This weekend marks the return of arguably Asia’s best domestic competition, as Japan’s J.League kicks off for its 29th season in an expanded 20-team format for the first time in its history.
Due to COVID implications in the hectic 2020 campaign no clubs were relegated meaning Tokushima Vortis and Avispa Fukuoka return to the top flight after clinching the top two spots in J2 to round out a first division that features clubs from all four of Japan’s main islands for the first time.
There are some competition tweaks that could impact things with the arrival of VAR as well as implementation of the new ‘concussion substitute’ rule and crowds will be capped for at least the first month of the season as many parts of Japan remain under a state of emergency due to growing COVID numbers.
What won’t change though is the number of fine young talents that continue to drop off the production line at various clubs year after year and which make the J.League one of Asia’s most entertaining leagues.
There are stylistic variants to suit all tastes, from the all-out dynamism of Yokohama F.Marinos and Kawasaki Frontale, the measured approach at Nagoya and the defensive-minded philosophy adopted at Shimizu, Sendai and elsewhere.
With four clubs set to be relegated at season’s end and a further four tussling for the title and ACL spots there should be constant drama right the way through to the end of the season in December.
Here we run down which clubs are likely to contend, survive or struggle as well as highlighting the key stars and emerging talents at each of the 20 J1 clubs.
CONTENDERS (Kashima Antlers, Kawasaki Frontale, Yokohama F.Marinos, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Nagoya Grampus)
After setting all sorts of records in 2020, and starting the new season impressively by winning the Super Cup last weekend, it’s going to take a mighty effort to knock off Kawasaki but I feel that Kashima are primed to do just that with no ACL distractions.
Brazilian forward Everaldo starred in his first year with the club in 2020 and is a leading Golden Boot contender, and although there are some questions over their defensive depth the midfield is stacked with quality and solid cover, whilst the looming arrivals of Diego Pituca and Arthur Kaike add even more polish to an already dazzling squad.
Frontale, too, have fine options in the midfield and up front and Kaoru Mitoma is the next big thing in Japanese football, surely set to head for Europe within 12 months, but it will be very hard to maintain the consistency that they displayed last year – they’ll be in the hunt all the way but I feel Antlers might just edge them at the end of a long season.
F.Marinos are set to unleash an even more attacking approach in 2021 as Ange Postecoglou continues to look to find new tactical edges, and once again they’ll be involved in plenty of high scoring matches. They unquestionably have the quality to win the league going forward – if they can manage to keep the goals from coming at the other end with their high-risk/high-reward approach that’s the most entertaining in the league.
Hiroshima are set to unveil a new-look 4-2-3-1 and I feel they could quietly be a huge improver in 2021 with a more attack-minded approach and a squad that’s a nice blend of exciting youth and solid experience, led by the evergreen captain Toshihiro Aoyama.
Last year, Nagoya set a new benchmark for clean sheets and that defensive solidity will hold them in good stead for a title tilt, especially if electric winger Mateus brings his dynamic form from last season into this one, although there are questions marks over the quality in front of goal with forward Mu Kanazaki set for an extended spell on the sidelines and ACL commitments to also contend with.
KASHIMA ANTLERS
COACH: Antonio Carlos Zago (BRA)
KEY PLAYERS: Everaldo, Kento Misao
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Ayase Ueda, Ryotaro Araki
KAWASAKI FRONTALE
COACH: Toru Oniki
KEY PLAYERS: Kaoru Mitoma, Jesiel
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Yasuto Wakizaka, Daiya Tono
YOKOHAMA F.MARINOS
COACH: Ange Postecoglou (AUS)
KEY PLAYERS: Marcos Junior, Thiago Martins
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Ryonosuke Kabayama, Powell Obinna Obi
SANFRECCE HIROSHIMA
COACH: Hiroshi Jofuku
KEY PLAYERS: Toshihiro Aoyama, Tsukasa Morishima
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Kodai Dohi, Shun Ayukawa
NAGOYA GRAMPUS
COACH: Massimo Ficcadenti (ITA)
KEY PLAYERS: Mateus, Mitch Langerak
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Ryoya Morishita, Shunto Kodama
CHALLENGERS (FC Tokyo, Vissel Kobe, Gamba Osaka, Cerezo Osaka, Shimizu S-Pulse)
Two of last year’s ACL contenders have no such distractions this season and if FC Tokyo can find a more consistent creative edge they could push up towards the top four, but the limited signings they’ve made so far don’t indicate that will be the case and they might just continue to bludgeon teams to death in midfield and with a solid defensive approach.
