Marked for Jonathan Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Yohei Takaoka damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sanfrecce Hiroshima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mutsuki Kato falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yohei Takaoka
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sanfrecce Hiroshima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sanfrecce Hiroshima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mutsuki Kato falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yohei Takaoka damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yohei Takaoka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Ryo Germain at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Vegalta Sendai leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Out, 0‑1 to FC Tokyo, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Yokohama F. Marinos, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sanfrecce Hiroshima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mutsuki Kato falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Hayato Araki
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A smaller club would suit Keisuke Osako now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Sanfrecce Hiroshima can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.