Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hamed Al-Shanqeeti is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Vegalta Sendai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renji Matsui 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 Vegalta Sendai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shunta 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Renji Matsui 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Hiromu Kamada's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Renji Matsui 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 Hiroto Iwabuchi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vegalta Sendai.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Hiroto Iwabuchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
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 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.
11 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.
In brief
The terracesThe press have found their man in Hiroto Iwabuchi
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vegalta Sendai can pretend not to have heard.
Shunta 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Renji Matsui 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 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Júnior Brumado
Player ratingsThe one thing Shunta Araki could not do
Words at Vegalta Sendai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renji Matsui 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 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 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Júnior Brumado decided nobody was going anywhere. Ventforet Kofu had no time left to answer.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.62, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Renji Matsui 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.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Vegalta Sendai will not try tonight.
Nobody at Vegalta Sendai 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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Shunta Araki
A 1‑0 win over Yokohama F. Marinos, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Vegalta Sendai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renji Matsui 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.
18 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.
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.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Vissel Kobe, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Renji Matsui 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vegalta Sendai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Renji Matsui 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.
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 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ryotaro Araki is living that version at Vegalta Sendai, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vegalta Sendai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Vegalta Sendai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renji Matsui 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vegalta Sendai has been clear about where Azuri Yutani stands, which is more than many ever get.
Hiroto Iwabuchi 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
Renji Matsui 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vegalta Sendai, another week without a signature from Akihiro Hayashi.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vegalta Sendai has been clear about where Yota Sugiyama stands, which is more than many ever get.