Kashiwa Reysol: J-League's Underdog Story

An Unpredictable Rise

Coming into the 2025 J-League 1 season, not many would've pipped Kashiwa Reysol to be on course for a successful season. After finishing 17th consecutively over the last 2 years, Reysol have built an unfortunate reputation as a relegation-level team, with their only bright light being the talented forward Mao Hosoya, who racked up 25 goals and assists in 66 games across the last 2 seasons.

J-League 1 table this season:

POSITION	MATCHES PLAYED	POINTS	GOAL DIFF.
Kashima Antlers	21	41	13
Kashiwa Reysol	21	38	6
Senfrecce Hiroshima	20	36	10

This year, however, Reysol sit 2nd after 21 games played, only 3 points behind the ever-present Kashima Antlers. With new manager Ricardo Rodriguez at the helm, is now the time for Kashiwa to turn the narrative and go from relegation battles to title parades?

How have Kashiwa Reysol had this turnaround?

Reysol's first point of order this season was hiring new manager, Ricardo Rodriguez. He started his managerial career at Girona, where Rodriguez lead his side to win promotion via play-offs from the Tercera Division (4th tier of Spanish football) to La Liga 3.

After leaving Girona, Rodriguez spent 3 years at Malaga, gaining promotion for them too. He then took a role in Saudi Arabia's youth setup, before moving to 3 different Thai-league teams across a short few years. Rodriguez then landed at Japan’s shores in 2016 for a role at Tokushima Vortis, a J-League 2 side. He picked up their first ever J2 League title, once again gaining promotion and solidifying a quiet reputation for Rodriguez as a promotion expert.

His next move was his biggest, joining the Urawa Red Diamonds and guiding them to an Emperor's Cup victory in 2021, followed by a Japanese Super Cup win in 2022. After his successful Urawa stint, he spent one year at Wuhan Three Towns in China, before finally returning to Japan to take on the Kashiwa challenge.

How do Kashiwa play?

Rodriguez favours a high-intensity, high-attacking build-up style for his teams, with a very high press that gambles on opposition mistakes and looks to punish half-chances at blistering speed. Similar to Ange Postecoglou’s ‘Ange-ball’, his teams focus heavily on cut backs from wingers and wing-backs to oncoming late runs from attacking midfielders in the box. This then leads me to Kashiwa's star players:

• Yuto Yamada: Centre Midfield (25 years old)

  Yamada is the rock of this Kashiwa Reysol squad; a consistent performer who you can always rely on to deliver what many fail to. He is a defensive-minded midfielder, with most of his stats being best in that department. This season, he has 66 duels won at a win percentage of 56.4%, alongside 19 interceptions, 66 recoveries and 17 tackles, with a tackle success rate of 58.6%. He is also a strong passer of the ball with 86% pass accuracy, whilst having a 66.7% dribbling success rate.

• Yoshio Koizumi: Attacking Midfielder (28 years old)

  Racking up 5 goals and 3 assists in 20 games this season, Koizumi is in the form of his life, with this current stat return already being the most of his career for one season, still with many games left to play. He is a player who has that gene to get into spaces and nick goals, being a ghost that makes picking him up as a defender a very difficult task. He works defensively too, though, racking up an impressive 83 recoveries and 83 duels won. Attacking-wise, he has created 22 chances, won 27 fouls and has an X.G of 2.12.

• Tojiro Kubo: Right Wing-Back (26 years old)

  A wing-back with exceptional attacking abilities, alongside a high work rate to bomb up and down the pitch, Tojiro Kubo has taken his game to a new level this season, creating lots whilst being a dynamo defensively. He has 3 goals and 4 assists from right-back, with this season being a bit of a long time coming; he has always been talented, but never seemed to have pushed on. Now he is doing just that.

Kashiwa are definitely the story to follow for the rest of this season, with the title race looking like it will go to the wire. Will Reysol defy the odds, or will Kashima Antlers enforce their command at the top of the table and spoil the party?

Will Reysol win the league title?

• Yes
• No