Koki Kumasaka

Defensive Midfielder - Kashiwa Reysol
26 Jan 2027
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Koki Kumasaka

24 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Kashiwa Reysol sell their best player to Newcastle United

$13.6M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.

Squad

Yusuke Matsuo damages knee ligaments — 33 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.

Market

Vissel Kobe come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Kashiwa Reysol did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

The terraces

Supporters turn on the $13.6M sale of Mao Hosoya

He is going to Newcastle United, the club has $13.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.

Market

Tomoya Inukai 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 Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Taiyo Koga 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 Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

Back issues
12 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Taiyo Koga 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 Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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.

Squad

Alejo Fernández wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kashiwa Reysol know it.

In brief

9 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Mao Hosoya asks to leave Kashiwa Reysol

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Kashiwa Reysol

Taiyo Koga 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.

Match

Yusuke Segawa sends Kashiwa Reysol past Shonan Bellmare

It finished 2‑0, and it was Yusuke Segawa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kashiwa Reysol.

Match

Shonan Bellmare blown away early

There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Shonan Bellmare tried to reorganise, Kashiwa Reysol did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.

Squad

Koki Kumasaka 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 ratings

A masterclass from Yusuke Segawa

Marked 8.19 — 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.

Squad

Wataru Harada 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 ratings

Taiyo Koga shuts the door

Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Squad

Yuta Miyahara signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yuta Miyahara and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 5 years.

In brief

8 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Taiyo Koga 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 Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuke Matsuo 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.

Loan watch

NaberuYoshitaka Furusawa wants to come home

“I did not go to Nagoya Grampus to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kashiwa Reysol and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Yusuke Segawa

Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Kashiwa Reysol pick somebody else ahead of Koki Kumasaka

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.

Squad

No hiding place for Yudai Konishi

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yudai Konishi, and the manager let it.

Match

Kashiwa Reysol draw a blank against Jubilo Iwata

The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Jubilo Iwata defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Taiyo Koga

12 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.

Market

Kashiwa Reysol add cover with Yuta Miyahara

It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Yuta Miyahara is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.

In brief

4 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

The small margins put Kashiwa Reysol out

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.

Squad

Alejo Fernández gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alejo Fernández has just signed for Kashiwa Reysol, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Tempers go at Kashiwa Reysol

Ryosuke Kojima 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.

Market

Yusei Yamanouchi moves on

Gamba Osaka pay $410.0K, 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.

Squad

Taiyo Koga 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Shun Nakajima

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Kashiwa Reysol find a way past Albirex Niigata

Albirex Niigata made Kashiwa Reysol work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Yoshio Koizumi

Marked 8.16 — 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.

Squad

No hiding place for Koki Kumasaka

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Koki Kumasaka, and the manager let it.

In brief

3 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

A brace, and Yoshio Koizumi takes the afternoon — 8.42

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yoshio Koizumi provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Kashiwa Reysol cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Business is business: Seiya Baba goes

Omiya Ardija paid $1.0M and Kashiwa Reysol took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Squad

Tempers go at Kashiwa Reysol

Taiyo Koga 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Makoto Mitsuta

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Business is business: Hiroki Noda goes

Kashima Antlers paid $690.0K and Kashiwa Reysol took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Match

Kashiwa Reysol see off Kawasaki Frontale

Three points for Kashiwa Reysol, 2‑0 the final word against Kawasaki Frontale in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Koki Kumasaka 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 ratings

Nothing got past Taiyo Koga

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

In brief

2 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

So close: Mao Hosoya’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Club Brugge moved on, Mao Hosoya reports back to Kashiwa Reysol, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Market

Anderlecht come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Kashiwa Reysol did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Tempers go at Kashiwa Reysol

Taiyo Koga 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.

Squad

Sho Araki stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Sho Araki and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Yusuke Matsuo 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.

Match

Yoshio Koizumi sends Kashiwa Reysol past Sagan Tosu

It finished 2‑0, and it was Yoshio Koizumi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kashiwa Reysol.

Market

Talks stall between Kashiwa Reysol and Ryosuke Kojima

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Player ratings

Taiyo Koga was the difference for Kashiwa Reysol

Marked 7.89. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

Market

Persik expected to open talks for Yusei Yamanouchi

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Kashiwa Reysol will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

In brief