The Vissel Kobe Gazette
Match24 May 2028
The small margins put Vissel Kobe out
Out, 1‑2 to Urawa Reds, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad29 May 2028
Tempers go at Vissel Kobe
Tetsushi Yamakawa 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.
Squad29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Vissel Kobe lose Katsuya Nagato
56 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad29 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Takashi Inui
“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 ratings29 May 2028
Nobody could get near Kimani Stewart-Baynes
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match27 May 2028
No goals between Vissel Kobe and Sagan Tosu
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Sagan Tosu will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings29 May 2028
A day to forget for Jean Patric
Marked 5.52, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings29 May 2028
An afternoon Ivo Kestler will want back
Marked 5.63. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
In brief
- Player ratings Off the pace: Yuta Goke
- Boardroom The Vissel Kobe production line keeps running