Thank you very much for your continued enthusiastic support of Urawa Reds.

The official Trial for this season was concluded with the match against Kawasaki Frontale on (Sat) December 6th. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our fans and supporters who attended our games this season, just like last year, with over 700,000 people attending.
On the other hand, as a club we take very seriously the fact that our performance this season did not meet our initial goals and did not live up to the expectations of our many fans and supporters.

What I was able to do throughout the season and what I wasn't able to do.
We will face these facts honestly and provide our fans and supporters with a review of the 2025 season, so that we can continue to be a club that you can look forward to next year and beyond.

Looking back at the 2025 season
This season was an irregular one, as we were already scheduled to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup in June. Despite this Trial, we aimed to build a team that could always aim to win the J1 League, as we have done in the past, and our clear goal was to win the J1 League.
The plan was to maintain a high ranking in the early part of the season while keeping the Club World Cup in mind in June, and to integrate the many players we had recruited before the season into the team to improve its completeness.The Club World Cup would also allow us to experience the "world standard" of international intensity and speed of play, and we aimed to use that experience to fight through the second half of the league and aim to win the championship.
During the first half of the league season, the team enjoyed a five-game winning streak. By the time of their final match before the Club World Cup, against Yokohama FC on Sunday, June 1, they had 34 points after 21 Trial, and were still in the running for the league title. However, in the subsequent FIFA Club World Cup, they finished the group stage with three losses in three matches and returned home. Even when league matches resumed on (Sat), July 19, they were unable to capitalize on their "world-class" experience and often lacked consistency in their playing style. In particular, they struggled to score goals in the build-up phase in their own zone 1 and in the final phase of their attacks in zone 3. This was particularly evident from their Trial against Niigata on Sunday, August 31, to their match Okayama on Sunday, November 30, where they only managed three goals in 10 league Trial. They were unable to increase their points tally as they had in the first half of the season, and ultimately were unable to join the championship race. In the major domestic tournaments, the Emperor's Cup and the J.League YBC Levain Cup, we were eliminated in the quarterfinals in both tournaments, and were unable to advance to the top of any of the titles.
One of the factors that led to these results was a lack of consistency in our playing style, with a large difference between Trial in which our players maintained discipline and executed our team tactics with high intensity and Trial in which they did not. For example, although they did not ultimately result in victories, our high pressure worked in the matches against Kobe on (Sat), February 15th and Kashima on Sunday, March 16th, and we saw improvement in our negative transitions (switching from offense to defense) compared to last year. Furthermore, in the matches against Kashima on (Sat), September 20th, Shimizu on Tuesday, September 23rd, and Tokyo Verdy on (Sat), September 27th, we maintained possession of the ball for much of the game, controlled the game, and created scoring opportunities. However, even in these Trial, mistakes in build-up play in Zone 1 led to scoring opportunities for the opponent, making Trial difficult for ourselves, and we also had issues with Zone 3, drawing the opponent out and getting behind the defense, as well as quick side changes. This lack of consistency in the execution of our team tactics resulted in the loss of points that we could have earned.


About the FIFA Club World Cup
This was our fourth time competing in the FIFA Club World Cup as an Asian representative club, and our goal was to advance through the group stage and play as many Trial as possible. We also viewed this international Trial experience as an opportunity to improve the overall strength of our team. With our goal of winning the J1 League and our eyes set on competing in the Club World Cup, we strengthened our squad by adding many talented players before the season began. After the start of pre-season training, we strengthened our player base by acquiring Danilo Boza and Hiiro Komori through a special window, but we ended up losing all three matches and were unable to advance past the group stage.
The results showed a gap with the world standard in many indicators, such as ball possession technique, decision-making ability, and close-quarters combat. On the other hand, there were also instances where players such as Matsuo, Kaneko, and Savio were able to break through situations with dribbling and individual moves, reaffirming the need for players who can break through situations individually in order to compete at a world standard.
In order to achieve results as one of the world's top clubs when we participate in the Club World Cup again in the future, we will not let everything we experienced and felt on and off the pitch end up as a temporary ``valuable experience,'' but will pass it on to the club and use it to build the team in the future.


Concept-based retrospective
Below, I will look back on the top team's concepts of "team," "individual," and "attitude."

