🏏 Wed, 2 Sep 2026 19:00 JST
Cerezo Osaka
vs
Kashiwa Reysol
3-4-2-1 vs 3-4-2-1
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- Kashiwa Reysol travel to Cerezo Osaka with a perfect record: four wins from four, 12 points, 10 goals scored and four conceded. Their +6 goal difference puts them top ahead of Kashima, who are also on 12 but at +5. Cerezo sit 10th on six points from two wins and two defeats with a -2 goal difference. The two have not met yet this season, so this is Cerezo's first crack at the pacesetters.
- Cerezo's results have alternated all season: W-L-W-L. At home they beat Fagiano Okayama 2-1 in round one and Shimizu S-Pulse 1-0 in round three, but on the road they lost 3-0 at Avispa Fukuoka and 1-0 at Vissel Kobe without scoring in either. All three of their goals this season have come at home, which tells you where their points have to come from.
- Kashiwa's four wins have come home and away: 2-1 against Mito Hollyhock, 3-1 at Tokyo Verdy, 4-2 against V-varen Nagasaki and 1-0 at Shimizu S-Pulse. Ten goals in four games is an average of 2.5 per match, and the clean sheet at Shimizu showed they can also control a tight game. They arrive with both ends of the pitch functioning.
- This is a mirror match, both sides lining up in a 3-4-2-1, so the duel between the two shadow strikers and the opposing back threes will shape everything. Cerezo pair 37-year-old Shinji Kagawa with Brazilian winger Thiago Andrade, a former New York City FC man, behind 190cm target man Solomon Sakuragawa. Kashiwa use Yoshio Koizumi, an AFC Champions League winner with Urawa, and Kawasaki Frontale academy graduate Hinata Yamauchi behind the 187cm Yuki Kakita.
- Cerezo goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura faces the club that made him. The 31-year-old came through at Kashiwa Reysol, later played in Portugal with Portimonense and was part of Japan's 2018 World Cup squad. At the other end Kashiwa's Ryosuke Kojima, 29, is a left-footed distributor who starts build-ups from the back and has U-20 World Cup experience. Two contrasting styles between the posts.
- Central midfield should be fiercely contested. Cerezo field 183cm holding midfielder Shunta Tanaka, who also played as a defender at Consadole Sapporo, alongside Jackson Irvine, the Australia international with 81 caps and 14 goals who captained St. Pauli. Kashiwa counter with 24-year-old Nobuteru Nakagawa, dubbed the Japanese De Bruyne, and 185cm Koki Kumasaka, who returned from an ACL rupture to play his first full 90 minutes in 446 days against Tokyo Verdy on 14 August.
- With both teams in a 3-4-2-1, the wing-backs may decide it. Cerezo send forward left-footed Ayumu Ohata (168cm), an ACL winner with Urawa and a Paris Olympian, and Hayato Okuda, a Gamba Osaka youth product with Japan U-23 experience. Kashiwa have Keita Endo, formerly of Union Berlin, on the left and Tojiro Kubo, who managed 10 goals and six assists at Fujieda MYFC, on the right.
- The back threes are built differently. Cerezo lean on Shinnosuke Hatanaka, 31, one of Japan's finest ball-playing centre-backs who played every minute of Yokohama F. Marinos' 2019 title season, with Rikito Inoue, key to Kyoto Sanga's promotion, and Malaysia international Dion Cools, a league winner with Club Brugge. Kashiwa centre on academy graduate Taiyo Koga, flanked by 182cm left-footer Daiki Sugioka and Wataru Harada, who has been clocked at 35.0km/h.
- The benches add another reunion. Kashiwa's Riki Harakawa, 33, is a precision set-piece taker who regularly finds the target from around 30 metres and previously played for Cerezo Osaka. Alongside him wait 24-year-old Mao Hosoya, timed at six seconds over 50 metres, and left-footed midfielder Yudai Konishi, who knows manager Ricardo Rodriguez's methods well. Cerezo can turn to 190cm Colombian striker Pablo Sabbag and Kyohei Noborizato, 35, who spent 15 years at Kawasaki Frontale.