Marked for Hidemasa Hasebe
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Dec 2027
24 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Daniel Schmidt and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Kanji Okunuki 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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Masahito Ono, and the manager let it.
Market13 Dec 2027
The Renji Matsui talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vegalta Sendai know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
When it matters, Han Ho-Gang plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Oct 2027
Position 17, 24 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Hidemasa Hasebe damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Market18 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vegalta Sendai can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Shunta Araki 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Kanji Okunuki 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kotaro Nagata, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market18 Oct 2027
The Renji Matsui talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vegalta Sendai know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market18 Oct 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ginjiro Ikegaya has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Vegalta Sendai.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
Hidemasa Hasebe damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match11 Oct 2027
Position 17 on 24 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Hayata Ishii: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vegalta Sendai have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Oct 2027
Only the photograph left for Shota Arai
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shota Arai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vegalta Sendai the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad11 Oct 2027
Sho Araki and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Vegalta Sendai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kanji Okunuki 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniel Schmidt
“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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Shunta Araki
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
The Daniel Schmidt story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Oct 2027
Anger at Vegalta Sendai spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad4 Oct 2027
34 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Yokohama F. Marinos, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Aoi Kudo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vegalta Sendai have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Schmidt commits to Vegalta Sendai for another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuto Ozeki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Hiroki Noda
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vegalta Sendai can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kai Shibato and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miki Tomiyasu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hidemasa Hasebe 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The game went through Hiromu Kamada — 6.71
Marked 6.71 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Vegalta Sendai
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.