The 2021 Gamba Osaka season was the club's 41st season in existence and the eighth consecutive season in the top flight of Japanese football. In addition to the domestic league, Gamba Osaka participated in the Emperor's Cup, the J.League Cup, the AFC Champions League and the Japanese Super Cup.

Background After finishing runners-up in both the league and the Emperor's Cup in 2020, Gamba Osaka started the season competing in the Japanese Super Cup but narrowly lost to stoppage time winning goal. Their league campaign was then heavily disrupted by an outbreak of COVID-19 in the squad. After losing their first league game of the season on 27 February, they did not play another game until 4 April. They started the league campaign extremely poorly, winning only one of their first ten games and only scoring three goals in the process. This run led to the dismissal of manager Tsuneyasu Miyamoto following their 2–1 home defeat to Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Head of the academy Masanobu Matsunami took over on an interim basis, until in June it was announced he would be taking over the managerial role for the remainder of the season. In spite of being in the relegation places for the first half of the season and being one of the league's lowest scorers, Gamba managed to string some results together in the second half of the season and finished in 13th place, eight points clear of relegation.

Gamba did fare slightly better in the cup competitions, reaching the quarter-finals of the Emperor's Cup before a home defeat to Urawa Red Diamonds. They also reached the quarter-finals of the J.League Cup, but this was the round they entered the competition at due to their commitments in the AFC Champions League.

Competing in the continental competition for the first time since 2017, Gamba went out at the group stage despite only losing one game out of their six matches. This included an 8–1 victory over Singapore's Tampines Rovers.

Patric was the stand-out performer for Gamba throughout the season, scoring 23 goals in all competitions, 38% of all goals that they scored. He finished joint 5th in the overall league scoring charts.

Players Season squad Squad no. Name Nationality Date of birth (age at start of season) Goalkeepers 1 Masaaki Higashiguchi 22 Jun Ichimori 23 Mizuki Hayashi 25 Kei Ishikawa 31 Taichi Kato Defenders 3 Gen Shoji 4 Hiroki Fujiharu 5 Genta Miura 13 Shunya Suganuma 16 Yota Sato 19 Kim Young-gwon 24 Keisuke Kurokawa 26 Ko Yanagisawa 27 Ryu Takao 40 Shin Won-ho Midfielders 6 Ju Se-jong 8 Kosuke Onose 10 Shu Kurata 14 Yuya Fukuda 15 Yosuke Ideguchi 17 Kohei Okuno 21 Shinya Yajima 29 Yuki Yamamoto 39 Takashi Usami 41 Jiro Nakamura Forwards 9 Leandro Pereira 11 Yuji Ono 18 Patric 20 Kazunari Ichimi 28 Wellington Silva 30 Dai Tsukamoto 32 Tiago Alves 33 Haruto Shirai 34 Shuhei Kawasaki 37 Hiroto Yamami

Transfers Arrivals DatePositionPlayerFromTypeSource21 December 2020 Meiji UniversityFull4 January 2021 Renofa YamaguchiReturn from loan4 January 2021 Yokohama FCReturn from loan6 January 2021 FC SeoulFull22 January 2021 Matsumoto YamagaFull23 January 2021 Sagan TosuFull24 March 2021 Ehime FCLoan25 March 2021 FluminenseFull26 July 2021 Mito HollyhockFull

Departures DatePositionPlayerToTypeSource5 October 2020 Júbilo IwataLoan28 December 2020Contract terminated4 January 2021 Shonan BellmareLoan extension4 January 2021 Albirex NiigataFull4 January 2021 Yokohama FCFull4 January 2021 Renofa YamaguchiFull5 January 2021 FC RyukyuFull6 January 2021 Zweigen KanazawaFull6 January 2021 Tokyo VerdyFull7 January 2021 V-Varen NagasakiEnd of loan7 January 2021 Thespakusatsu GunmaFull8 January 2021 SC SagamiharaLoan9 January 2021 Machida ZelviaFull8 February 2021 FC Juniors OÖLoan27 April 2021 Ehime FCLoan11 August 2021 Tokushima VortisFull11 August 2021 LASKFull10 September 2021 PortimonenseFull

Competitions Overall record

J1 League

League table

Results summary

Results by round

Matches Due to an outbreak of COVID-19 within the team after the first league game, Gamba did not play another game until the seventh game week.

Emperor's Cup

J.League Cup

Due to their involvement in the 2021 AFC Champions League, Gamba received a bye for the group and playoff stages of the competition. However, they were knocked out at their first hurdle, the quarter-final stage, by Osaka rivals Cerezo Osaka.

Quarter-finals

Cerezo Osaka won 4–1 on aggregate.

AFC Champions League

Group stage

Gamba Osaka were drawn into Group H, alongside two-time winners Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors of South Korea, Tampines Rovers of Singapore and Australia's Sydney FC. In June 2021, it was announced that all Australian teams would not be participating in the 2021 AFC Champions League due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Sydney FC were replaced in Group H by Thailand's Chiangrai United.

