The 2022 season was Kashima Antlers' 30th consecutive season in the J1 League, the top flight of Japanese football since the introduction of professional football in 1993. The club finished the 2022 J1 League in fourth place, exactly the same position as the previous season. They also competed in the Emperor's Cup where they reached the semi-finals and the J.League Cup where they were knocked out at the play-off stage.

Kashima started the league season strongly winning six of their first seven games and were in first position for a number of weeks before the end of May. Forward Ayase Ueda was in fine form and won the first J.League Monthly MVP award of the season. From May onwards, the performances started to detioriate and wins became hard to come by. Following the departure of top-scorer Ueda to Cercle Brugge at the start of July, scoring goals also became difficult and by August following two consecutive defeats, Kashima decided to part ways with manager René Weiler after only a few months in the post. Daiki Iwamasa took over as manager and in spite of only winning two of his ten league games in charge, led Kashima to a fourth-place finish.

Kashima had a good run in the Emperor's Cup, but would have hoped to have been finalists following defeat at the semi-final stage by J2 League club and eventual winners Ventforet Kofu. Yuma Suzuki was their top scorer in the competition with two goals.

Squad All players ages displayed below shows their age at the first match of the J1 League season, on 19 February 2022.

Season squad Squad no. Name Nationality Position(s) Date of birth (age at start of season) Goalkeepers 1 Kwoun Sun-tae GK 29 Tomoki Hayakawa GK 31 Yuya Oki GK 38 Taiki Yamada GK Defenders 2 Koki Anzai RB / LB 5 Ikuma Sekigawa CB 15 Bueno CB 16 Itsuki Oda RB 20 Kim Min-tae CB 22 Rikuto Hirose RB 23 Naoki Hayashi CB 28 Shuhei Mizoguchi LB 32 Keigo Tsunemoto RB / CB Midfielders 6 Kento Misao DM / CB 10 Ryotaro Araki AM / FW 11 Ryuji Izumi LM / RW 14 Yuta Higuchi RM / CM 17 Arthur Caíke LW / FW 21 Diego Pituca CM 24 Yusuke Ogawa DM / CM 27 Yuta Matsumura RM / LM 30 Shintaro Nago CM / AM 33 Hayato Nakama LM / AM 34 Yu Funabashi DM 35 Ryotaro Nakamura DM Forwards 8 Shoma Doi (c) SS / LW / RW 9 Everaldo FW 19 Blessing Eleke FW 40 Yuma Suzuki FW

Transfers Arrivals DatePositionPlayerFromTypeSource17 December 2021 JEF United ChibaReturn from loan18 December 2021 Kashiwa ReysolFull24 December 2021 Hokkaido Consadole SapporoFull25 December 2021 Sagan TosuFull28 December 2021 Ventforet KofuFull28 December 2021 Shonan BellmareReturn from loan3 January 2022 Sint-TruidenFull1 August 2022 BeerschotFull

Departures DatePositionPlayerToTypeSource14 December 2021 Iwaki FCFull17 December 2021 Avispa FukuokaFull17 December 2021 Yokohama F. MarinosFull18 December 2021 Nagoya GrampusFull22 December 2021 Shonan BellmareFull25 December 2021 Vegalta SendaiFull25 December 2021 Urawa Red DiamondsFull27 December 2021 Shimizu S-PulseFull27 December 2021 JEF United ChibaFull1 January 2022 Union SGLoan1 February 2022 Sagan TosuLoan1 February 2022 Zweigen KanazawaLoan1 July 2022 Cercle BruggeFull17 July 2022 Tokyo VerdyLoan31 July 2022 Gamba OsakaFull

Pre-season and friendlies Kashima played one pre-season friendly as part of the Ibaraki Soccer Festival against their Ibaraki neighbours Mito Hollyhock.

Competitions Overview

J1 League

Results by matchday

Results

J.League Cup

Kashima were drawn into Group A as the team that finished in the highest position in the league in the previous season (4th) without qualifying for the 2022 AFC Champions League – the four that did qualify received byes from the group stage of the cup.

Group stage

Play-off stage

2–2 on aggregate. Avispa Fukuoka won on away goals.