That should be the opposite of the way that Kobe approach things, with all-out attack the mantra at a club whose ideology is to be Asia’s ‘Number One Club’ – the loss of Andres Iniesta for the first part of the season is a blow but if highly promising Brazilian youth international Lincoln can hit the ground running then they should have the goals to at least contend and improve on last season’s 14th-placed finish.
It could be mixed fortunes for the two Osaka clubs with Cerezo jettisoning Spanish manager Miguel Ángel Lotina (who led them to a fourth-place finish last year) in large part for not adhering to their long-held policy of playing entertaining football, and so Brazilian Levir Culpi has been recalled for a fourth stint in charge.
The transfer business so far has been somewhat confusing and they might make a slow start but should improve as the season wears on – that might leave them looking up at a Gamba side who have all the raw talent to be serious title contenders but who, for some reason, have failed to assemble that quality into a real challenge under former club legend Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, but this could well be the year for the blue half of Osaka.
After being let go by Cerezo, Lotina landed at Shimizu S.Pulse, with the club turning 180 degrees from the attacking mentality they adopted at the start of 2020 under Australian coach Peter Cklamovski, to the now reactive philosophy of the veteran Spaniard and whilst results should improve with some superb off-season recruitment, it’s unlikely that the entertainment value will.
FC TOKYO
COACH: Kenta Hasegawa
KEY PLAYERS: Masato Morishige, Diego Oliveira
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Go Hatano, Kyosuke Tagawa
VISSEL KOBE
COACH: Atsuhiro Miura
KEY PLAYERS: Andres Iniesta, Kyogo Furuhashi
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Yuta Goke, Lincoln
GAMBA OSAKA
COACH: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto
KEY PLAYERS: Yosuke Ideguchi, Masaaki Higashiguchi
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Shuhei Kawasaki, Yuya Fukuda
CEREZO OSAKA
COACH: Levir Culpi (BRA)
KEY PLAYERS: Hiroshi Kiyotake, Kim Jin-hyun
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Ayumu Seko, Jun Nishikawa
SHIMIZU S.PULSE
COACH: Miguel Angel Lotina (ESP)
KEY PLAYERS: Shuichi Gonda, Carlinhos
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Yugo Tatsuta, Akira Disaro
MID/LOWER TABLE (Kashiwa Reysol, Urawa Reds, Consadole Sapporo, Sagan Tosu, Vegalta Sendai)
The loss of one of the most electric forwards that the J.League has ever seen will clearly hurt a Kashiwa side that has so far failed to bring in any sort of replacement for the brilliant Kenyan Michael Olunga, and although they still have some solid attacking options in the likes of Cristiano (below) and Ataru Esaka they seem sure to slip down the table.
Urawa made a shrewd coaching appointment in nabbing Ricardo Rodriguez after his fine work in guiding Tokushima Vortis to promotion, and whilst I think this is a move that will bear long-term fruit it might be a season of struggle initially, with some major squad overhaul being undertaken and a couple of off-season scandals that might see Reds start slowly.
Sapporo spent most of pre-season without manager Petrovic who broke a bone overseas and haven’t done much in the way of transfer activity, and although they have a solid and experienced core, there are questions over depth and if key creative and scoring options such as Chanathip (also rumoured to be the target of overseas interest) and Jay Bothroyd can’t stay fit then Consadole could be in for a real slide.
