Hiroki Abe

Left Midfielder - Urawa Reds
6 Jan 2027
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Hiroki Abe

21 Edition

The Urawa Reds Gazette

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Hidemasa Ueda

“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.

The dugout

Hiroki Abe has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Urawa Reds 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.

Market

The Ado Onaiwu story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ado Onaiwu signs something — a contract at Urawa Reds or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Kota Mizunuma has been promised minutes

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 Kota Mizunuma has written the date down.

Squad

Good reports on Kimito Nono

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.

In brief

Back issues
5 Edition

The Urawa Reds Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

The cup run ends for Urawa Reds

0‑0 against Avispa Fukuoka, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Shusaku Nishikawa

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Urawa Reds turn down Omiya Ardija for Hiroki Abe

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Matheus Savio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Words exchanged at Urawa Reds

Takuro Kaneko 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.

Match

3 matches without a goal for Urawa Reds

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Transfer targets

Deadline beats Urawa Reds to Gaku Shibasaki

The clock did what Kashima Antlers would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.

Player ratings

Ryosuke Yamanaka fails from the spot

Twelve yards and the whole ground holding its breath, and it did not go in. He will put his name down for the next one, which is the only thing to do.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Urawa Reds

12 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.

In brief