The FC Tokyo Courier
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Kota Tawaratsumida runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Yasuki Kimoto damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
13 unbeaten for FC Tokyo
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation FC Tokyo did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Keigo Higashi out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Tokyo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Feb 2027
Masato Morishige 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 FC Tokyo can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Feb 2027
FC Tokyo may not be able to give Marcelo Ryan what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcelo Ryan wants continental football; whether FC Tokyo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at FC Tokyo
Kota Tawaratsumida 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Graduation day at FC Tokyo
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market22 Feb 2027
One of our own: Junya Doan joins the FC Tokyo first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Junya Doan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market FC Tokyo promote Hidemasa Mitoma from within
- Squad Kento Hashimoto falls out with a teammate over standards
- Match Honours even between FC Tokyo and Shonan Bellmare