The games in Group H all took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan between 25 June and 10 July. All matches were played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan.

Japanese Super Cup

Statistics Appearances No. Name J1 League Emperor's Cup J.League Cup AFC CL Super Cup Total Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps GoalsGoalkeepers 1 Masaaki Higashiguchi 38 0 1 0 2 0 4 0 1 0 46 0 25 Kei Ishikawa 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 5 0Defenders 3 Gen Shoji 26+2 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 36 0 4 Hiroki Fujiharu 16+3 0 0+2 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 25 0 5 Genta Miura 25+1 0 0+1 0 2 0 4+1 0 1 0 35 0 13 Shunya Suganuma 19 1 4 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 28 1 16 Yota Sato 7+1 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 14 0 19 Kim Young-gwon 16 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 20 0 24 Keisuke Kurokawa 15+4 0 3 0 1 0 1+5 0 0 0 29 0 26 Ko Yanagisawa 7+8 0 3 1 1+1 0 0 0 0 0 20 1 27 Ryu Takao 11+8 0 1+2 0 0+1 0 1 0 0+1 0 25 0 40 Shin Won-ho 0 0 0+1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0Midfielders 6 Ju Se-jong 12+10 0 2+1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 8 Kosuke Onose 22+9 0 3+1 1 1+1 0 4+1 0 1 0 43 1 10 Shu Kurata 26+11 1 0+3 1 1+2 0 3+3 1 1 0 49 3 14 Yuya Fukuda 8+6 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 16 0 15 Yosuke Ideguchi 24+5 0 2+1 1 2 0 5+1 0 1 0 41 1 17 Kohei Okuno 16+10 0 4 0 1 0 3+2 0 0 0 36 0 21 Shinya Yajima 17+9 2 0+1 0 1+2 0 4 0 1 1 34 3 29 Yuki Yamamoto 20+8 0 1+2 0 1+2 0 2+1 0 1 0 36 0 39 Takashi Usami 28+10 6 2+2 0 1+2 0 5 0 0 0 49 6 41 Jiro Nakamura 0+1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0Forwards 9 Leandro Pereira 15+9 5 0+1 0 1+2 0 2+4 2 0+1 0 34 7 11 Yuji Ono 2+5 1 1+2 0 1 0 1+2 0 0 0 13 1 18 Patric 22+11 13 2+1 3 1+1 0 3+3 6 1 1 45 23 20 Kazunari Ichimi 6+12 1 1 0 0 0 1+2 1 0+1 0 23 2 28 Wellington Silva 8+13 0 3 2 0 0 1+4 1 0 0 29 3 30 Dai Tsukamoto 4+4 0 0+1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 10 0 32 Tiago Alves 6+11 2 2+1 0 0 0 0 0 0+1 0 21 2 33 Haruto Shirai 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 34 Shuhei Kawasaki 1+2 0 2 0 0 0 2+1 3 1 0 9 3 37 Hiroto Yamami 0+5 1 0 0 1+1 1 0 0 0 0 7 2Players loaned or transferred out during the season 7 Juan Alano 5+7 1 2+1 0 3+1 0 0 0 0 0 19 1 18 Ayase Ueda 17+1 10 0+1 1 2+2 3 0 0 0 0 25 14 19 Itsuki Someno 0+12 1 1 1 2+6 2 0 0 0 0 21 4

Goalscorers The list is sorted by shirt number when total goals are equal. Player Total 1 FW 18 Patric 13 3 0 6 1 23 2 FW 9 Leandro Pereira 5 0 0 2 0 7 3 MF 39 Takashi Usami 6 0 0 0 0 6 4 MF 10 Shu Kurata 1 1 0 1 0 3 MF 21 Shinya Yajima 2 0 0 0 1 3 FW 28 Wellington Silva 0 2 0 1 0 3 FW 34 Shuhei Kawasaki 0 0 0 3 0 3 8 MF 20 Kazunari Ichimi 1 0 0 1 0 2 FW 32 Tiago Alves 2 0 0 0 0 2 FW 37 Hiroto Yamami 1 0 1 0 0 2 11 MF 8 Kosuke Onose 0 1 0 0 0 1 FW 11 Yuji Ono 1 0 0 0 0 1 DF 13 Shunya Suganuma 1 0 0 0 0 1 MF 15 Yosuke Ideguchi 0 1 0 0 0 1 DF 26 Ko Yanagisawa 0 1 0 0 0 1 – – Own goal 0 0 0 1 0 1 TOTALS339115260

Clean sheets The list is sorted by shirt number when total clean sheets are equal. Player Total1 1 Masaaki Higashiguchi 14 0 1 1 0 162 25 Kei Ishikawa 0 1 0 0 0 1TOTALS14111017

References

External links Official website