🏏 Sat, 15 Aug 2026 18:00 JST
Kashima
vs
Nagoya Grampus
4-4-2 vs 3-4-2-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Kashima come into round two in fifth place, having won a 4-3 shootout away at Yokohama F. Marinos on the opening weekend for three points and a +1 goal difference. Nagoya Grampus, by contrast, sit 18th on zero points after losing 1-0 at home to Shimizu without scoring. With Kashiwa Reysol already six points clear of the pack from two matches, this pits the league's most productive opening attack against a side still waiting for its first goal of the season.
- Ryuji Izumi lines up at wing-back for Nagoya against Kashima, the club he previously represented. The 32-year-old is one of J1's most adaptable footballers, comfortable anywhere from wing-back to wide midfield, and he won a national high school title as top scorer with Ichiritsu Funabashi. Kashima have their own utility man in Rikuto Hirose, 30, a right-back who can also operate as a winger, making this a duel of positional chameleons.
- Kashima's 4-4-2 meets Nagoya's 3-4-2-1, and the central battle sets the tone. Kashima pair Brazilian Matheus Bueno, 28, a midfielder with Shimizu and Gil Vicente behind him, with Kento Misao, 30, a defensive midfielder sharpened by spells at Santa Clara in Portugal and OH Leuven in Belgium. Nagoya counter with Sho Inagaki, 34, who regularly covers more than 11km per match, and left-footed Tomoki Takamine, 28, a J2 Best XI pick after 10 goals in 2025.
- Kashima's strike partnership carries serious weight. Leo Ceara, 31, has scored double figures in five straight J-League seasons and finished 2025 as the division's top scorer while helping Kashima to the title. Beside him is academy graduate Minato Yoshida, the youngest player ever to make a J1 appearance for the club. Just behind them, 182cm Yuma Suzuki, 30, back from Sint-Truiden, is deployed in a midfield slot despite being a natural centre-forward, offering hold-up play and space-creating movement.
- Nagoya's attack depends on the interplay of their front three. Lead striker Yuya Yamagishi, 32 and 183cm, is an all-rounder who helped Avispa Fukuoka lift the League Cup and often drops deep to link play. In the shadow roles sit Yudai Kimura, 25 and 184cm, who wore the number 10 and hit double figures at Tokyo Verdy, and Takuya Uchida, 28, an FC Tokyo academy product who combines dribbling with ball-winning. Between them, they must end the goal drought from matchday one.
- Nagoya's back three faces a heavy assignment. Yuki Nogami, 35, established himself as a centre-back in Hiroshima's 4-4-2 and brings the calm of long experience; Akiya Fujii, 25 and 185cm, returned from KV Kortrijk and has been called up by Japan; Kiki Hara, 28, is a natural right-back who also fills in at centre-back and in midfield. Containing Leo Ceara, Minato Yoshida and the roaming Yuma Suzuki will define their evening.
- Kashima also have work to do at the back after conceding three in the opener. In the middle are Japan international Naomichi Ueda, 31 and 186cm, who is credited with 6.1 seconds over 50 metres and gained European experience at Cercle Brugge and Nimes Olympique, and Ikuma Sekigawa, 25, an aggressive header of the ball. On the flank, left-back Ryoya Ogawa, 29, offers crossing quality from his left foot after spells at Vitoria SC and Sint-Truiden, and must handle the explosive straight-line running of Katsuhiro Nakayama, 30.
- The two goalkeepers arrive from very different places. Kashima's Yuki Hayakawa, 27 and 187cm, was named J-League MVP and a Best XI selection in 2025 thanks to sharp reflex saves and comfort with the ball at his feet. Nagoya turn to 20-year-old Alex Pisano, a 195cm product of their own U-18 side with a Canadian father and Japanese mother, who has been called into a Japan squad for the U-17 World Cup and dominates his area on high balls.
- Kashima's bench mixes pedigree with pace. Gaku Shibasaki, 34, spent seven seasons in Spain with clubs including Leganes and Getafe and famously scored twice against Real Madrid in the 2016 Club World Cup final. Alongside him wait Aleksandar Cavric, the 186cm Slovak winger who became the club's first European signing, Yuta Matsumura, timed at 5.8 seconds over 50 metres, and 19-year-old Homare Tokuda, a 186cm, 83kg target man.
- Nagoya's substitutes are built for speed. Mateus Castro, 31, nicknamed for his devastating left foot, first came to Japan with Omiya Ardija in 2015, became a mainstay in Nagoya from 2020 and returned in 2025 after a stint with Al-Taawoun in Saudi Arabia. Kensuke Nagai, 37, scored in the knockout rounds at the 2012 London Olympics and still relies on raw pace, while left-footed Yuya Asano, 29, brings speed comparable to that of his brother Takuma.