Marked for Erison
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Yu Kobayashi breaks a bone — 16 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Louis Yamaguchi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kawasaki Frontale have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tatsuya Ito 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Erison wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reon Yamahara, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Urawa Reds? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yu Kobayashi breaks a bone — 23 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yasuto Wakizaka wants continental football; whether Kawasaki Frontale can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tatsuya Ito 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 Kawasaki Frontale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kawasaki Frontale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. So Kawahara 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Erison
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.90. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Vissel Kobe leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
The chances came and went for Kazuya Konno
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yu Kobayashi breaks a bone — 30 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jesiel 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 Kawasaki Frontale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Tatsuya Ito
“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.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Soma Kanda has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nothing got past Jesiel
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Vegalta Sendai, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
So Kawahara dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Yu Kobayashi out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kawasaki Frontale will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Svend Brodersen 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Jesiel shuts the door
Defensive actions: 20, 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
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Kawasaki Frontale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Monsalve 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Omiya Ardija defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Erison
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yu Kobayashi breaks a bone — 48 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tatsuya Ito 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Hiroto Taniguchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Nothing got past Jesiel
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Giovanni pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Erison keeps on missing
Shots: 5, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Sanfrecce Hiroshima go through and Kawasaki Frontale go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Soma Kanda at 20 — 7.82
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Soma Kanda did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tatsuya Ito 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 Kawasaki Frontale 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 Svend Brodersen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Tatsuya Ito was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tatsuya Ito has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kawasaki Frontale will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Shonan Bellmare leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The chances came and went for Erison
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
PSM come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kawasaki Frontale did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tatsuya Ito 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 Kawasaki Frontale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.65 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Erison
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yuto Ozeki and Kawasaki Frontale agree another 5 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kawasaki Frontale, another week without a signature from Louis Yamaguchi.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Sanfrecce Hiroshima leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
Yasuto Wakizaka 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 Kawasaki Frontale hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tatsuya Ito 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Erison wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Yuto Ozeki has come up in conversations Kawasaki Frontale were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Soma Kanda gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.