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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
32 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Yuki Kakita’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kashiwa Reysol.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Koki Kumasaka 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 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Taiyo Koga
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Yuki Kakita in the middle of it, and Jubilo Iwata unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Bianchi 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.
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
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.
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.
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.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tojiro Kubo 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 needed Yuki Kakita to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
36 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Out, 0‑0 to Kashima Antlers, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
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.
“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
Hayato Tanaka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.86. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Kashima Antlers paid $1.1M and Kashiwa Reysol took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Koya Yuruki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Add another name to the list: Ventforet Kofu have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tomoya Inukai. The answer from Kashiwa Reysol has not changed — yet.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Kashiwa Reysol scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Makoto Mitsuta provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The chase for Taiki Watanabe ended with $1.5M changing hands and Yokohama F. Marinos out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Biola Sabitu is living that version at Kashiwa Reysol, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Makoto Mitsuta’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kashiwa Reysol.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Koki Kumasaka 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.
In brief
Player ratingsKoya Yuruki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsYusuke Segawa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Zenit arrived with $10.7M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
He is going to Zenit, the club has $10.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bruno Bianchi 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 phone has started ringing about Mao Hosoya again, and this time the name on the line is Zenit. Kashiwa Reysol are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
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.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Marked 9.19 — 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.