From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Omiya Ardija are out and Urawa Reds go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Vissel Kobe, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market24 Aug 2026
RFC Liege come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Urawa Reds did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 5 out at Urawa Reds
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $68.2K — a club that wants Katsunori Ueebisu enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Urawa Reds will try again when the window opens; Vissel Kobe may not be selling by then.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Urawa Reds have gone to Vissel Kobe 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 targets24 Aug 2026
$60.0K on the table at Jubilo Iwata. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Urawa Reds did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sanfrecce Hiroshima have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $73.9K — a club that wants Ryota Oshima enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$68.0K on the table at Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sho Araki and Urawa Reds agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sho Araki 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 Shusaku Nishikawa is on it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
An offer of $74.0K for Ryuki Miura
Urawa Reds have gone to Jubilo Iwata 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
The offer went to Kawasaki Frontale 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miki Inoue is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shinji Mitoma 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shinji Honda 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hotaru Honda 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Omiya Ardija, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.04 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
661 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Urawa Reds know what they have.
Transfer targets3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sai Van Wermeskerken has just signed for Urawa Reds, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Kaito Yasui goes up and wins it — 7.88
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
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 Urawa Reds heard it as anything else.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Danilo Boza wants continental football; whether Urawa Reds can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Newcastle Jets 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shusaku Nishikawa and Urawa Reds agree another 2 years.