Tosu are one of the real league battlers financially but their youth teams have done fantastically well in recent years with manager Kim Myung-hwi not shy of featuring those players – which he’ll likely have to do again this year – and the coach deserves credit for overhauling the identity of the club as well from a tactical standpoint where they are now a far more entertaining side to watch.
That stands in contrast to the dour mentality long adopted at Sendai who have returned to that vision with gusto by re-appointing former coach Makoto Teguramori, who is likely to look to continue to try and grind out results, with perhaps only some key foreign talent being enough to see them survive in 2021.
KASHIWA REYSOL
COACH: Nelsinho (BRA)
KEY PLAYERS: Cristiano, Ataru Esaka
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Takumi Kamijima, Angelotti
URAWA RED DIAMONDS
COACH: Ricardo Rodriguez (ESP)
KEY PLAYERS: Tomoaki Makino, Yuki Abe
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Hidetoshi Takeda, Atsuki Ito
CONSADOLE SAPPORO
COACH: Mihailo Petrovic (AUT, SER)
KEY PLAYERS: Chanathip Songkrasin, Akito Fukumori
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Tomoki Takamine, Tsuyoshi Ogashiwa
SAGAN TOSU
COACH: Kim Myung-hwi
KEY PLAYERS: Eduardo, Daiki Matsuoka
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Shinya Nakano, Ryunosuke Sagara
VEGALTA SENDAI
COACH: Makoto Teguramori
KEY PLAYERS: Jacob Slowik, Issac Cuenca
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Wataru Tanaka, Hayato Teruyama
STRUGGLERS (Shonan Bellmare, Tokushima Vortis, Oita Trinita, Yokohama FC, Avispa Fukuoka)
Promoted Tokushima will be hampered by the inability of new manager Dani Poyatos to enter Japan until perhaps a month or so into the new season, with the rather odd occurrence of a new coach having to conduct training sessions by video from the other side of the planet sure to have an impact on how Vortis start in just their second season in J1, but I feel that their attacking approach may just be enough to see them survive.
Shonan too are set to go with an unusual approach for a struggling team in placing their fate in a core group of highly talented youngsters – which continually condemns them to having those young stars poached and having to rebuild, as was the case again in this current off-season – but the likes of Taiga Hata, Kosei Tani and Shuto Machino might just have the quality to see them stay up.
I fear for the rest though with Oita shorn of their best defensive talents and with a noticeable lack of creativity and goal threat outside of the injury-prone Naoki Nomura, whilst Yokohama FC too have lost some of their most promising youngsters and have a team again bizarrely constructed with multiple veterans set to contend for starting roles, and promoted Fukuoka might struggle to find the goals needed to stay in the top flight although they should be fairly resolute defensively.
SHONAN BELLMARE
COACH: Bin Ukishima
KEY PLAYERS: Kosei Tani, Akimi Barada
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Taiga Hata, Shintaro Nago
TOKUSHIMA VORTIS
COACH: Daniel Poyatos (ESP)
KEY PLAYERS: Ken Iwao, Yuki Kakita
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Joel Chima Fujita, Taisei Miyashiro
OITA TRINITA
COACH: Tomohiro Katanosaka
KEY PLAYERS: Naoki Nomura, Shun Takagi
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Keita Takahata, Kento Haneda
YOKOHAMA FC
COACH: Takahiro Shimotaira
KEY PLAYERS: Yusuke Matsuo, Kazuma Watanabe
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Reo Yasunaga, Daiki Nakashio
AVISPA FUKUOKA
COACH: Shigetoshi Hasebe
KEY PLAYERS: Hiroyuki Mae, Bruno Mendes
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Taro Sugimoto, Takumi Nagaishi
Photo: J.League
Listen to our TAG Extra special as Scott and Sean Carroll preview the upcoming J.League season.