Emperor's Cup

Statistics Appearances No. Pos. Name J1 League Emperor's Cup J.League Cup Total Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps GoalsGoalkeepers 1 GK Kwoun Sun-tae 27 0 2 0 3 0 32 0 29 GK Tomoki Hayakawa 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 31 GK Yuya Oki 2 0 3 0 5 0 10 0Defenders 2 DF Koki Anzai 28+5 0 3+1 0 5+3 0 45 0 5 DF Ikuma Sekigawa 27+5 0 4 0 5 1 41 1 15 DF Bueno 4+3 0 0+1 0 4+1 1 13 1 16 DF Itsuki Oda 1+1 0 1 0 1+2 0 6 0 20 DF Kim Min-tae 13+8 1 2+1 0 3+2 0 29 1 22 DF Rikuto Hirose 15+5 0 4+1 0 4+1 0 30 0 23 DF Naoki Hayashi 0+1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 28 DF Shuhei Mizoguchi 0 0 2 0 0+1 0 3 0 32 DF Keigo Tsunemoto 24+4 0 1 0 5+1 0 35 0Midfielders 6 MF Kento Misao 31+2 2 4 0 6 1 43 3 10 MF Ryotaro Araki 6+7 1 0 0 3+1 0 17 1 11 MF Ryuji Izumi 23+9 1 1+2 1 4+3 0 40 2 14 MF Yuta Higuchi 29+3 2 3 0 4+3 1 42 3 17 MF Arthur Caíke 23+6 9 2+1 0 5+1 2 38 11 21 MF Diego Pituca 24+4 1 3+1 1 3 1 35 3 24 MF Yusuke Ogawa 0 0 0+1 0 0 0 1 0 27 MF Yuta Matsumura 5+7 1 0+2 0 2 0 16 1 30 MF Shintaro Nago 1+4 0 1 0 0 0 6 0 33 MF Hayato Nakama 12+7 2 2+1 1 3+2 1 27 4 34 MF Yu Funabashi 3+10 0 3 0 2+1 0 19 0 35 MF Ryotaro Nakamura 2+10 0 2+1 0 4+2 0 21 0Forwards 8 FW Shoma Doi 11+12 1 3+2 0 5+2 2 35 3 9 FW Everaldo 3+16 5 2+3 1 1+2 1 27 7 19 FW Blessing Eleke 2+2 1 0 0 0 0 4 0 40 FW Yuma Suzuki 31+1 7 4 2 4+1 2 41 11Players loaned or transferred out during the season 7 MF Juan Alano 5+7 1 2+1 0 3+1 0 19 1 18 FW Ayase Ueda 17+1 10 0+1 1 2+2 3 25 14 19 FW Itsuki Someno 0+12 1 1 1 2+6 2 21 4

Goalscorers The list is sorted by shirt number when total goals are equal. Player Total 1 FW 18 Ayase Ueda 10 1 3 14 2 MF 17 Arthur Caíke 9 0 2 11 FW 40 Yuma Suzuki 7 2 2 11 4 FW 9 Everaldo 5 1 1 7 5 FW 19 Itsuki Someno 1 1 2 4 MF 33 Hayato Nakama 2 1 1 4 7 MF 6 Kento Misao 2 0 1 3 FW 8 Shoma Doi 1 0 2 3 MF 14 Yuta Higuchi 2 0 1 3 MF 21 Diego Pituca 1 1 1 3 11 MF 11 Ryuji Izumi 1 1 0 2 12 DF 5 Ikuma Sekigawa 0 0 1 1 MF 7 Juan Alano 1 0 0 1 MF 13 Ryotaro Araki 1 0 0 1 DF 15 Bueno 0 0 1 1 FW 19 Blessing Eleke 1 0 0 1 DF 20 Kim Min-tae 1 0 0 1 MF 27 Yuta Matsumura 1 0 0 1 – – Own goal 1 0 0 1 TOTALS4781873

Assists The list is sorted by shirt number when total assists are equal. Player Total 1 MF 14 Yuta Higuchi 8 0 5 13 2 FW 40 Yuma Suzuki 9 0 0 9 3 MF 17 Arthur Caíke 3 1 1 5 4 MF 11 Ryuji Izumi 4 0 0 4 DF 22 Rikuto Hirose 3 1 0 4 6 DF 2 Koki Anzai 1 1 1 3 7 FW 9 Everaldo 0 2 0 2 MF 13 Ryotaro Araki 1 0 1 2 MF 21 Diego Pituca 2 0 0 2 MF 27 Yuta Matsumura 1 0 1 2 DF 32 Keigo Tsunemoto 1 0 1 2 12 DF 5 Ikuma Sekigawa 0 1 0 1 MF 7 Juan Alano 0 0 1 1 FW 8 Shoma Doi 0 1 0 1 DF 15 Bueno 1 0 0 1 FW 18 Ayase Ueda 1 0 0 1 FW 19 Blessing Eleke 1 0 0 1 FW 19 Itsuki Someno 0 0 1 1TOTALS3671255

Clean sheets The list is sorted by shirt number when total clean sheets are equal. Player Total1 1 Kwoun Sun-tae 8 1 0 62 31 Yuya Oki 0 2 1 33 29 Tomoki Hayakawa 2 0 0 2TOTALS103114

References