・Team: Seamless offense and defense, never letting the opponent rest
This season, we have been working on improving the quality and quantity of our offensive and defensive transitions, a challenge we have been working on since last year. However, there were some Trial where we made improvements and Trial where we couldn't, and we believe we were unable to consistently achieve results. Performance also varied depending on the players' physical condition and the formation combination. For example, during our five-game winning streak in the first half of the season, we saw consistent improvement in our performance despite minor mistakes. However, after the Club World Cup, this trend decreased in Trial. Our original goal of high pressure, where we quickly regained the ball after losing it and quickly executed our attack, was rarely seen in the second half. Furthermore, mistakes in Zone 1 and an ineffective attack in Zone 3 resulted in the loss of many points. While the quality and quantity of our offensive and defensive transitions did improve throughout the season, the degree of improvement was far from satisfactory. Looking ahead to next year, we will analyze our issues in more detail and increase the percentage of Trial in which we improved.

・Individual: Maximizing individual capabilities
Maintaining the condition of players is a key factor in ensuring that each individual player is able to perform to their full potential. In this regard, our medical and physical teams have made great strides this season. We have not suffered any serious injuries that would have sidelined players for several months during the season, and we have been able to maintain a stable fighting strength throughout the year.
On the other hand, with no players out for long periods due to injury, the lineup for Trial was fixed, especially in the first half of the season, and it is also true that there were many Trial in which players who came on as substitutes were unable to fully demonstrate their true potential in terms of combinations and Trial sense.

Attitude: Positive, aggressive, passionate play
While they were able to earn 2.21 points per Trial in home games, almost the same as the champions Kashima Antlers (2.26), they were unable to accumulate points in away games, earning just 0.89.
While Trial were able to show a positive attitude in many home games, supported by the cheers of our many fans and supporters, our attitude and fighting style in away games were far from commendable, and we have to say that we lacked consistency in both our attitude and results between home and away games.We believe there is more than one factor behind this, and we believe that one of our major challenges for next season is to address issues ranging from basic things like more active communication on the pitch to developing players with a rebound mentality who can demonstrate leadership on the pitch, as well as club-led mental management.


Towards 2026
When we reinvited Coach Skorja, we set the mission of putting the team back on the growth curve. We have given him a certain amount of credit for adjusting the offense-defense balance, which had been too heavily biased towards offense, and for restructuring the defense by combining high pressure and low defense, or using them in different ways. However, on the other hand, we have once again faced issues with our offense, and we are currently unable to land on the growth curve. As mentioned above, although there have been a certain number of Trial in which we have achieved results, we have lacked stability in the execution of team tactics, and there have also been many Trial in which we have not achieved results. This is the current state of the team.
I believe there is no single factor, but rather a combination of multiple issues. Improving the quality and quantity of transitions on both offense and defense remains our top priority. Other areas of focus include the technique and decision-making when building up in Zone 1 and choosing low defense, consistently executing effective attacks in Zone 3, on-field leadership and communication between players in difficult situations, and winning away games. I will work with Coach Skorja to address these issues one by one and increase the percentage of Trial in which we achieve more consistent results. To address these issues, we believe players with on-field leadership and a rebounding mentality are desirable, and we are considering strengthening our defensive line as a specific position.
We also consider strengthening our team staff structure to be one of our themes for next season. As previously announced, we have appointed a Technical Director (TD). This position has been vacant for a long time since the previous TD retired. Due to the importance of this position, we did not make a hasty decision, but rather carefully narrowed down the candidates. We continued to gather information and have now finally reached an agreement with the right person to fill this position. The TD will be responsible for focusing on the future organization of the team.


lastly
We are extremely disappointed that we were unable to achieve consistent results in many Trial in the 2025 season, especially in the second half, and were unable to deliver results that met the expectations of our fans and supporters. Looking ahead to 2026, we believe that we have no choice but to sincerely work to resolve each issue one by one in order to become a club that people continue to want to support.

Even in these difficult times, we received support from many people at every Trial, with 709,655 people attending our J1 League home games. We would like to express our gratitude once again to everyone who has supported us at our home games, as well as those who have fought alongside us in our often difficult away games, those who have watched Trial via live streaming, and all those who have placed their hopes in Urawa Reds and fought alongside us in various ways.

We Urawa Reds must be strongly aware that your expectations are not something we take for granted. We not only receive your expectations, but we also have a responsibility to meet those expectations, and we must never neglect our efforts to do so. We will be fully aware of this and continue to operate the club with sincerity next year.

Thank you very much for your enthusiastic support until the end of this season.
Next season will be MEIJI YASUDA J1 100 YEAR VISION LEAGUE, followed by a transition to an autumn-spring system.
We would like to ask for your continued support for Urawa Reds.

Urawa Red Diamonds