Marked for Matheus Thuler
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 27, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jun Ichimori 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Match12 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Vissel Kobe do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gotoku Sakai 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Rikuto Hirose
“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.
In brief
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Player ratings
The one thing Erik could not do
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Squad
A muscle injury sidelines Haruya Ide for 16 days
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Jean Patric
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
29 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Vissel Kobe
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Vissel Kobe are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a goal for Vissel Kobe
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vissel Kobe heard it as anything else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jun Ichimori in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vissel Kobe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Yuta Goke runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Vissel Kobe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gotoku Sakai is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
34 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match29 Aug 2026
The goals have deserted Vissel Kobe
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Vissel Kobe can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad31 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 Vissel Kobe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Takashi Inui, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market31 Aug 2026
The Yuto Ozeki conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Persita will make the call about Yuto Ozeki this week. Vissel Kobe have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Katsuya Nagato 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
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Vegalta Sendai ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Caetano shuts the door
Defensive actions: 34, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 32 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 27. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Yuto Ozeki
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Vissel Kobe's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vissel Kobe has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 34, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Yoshinori Muto yet — 8.37
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Takashi Inui and Vissel Kobe agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
Matheus Thuler wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Vissel Kobe hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Vissel Kobe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gotoku Sakai is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad3 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 Vissel Kobe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Takahiro Ohgihara, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
The one thing Yuya Osako could not do
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.