From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Sep 2026
Yuma Suzuki 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 Kashima Antlers can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Naomichi Ueda 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Machida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kashima Antlers are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
When it matters, Leo Ceara 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Junya Inoue was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kashima Antlers dressing room was either.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Kashima Antlers have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Naomichi Ueda 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Avispa Fukuoka, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Leo Ceara at his very best
Marked 8.54. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kashima Antlers.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Yuma Suzuki at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kashima Antlers.
Squad21 Sep 2026
8 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ítalo and Kashima Antlers agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryuta Koike, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
Nagoya Grampus will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kashima Antlers were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Leo Ceara, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match12 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.90 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Machida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Koji Yamane has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Elber
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Junya Inoue could afford to be generous.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Sep 2026
Urawa Reds will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kashima Antlers were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Both of them Leo Ceara's — 9.62
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.62, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Elber, 34, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Aleksandar Cavric and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.99. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Machida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Kashima Antlers did not have in the autumn.
Match5 Sep 2026
Kashima Antlers settle it inside twenty minutes
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Urawa Reds spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
In brief
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Yuma Suzuki
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Yuji Kajikawa
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over FC Tokyo, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Leo Ceara scores twice — 9.53
Two goals and a mark of 9.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Kashiwa Reysol for Aleksandar Cavric 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Aleksandar Cavric 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The window shuts on the Shuto Abe deal
Kashima Antlers ran out of time with Gamba Osaka. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Yuma Suzuki
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without defeat, and then Vissel Kobe. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
In brief
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Squad
5 new faces, and Kashima Antlers are still learning each other
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The dugout
Leo Ceara has become a man the manager trusts
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Squad
Kaito Chida falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Vegalta Sendai are out and Kashima Antlers go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 6‑0 win over Vegalta Sendai, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match22 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Kashima Antlers scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FC Tokyo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from KV Oostende for Yuma Suzuki 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kashima Antlers have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Yu Funabashi takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yu Funabashi provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Yuki Kakita took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kashima Antlers tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Yuma Suzuki has come up in conversations Kashima Antlers were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sanfrecce Hiroshima wanted more than $3.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Naomichi Ueda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Machida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sanfrecce Hiroshima paid $150.0K and Kashima Antlers took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Libertad have kept their man, and Kashima Antlers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Kashima Antlers have gone to Sanfrecce Hiroshima with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.1M on the table at Yokohama F. Marinos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Kashima Antlers asked and FC Tokyo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Koki Machida and Kashima Antlers agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Naomichi Ueda 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Rikuto Hirose wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Kashima Antlers hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Tomoki Hayakawa
“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.
Match8 Aug 2026
FC Tokyo left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hajime Soma is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Shonan Bellmare, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Leo Ceara takes the afternoon — 9.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leo Ceara provided it, and the 9.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kashima Antlers heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leo Ceara and Kashima Antlers agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashima Antlers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Koki Machida 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Yuma Suzuki in the middle of it, and Shonan Bellmare unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.16 — 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.