and Ryota Moriwaki also got their names on the scoresheet as Reds brought Reysol back to earth with a bump after they reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Champions League in midweek.

The result moved Urawa, which beat Sagan Tosu by the same scoreline last weekend, back into third spot on 26 points, while leaving 2011 champion Kashiwa 16 points adrift of leaders Omiya Ardija (32), who won 3-0 at Ventforet Kofu on Saturday.

Masato Kudo, who won his first national team call up on Thursday, a day after scoring to help Reysol reach the last eight of the ACL for the first time, looked lively and nearly opened the scoring early on under sunny skies at National Stadium.

But his lob over advancing Reds keeper Nobuhiro Kato had too much pace and the ball went out for a goal kick before Haraguchi broke the deadlock on 17 minutes.

Haraguchi fed Shinzo Koroki and took the return pass to bury his sixth league goal of the season, and Kashiwagi added the second when he turned in Tsukasa Umesaki’s cross with his outstretched leg deep into first-half stoppage time.

Kashiwagi’s pace and movement continued to cause Kashiwa problems after the break and he earned and scored the free kick that put Urawa 3-0 up after 63 minutes.

The former Hiroshima man was pulled down by Hirofumi Watanabe as he looked set to burst past the defender, who was rightfully shown a yellow card by referee Nobutsugu Murakami.

But Kashiwagi picked himself up and a sent a curling free kick over the wall to give Takanori Sugeno no chance in the Kashiwa goal.

“My free kicks have been good recently and I fancied my chances from that position. I am happy that it went in and contributed to a win for the team,” he said. “We are really taking our chances at the moment. Hopefully we can keep scoring and also cut down on the number of goals that we are conceding.”

Kashiwagi then made way for Marcio Richardes having taken a knock and he extended Urawa’s lead further, Koroki setting the bleach-blonde Brazilian up for a simple tap-in.

Substitute Junya Tanaka headed in Ryosuke Yamanaka’s cross to pull one back for Kashiwa on 75 minutes, only for Moriwaki to quickly restore Reds’ four-goal cushion with a shot that took a wicked deflection off Daisuke Suzuki.

Naoya Kondo headed in Jorge Wagner’s cross with five minutes left before Richardes bundled home to complete the scoring.

Kashiwa boss Nelsinho admitted his team had been second best and was hopeful of getting back to winning ways against champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Wednesday.

“All I can say is that we made mistakes against a team that is in excellent form at the moment,” said the Brazilian.

“We have to take three points (on Wednesday). Hiroshima are formidable opponents and we will just have to try and prepare as best we can to get a result.”

Urawa also plays Wednesday against Vegalta Sendai in a match rescheduled because of both teams’ involvement in the ACL before heading into the international break.