E.J. O'Brien

Left Back - Kashiwa Reysol
19 Sep 2038
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Overview Personal Contract News 4 Transfers Relations Events 102 Awards Matches History

Marked for E.J. O'Brien

633 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

13 Sep 2038
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad13 Sep 2038

Yota Komi 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.

Squad13 Sep 2038

Nagatomo Doan damages knee ligaments — 41 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 41 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 ratings13 Sep 2038

Mauricio Cardillo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.13

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Match11 Sep 2038

No end in sight to Kashiwa Reysol's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kashiwa Reysol has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad13 Sep 2038

Soki Tamura is carrying Kashiwa Reysol

10 goals and a season average of 7.65. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market13 Sep 2038

E.J. O'Brien is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad13 Sep 2038

Tempers go at Kashiwa Reysol

Jay Idzes 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 ratings13 Sep 2038

Nobody could get near Tazabo Malesa

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

Match11 Sep 2038

A bad afternoon for Kashiwa Reysol against Avispa Fukuoka

1‑2 to Avispa Fukuoka, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

Back issues
629 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

16 Aug 2038
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad16 Aug 2038

Yota Komi breaks a bone — 53 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad16 Aug 2038

A knee injury of the worst kind for Nagatomo Doan

76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match14 Aug 2038

12 unbeaten for Kashiwa Reysol

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Kashiwa Reysol did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings16 Aug 2038

Mauricio Cardillo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.55

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.55 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Match14 Aug 2038

Kashiwa Reysol make home a hard place to visit

13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Market16 Aug 2038

E.J. O'Brien is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad16 Aug 2038

Tempers go at Kashiwa Reysol

Jay Idzes 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.

Squad16 Aug 2038

Defences have started doubling up on Hayato Tanaka

10 goals and a season average of 7.46 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings16 Aug 2038

Ryota Onoda in the eights

A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

628 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

9 Aug 2038
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad9 Aug 2038

Yota Komi breaks a bone — 62 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad9 Aug 2038

A knee injury of the worst kind for Nagatomo Doan

83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match7 Aug 2038

11 unbeaten for Kashiwa Reysol

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Kashiwa Reysol did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings9 Aug 2038

Age has not caught Hayato Tanaka yet — 9.31

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad9 Aug 2038

Defences have started doubling up on Soki Tamura

10 goals and a season average of 7.71 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market9 Aug 2038

Only the photograph left for Eric Klein

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eric Klein will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad9 Aug 2038

Jay Idzes signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jay Idzes commits to Kashiwa Reysol for another 2 years.

Boardroom9 Aug 2038

E.J. O'Brien has agreed to leave Kashiwa Reysol for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Match7 Aug 2038

Mahboob the difference as Kashiwa Reysol beat Sagan Tosu

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mahboob. 2‑1 against Sagan Tosu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

In brief

568 Edition

The Kashiwa Reysol Chronicle

15 Jun 2037
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad15 Jun 2037

Nagatomo Doan breaks a bone — 90 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad15 Jun 2037

A one-man rearguard from Nagatomo Mitoma

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market15 Jun 2037

Only the photograph left for Eric Klein

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eric Klein will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Player ratings15 Jun 2037

E.J. O'Brien pops up at the right end — 7.09

7.09, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Match13 Jun 2037

The wait goes on for Kashiwa Reysol

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.

Squad15 Jun 2037

Jay Idzes 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.

Squad15 Jun 2037

Yota Komi 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 ratings15 Jun 2037

Nobody could get near Yota Komi

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match13 Jun 2037

Nobody wins at Kashiwa Reysol

8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

In brief