Kashiwa Reysol bounced back from a lackluster 2021 with a good 2022 campaign and now the question for the Gold and Black is whether the arrow will keep pointing up at Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium.

Last season

The season started spectacularly for Reysol, with five wins and a draw in their first seven matches. They beat Yokohama F·Marinos, climbed to the top of the table for a week and were in the top four for much of the early part of the year.

The second half of the season did not go as swimmingly, with teams dedicating their defenses to stopping breakout young star Mao Hosoya slowing down the forward. Matheus Sávio also hit a rough patch and Reysol had to settle for a seventh place finish.

Goal for 2023

Reysol have won the league and a couple cups in the last 12 years so they are no strangers to winning at the highest levels, but it may be a little too ambitious for them to put forth a title run in 2023. Instead, they will hope to consolidate their position in the next tier of J1 sides after an exciting 2022 campaign.

After a bit of a yo-yo existence over the last 13 years, with a couple seasons in J2 and relegation scares to go along with the trophies, Reysol want to establish themselves as a consistent top half team. That means laying the foundation, which continues in 2023.

What to watch for

All eyes will be on Hosoya, who is one of the brightest young stars in Japan. He can continue to improve, Reysol may have a Player of the Year candidate.

Part of why Reysol need Hosoya to develop further and Matheus Sávio to look even better two years removed from serious injury is a ton of change elsewhere in the squad.

Takumi Kamijima, Takuma Ominami were signed by Yokohama F·Marinos and Kawasaki Frontale, respectively, while Yuji Takahashi and Kengo Kitazume went to Shimizu S-Pulse leaving Reysol to remake their back line.

Diego, Yugo Tatsuta and Eiichi Katayama have all been signed to fill in at the back and all have shown they can play well in J1, while Kota Yamada has been signed to add some ingenuity to the Reysol attack and Keiya Sento may be a crucial addition in the midfield.

That is a lot of change so it’s a two-fold approach for Reysol in 2023: get the new players acclimated as quickly as possible so they can play to their potential before too long, but also get star play from Hosoya to help smooth the unavoidable integration period.