Japan J.League season preview
Yokohama F-Marinos face fierce competition from big guns this season
The new J.League season kicked off in February with Yokohama F-Marinos defending their first J.League title in 15 years and FC Tokyo, the club they pipped at the post last time out, drawing ever closer to a long-awaited maiden championship success.
Kawasaki Frontale, champions in 2018 and League Cup winners last year, and Kashima Antlers, Japan’s most-crowned club, were also both itching for the restart after slipping up by their own high standards in the league last term. The J.League’s biggest spenders, Vissel Kobe, look as though they could be back on course for their aim of becoming “Asia’s Number One Club” after beating Kashima 2-0 in the Emperor’s Cup Final – a victory that secured a first-ever bite at the Asian Champions League this year.
J.League attendances were better than ever last season with the aggregate figure reaching a record 11,415,463 and the top-flight average topping 20,000. The money also continues to poor in from the DAZN broadcasting contract, while the transfer of international rights to Dentsu should produce a wider global access to J.League highlights.
This will also be the first season of full VAR at all top-tier games. In spite of the controversies elsewhere, the Japanese – who like to get things right – have rushed it into place ahead of the original schedule following some high-profile refereeing errors last season in matches where the test VAR system
was not being used.
The talent drain, however, has not only continued but sped up among the country’s top young players, led last year by Takefusa Kubo’s move from Tokyo to Real Madrid and Hiroki Abe going from Kashima to Barcelona. It has now become so normal for the J.League’s top clubs to lose their best young players that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic squad will probably consist mainly of youngsters now playing in Europe.
For Ange Postecoglou, starting his third season in charge of F-Marinos, the key challenge is how to maintain the extraordinary run-in to the title that saw his side win 10 and draw one of their final 11 league games. Wide attacker Mateus returned to Nagoya Grampus at the end of his loan but otherwise the same squad is largely in place, with the interesting additions of striker Ado Onaiwu from Urawa Red Diamonds and right-winger Kota Mizunuma – the son of former Nissan and Marinos great Takashi Mizunuma – from Cerezo Osaka. Onaiwu, who has a Japanese mother and Nigerian father, was called up in November and a first Japan cap may not be far away.
Tokyo, who led for most of the last campaign only to fade at the finish, are also looking settled under Kenta Hasegawa, who is starting his third season in charge. While the side’s Japanese players remain more or less the same, there has been significant turnover among the foreigners. Tokyo have turned to experienced players from other J.League clubs, bringing in midfielders Adailton from Jubilo Iwata and Leandro from Kashima, and Lebanon centre-back Joan Oumari from Kobe. The players leaving are on-loan Nattawut Suksum who returns to Bangkok United, Jael Ferreira who goes on loan to Matsumoto Yamaga, Yu In-soo who moves to Seongnam in South Korea and Oh Jae-suk who returns to Gamba Osaka after his loan spell.
While Tokyo and F-Marinos both lost use of their home stadiums to the Rugby World Cup last year, Tokyo will face the same temporary eviction order again this year on account of the Olympic Games. For better or for worse, Tokyo will have eight consecutive away games in the league from June to late August.
Kashima Antlers start 2020 under a new coach, Antonio Carlos Zago, following the departure of Go Oiwa. Capped by Brazil, Zago played a year in Japan for Kashiwa Reysol in the 1990s but is best remembered for his five-year spell at Roma, during which he spat in the face of Lazio’s Diego Simeone in the derby game, giving rise to the immortal call: “Zago spits fire like a dragon!”
Zago is looking forward to working with Kashima’s technical director Zico, who himself is remembered in Japan for, among other things, notoriously spitting on the ball to protest a penalty in the J.League’s inaugural season.
Kashima’s main pre-season signings were defenders Tatsuki Nara from Kawasaki Frontale, Japan international Daiki Sugioka from Shonan Bellmare and Rikuto Hirose from F-Marinos. They will, however, miss the creative Brazilian midfielder Serginho who has joined Changchun Yatai in China.
Kawasaki Frontale are standing by their 2019 squad despite failing to make it three J.League titles in a row but they do have one promising new signing in striker Reo Hatate, who makes a permanent move from Juntendo University. He has played for Japan at junior level and is hoping to make his mark at the 2020 Olympic Games.
Vissel Kobe have said goodbye to David Villa (retired), Lukas Podolski
This will be the first season of full VAR at all top-tier games... following some high-profile refereeing errors last season
(Antalyaspor in Turkey), Wellington (released), Oumari (Tokyo) and Mike Havenaar (released). But that still leaves boss Thorsten Fink able to call upon the services of such players as Andres Iniesta, Thomas Vermaelen, Sergi Samper, Dankler and the excellent close-season signing Douglas, a prolific striker from Shimizu S-Pulse.
Urawa Reds, finalists in last year’s Asian Champions League but caught up in the relegation battle at home, have mostly kept faith with their squad but also brought in Brazilian striker Leonardo, who scored 28 goals in 38 league games last year for second-tier Albirex Niigata, and the Kenya-born Australia under-23 captain Thomas Deng from Melbourne Victory.
There is no denying that there will also be much media interest in 52-year old Kazuyoshi Miura, who now returns to the top flight with promoted Yokohama FC for the first time since 2007.
“Kazu” isn’t expected to see much action this season, although he did make three brief appearances in the second tier last year and will surely extend his own longevity record very early on in the new campaign.