Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kashiwa Reysol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Alves will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taiyo Koga 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kashiwa Reysol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Masato Yuzawa is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kashiwa Reysol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Taiyo Koga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Hayato Tanaka 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Taiyo Koga signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Alves will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kashiwa Reysol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Nov 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taiyo Koga 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kashiwa Reysol are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kashiwa Reysol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
60 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
314 appearances across 16 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Alves will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kashiwa Reysol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kashiwa Reysol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Taiyo Koga 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Takefusa Mitoma was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kashiwa Reysol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yusuke Segawa and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and Caracas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deal with San Martín is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Huachipato have kept their man, and Kashiwa Reysol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
89 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kashiwa Reysol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
96 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.
Taiyo Koga 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuki Tomiyasu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Takefusa Tanaka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kashiwa Reysol, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Junior Alves 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ryosuke Kojima signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Ryosuke Kojima 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taiyo Koga 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.
“I did not go to Vissel Kobe to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kashiwa Reysol and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yuto Yamada has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kashiwa Reysol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Taiyo Koga 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Alves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Junior Alves and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 1 years.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ryosuke Kojima signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Ryosuke Kojima 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marquinhos Pedroso and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 2 years.
Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Taiyo Koga signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kashiwa Reysol. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taiyo Koga 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.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Kashiwa Reysol are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tojiro Kubo signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
0‑4 to FC Tokyo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 12 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Ryosuke Kojima 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Taiyo Koga 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.
Ryosuke Kojima 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
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taiyo Koga 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.
Marked 8.68 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Shinji Inoue is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Koji Haraguchi 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.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Avispa Fukuoka; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Kashiwa Reysol offered $2.2M; Gamba Osaka said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Avispa Fukuoka moved on, Sachiro Toshima reports back to Kashiwa Reysol, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taiyo Koga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Koya Yuruki 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.
Marked 8.63 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitario have kept their man, and Kashiwa Reysol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yokohama F. Marinos wanted more than $1.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The name of Shumpei Naruse has come up in conversations Kashiwa Reysol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Ventforet Kofu, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Mao Hosoya takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mao Hosoya provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
15 seasons and 278 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The offer went to Sport Recife this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Jubilo Iwata for Yusei Yamanouchi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Add another name to the list: Central Coast Mariners have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yota Komi. The answer from Kashiwa Reysol has not changed — yet.