Marked for Yuto Ozeki
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Oct 2027
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 49 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Masaya Tashiro: 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
8 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market11 Oct 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kawasaki Frontale heard it as anything else.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
Match9 Oct 2027
3 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Appearance number 100 for Yuto Ozeki
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to César Haydar, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
Hiroto Taniguchi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match25 Sep 2027
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Vissel Kobe. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.46 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market27 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Yuichi Maruyama has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kawasaki Frontale.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Kawasaki Frontale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masaya Tashiro 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
Yuto Ozeki hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kawasaki Frontale can pretend not to have heard.
Match4 Sep 2027
4 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Taiga Hata beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Yasuto Wakizaka 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kawasaki Frontale can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Taiga Hata 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Masaya Tashiro 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 ratings6 Sep 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched So Kawahara
7.16, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Kawasaki Frontale had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Jun Ichimori knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kawasaki Frontale, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Aug 2027
$11.2M from Gamba Osaka for Tatsuya Ito. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market9 Aug 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kawasaki Frontale, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Tatsuya Ito was one of the reasons people came, and $11.2M does not replace that by itself.
Market9 Aug 2027
The chase for Yota Maejima ended with $2.9M changing hands and Avispa Fukuoka out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The deal with Gamba Osaka is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Louis Yamaguchi and Kawasaki Frontale agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Hiroto Taniguchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
Hiroto Taniguchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” César Haydar and Kawasaki Frontale agree another 4 years.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Tatsuya Ito is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.33 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kento Tachibanada is on it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Everton Galdino 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
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kawasaki Frontale may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tatsuya Ito and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
The crowd has taken to Yuto Ozeki
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market5 Jul 2027
22 games and 0 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of Kazuya Konno at his very best
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kawasaki Frontale.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of Tatsuya Ito at his very best
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kawasaki Frontale.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Apr 2027
Yuki Yamamoto hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kawasaki Frontale can pretend not to have heard.
Match17 Apr 2027
6 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
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.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
The crowd has taken to Yuto Ozeki
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
One of those days for Yuto Ozeki
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Taiga Hata 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.87, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad19 Apr 2027
5 new faces, and Kawasaki Frontale are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kawasaki Frontale, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match10 Apr 2027
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Yasuto Wakizaka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Yasuto Wakizaka at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kawasaki Frontale.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yuichi Maruyama, and the manager let it.
Match10 Apr 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Sanfrecce Hiroshima leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Half-satisfied: Hidemasa Kubo on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Match20 Mar 2027
0‑1 to Avispa Fukuoka, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Hidemasa Kubo to a room that had heard them before.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Kawasaki Frontale are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Kayke
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Looking ahead22 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yusei Yamanouchi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kawasaki Frontale needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
No place in the plan for Jesiel
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kawasaki Frontale people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market8 Feb 2027
Vissel Kobe 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 Feb 2027
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Kashiwa Reysol drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yuto Ozeki and Kawasaki Frontale agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan move for Kenta Nemoto is in the works
Kawasaki Frontale have made the call to Urawa Reds. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad8 Feb 2027
No place for Kenshin Yuba in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kawasaki Frontale are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The number went down and he came anyway, which in this sport is either a romantic gesture or a market telling somebody something. Time will decide which, and the dressing room will have an opinion long before that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
Asahi Sasaki hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kawasaki Frontale can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Hiroto Taniguchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sagan Tosu have kept their man, and Kawasaki Frontale go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kawasaki Frontale can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Yuto Ozeki 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Kento Tachibanada 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kawasaki Frontale know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Reon Yamahara has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer from Gamba Osaka for Yuto Ozeki was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Avispa Fukuoka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marcinho. The answer from Kawasaki Frontale has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Kawasaki Frontale asked and Vissel Kobe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Tatsuya Ito gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tatsuya Ito is on it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
So Kawahara knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and So Kawahara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Kawasaki Frontale have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kawasaki Frontale heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Yasuto Wakizaka 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yuto Ozeki is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Marcinho
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Kento Tachibanada 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad4 Jan 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Derik Lacerda knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Derik Lacerda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market4 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kawasaki Frontale know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hiroto Taniguchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yuto Ozeki is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match10 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ten Miyagi. 1‑0 against Nagoya Grampus, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Louis Yamaguchi and Kawasaki Frontale agree another 3 years.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
One of those days for Ten Miyagi
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kawasaki Frontale are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Sota Miura
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Hidemasa Kubo could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 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 Kawasaki Frontale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yuto Ozeki is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Kawasaki Frontale will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Derik Lacerda 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Kawasaki Frontale have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Kawasaki Frontale board find $6.0M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $6.0M well is entirely his problem now.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hidemasa Kubo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Ten Miyagi
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Marcinho
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcinho, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market10 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.4M on the table at Yokohama F. Marinos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.5M — a club that wants Taiki Watanabe enough to be asked twice.
Market10 Aug 2026
The chase for Everton Galdino ended with $470.0K changing hands and FC Tokyo out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market10 Aug 2026
Kashiwa Reysol pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Yasuto Wakizaka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hidemasa Nakamura has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.