The Vegalta Sendai Chronicle
Squad14 Sep 2026
The knee: Masahiro Sugata out for 111 days
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vegalta Sendai lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Vegalta Sendai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Schmidt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hiroto Iwabuchi 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 Vegalta Sendai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Sep 2026
Maya Suzuki steps up from the Vegalta Sendai academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maya Suzuki 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
One of our own: Genki Ueda joins the Vegalta Sendai first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Genki Ueda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match12 Sep 2026
Hinata Yamauchi the difference as Vegalta Sendai beat Sagan Tosu
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hinata Yamauchi. 1‑0 against Sagan Tosu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Hinata Yamauchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Genki Honda, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ko Miyazaki was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
In brief
- The dugout Takuya Okamoto asks for a word with the manager
- The dugout No hiding place for Akihiro Hayashi
- Looking ahead A reunion for Daniel Schmidt