Football Season Guide

After an 11-year absence Kataller Toyama are back in J2. They secured promotion in the most dramatic of styles. Won both their play-off games on penalties to do that. Finished the regular season in J3 in third place thanks to making themselves very hard to beat. Had 16 wins and 16 draws in 38 rounds. Conceded only 36 goals in these 38 matches. Managed to keep most of their important players during the winter. Left-back Shosaku Yasumitsu was probably the most notable departure this off-season. He was excellent last term and will be missed. Arata Yoshida was loaned in and he should be the new preferred starter at left-back. Toyama have only limited financial abilities so they rely on many loanees. Luckily for them after successful spells on loan at the club last year the likes of Tomoki Tagawa, Sho Fuseya and Manato Furukawa are back for another full year of loans. Tagawa should remain the main starter on goal. Up front the main hopes are that young striker Shosei Usui will be able to match his 11 league goals from last season at the higher division. Captain Tsubasa Yoshihira will also play a lot in attack. He had only 9 goals last year but added to that 10 assists. The depth of the back line remains a concern though. There are currently only 4 typical centre-backs on the books, with 3 of them plagued by injuries all of last season. Between them Junya Imase and Yuki Kawakami made only 21 appearances in 2024. Atsushi Nabeta also suffered a season-ending injury as early as round 13. This means that only new arrival Shuichi Sakai of the quartet of centre-backs has had a year without health issues prior to the 2025 campaign.