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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, bringingin 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(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.Close...F-Marinos’
Teruhito Nakagawa
(in blue) and Kento
Hashimoto of Tokyo
finished first and
second last seasonThis will be the first season of full VAR at all
top-tier games...following some high-profile
refereeing errors last seasonP
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XxxxxVeteran...Kazuyoshi Miura is back at 52