Football Season Guide

The 2022 J1 league champions, fell just short of a back to back titles, ending runners up to Vissel Kobe. The team struggled at the start of the season with a number of injuries including defenders Koike, Nagato and Hatanaka and that led to them having to regularly use youth players. Despite this, the team were able to find form mid-season and rose up the table and remained in the hunt up to the penultimate game. The club had a decent Asian Champion League group stage and have qualified to the knock out stages. The off-season saw managerial change with Harry Kewell coming in for the departing Kevin Muscat. There has been a few transfers, most notably was first choice keeper Jun Ichimori leaving to be replaced by William Popp. Popp doesnt have much J1 league experience so there are a few concerns about his quality level. The team also lost young defender Tsunoda who will be a big miss in their defense. Overall the squads quality has lowered a little yet remain one of the strongest in the league, especially up front where there three Brazilian strikers (Elber, Lopes and Yan) were prolific last season and the same is expected this season.