The top flight of J.LEAGUE struggles to win the title.
Kashima Antlers is one of the “Original 10” and the one of two teams has never faced relegation to J2 league since 1993, but the last time they got the champion was 2016 season.
Many things have changed since 2016, especially most of players who experienced the champion left. The coach Zago sent many young players to the pitch last season but I’m afraid to say that it didn’t work at first. But Kashima started to keep on getting the points after the legendary club player Atsuto UCHIDA announced his emotional retirement which motivated players, then they finally finished 5th place.
They always stay on top 5 in the league, but they are not satisfied with the result except the first place. Now it’s the time to get the champion back. Zago failed to get the points for first 10 games last year but he gradually brought out their young player’s potential. Especially GK OKI became the starting player and FW UEDA who is a promising young rookie striker scored 10 goals (2nd place in the team).
Young promising players and new Brazilian players are the key to win the first place.
Other young rookies SOMEYA, MATSUMURA, and ARAKI who just joined from their high school clubs also got opportunities to play more than 10 games and their potential and high skills made Kashima fans get excited about future success. So it’s easy to imagine that their performance will be necessary to get the title back again this year.
What’s more, new Brazilian players Arthur Caíke do Nascimento Cruz, Diego Cristiano Evaristo will make the most competitive team in the league more competitive. Only one concern is if defensive players keep high performance through the whole season.
