# 2021 Kashima Antlers season

The 2021 season was Kashima Antlers' 29th consecutive season in the J1 League, the top flight of Japanese football since the introduction of professional football in 1993. The club finished the 2021 J1 League in fourth place, one place above their position from the previous season. They also competed in the Emperor's Cup and J.League Cup and reached the quarter-finals of both competitions.
After a poor start to the season losing four of their first six league games, manager Antônio Carlos Zago was dismissed in April 2021 and was replaced by Naoki Soma as interim manager who would take control until the end of the season.

## Squad
### Season squad

| Squad no. | Name | Position(s) | Date of birth (age at start of season) |
| Goalkeepers |||||
| 1 | Kwoun Sun-tae | GK | (1984-09-11)11 September 1984 (aged 36) |
| 29 | Tomoki Hayakawa | GK | (1999-03-03)3 March 1999 (aged 21) |
| 31 | Yuya Oki | GK | (1999-08-22)22 August 1999 (aged 21) |
| 38 | Taiki Yamada | GK | (2002-01-08)8 January 2002 (aged 19) |
| Defenders |||||
| 2 | Koki Anzai | RB / LB | (1995-05-31)31 May 1995 (aged 25) |
| 14 | Katsuya Nagato | LB | (1995-01-15)15 January 1995 (aged 26) |
| 22 | Rikuto Hirose | RB | (1995-09-23)23 September 1995 (aged 25) |
| 23 | Naoki Hayashi | CB | (1998-06-09)9 June 1998 (aged 22) |
| 28 | Koki Machida | CB | (1997-08-25)25 August 1997 (aged 23) |
| 32 | Keigo Tsunemoto | RB / CB | (1998-10-21)21 October 1998 (aged 22) |
| 33 | Ikuma Sekigawa | CB | (2000-09-13)13 September 2000 (aged 20) |
| 39 | Tomoya Inukai | CB | (1993-05-12)12 May 1993 (aged 27) |
| Midfielders |||||
| 4 | Léo Silva | DM | (1985-12-24)24 December 1985 (aged 35) |
| 6 | Ryota Nagaki | DM | (1988-06-04)4 June 1988 (aged 32) |
| 7 | Juan Alano | RM / AM / SS | (1996-09-02)2 September 1996 (aged 24) |
| 11 | Ryuji Izumi | LM / RW | (1993-11-06)6 November 1993 (aged 27) |
| 17 | Arthur Caíke | LW / FW | (1992-06-15)15 June 1992 (aged 28) |
| 20 | Kento Misao (c) | DM | (1996-04-16)16 April 1996 (aged 24) |
| 21 | Diego Pituca | CM | (1992-08-15)15 August 1992 (aged 28) |
| 24 | Yusuke Ogawa | DM / CM | (2002-04-14)14 April 2002 (aged 18) |
| 25 | Yasushi Endo | RM / RW | (1988-04-07)7 April 1988 (aged 32) |
| 26 | Naoki Suto | LM / RM | (2002-10-01)1 October 2002 (aged 18) |
| 27 | Yuta Matsumura | RM / LM | (2001-04-13)13 April 2001 (aged 19) |
| 34 | Yu Funabashi | DM | (2002-07-12)12 July 2002 (aged 18) |
| Forwards |||||
| 8 | Shoma Doi | SS / LW / RW | (1992-05-21)21 May 1992 (aged 28) |
| 9 | Everaldo | FW | (1991-07-05)5 July 1991 (aged 29) |
| 13 | Ryotaro Araki | FW / LW / RW | (2002-01-29)29 January 2002 (aged 19) |
| 18 | Ayase Ueda | FW | (1998-08-28)28 August 1998 (aged 22) |
| 19 | Itsuki Someno | FW | (2001-09-12)12 September 2001 (aged 19) |
Last updated: 20 July 2021. Source: Soccer D.B.

## Transfers
### Arrivals

| Date | Position | Player | From | Type |
| 12 January 2021 | MF | Arthur Caíke | Al-Shabab | Full |
| 15 January 2021 | MF | Diego Pituca | Santos FC | Full |
| 1 February 2021 | MF | Yusuke Ogawa | Shohei High School | Full |
| 1 February 2021 | MF | Naoki Suto | Shohei High School | Full |
| 17 February 2021 | DF | Keigo Tsunemoto | Meiji University | Full |
| 17 February 2021 | GK | Tomoki Hayakawa | Meiji University | Full |
| 17 February 2021 | DF | Naoki Hayashi | Osaka University of H&SS | Full |
| 19 July 2021 | DF | Koki Anzai | Portimonense | Full |
| 24 July 2021 | DF | Bueno | Atlético Mineiro | Return from loan |

### Departures

| Date | Position | Player | To | Type |
| 23 December 2020 | DF | Shuto Yamamoto | Shonan Bellmare | Full |
| 24 December 2020 | GK | Hitoshi Sogahata | | Retired |
| 28 December 2020 | DF | Itsuki Oda | JEF United Chiba | Loan |
| 29 December 2020 | DF | Yukitoshi Ito | JEF United Chiba | Full |
| 5 January 2021 | FW | Leandro | FC Tokyo | Full |
| 13 January 2021 | FW | Kazuma Yamaguchi | Matsumoto Yamaga | Full |
| 15 January 2021 | FW | Sho Ito | Yokohama FC | Full |
| 18 January 2021 | DF | Tatsuki Nara | Avispa Fukuoka | Loan |
| 1 February 2021 | MF | Shintaro Nago | Shonan Bellmare | Loan |
| 10 August 2021 | DF | Daiki Sugioka | Shonan Bellmare | Loan |
| 10 August 2021 | MF | Kei Koizumi | Sagan Tosu | Full |
| 11 August 2021 | MF | Ryōhei Shirasaki | Sagan Tosu | Loan |

## Competitions
### J1 League
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 2 | Yokohama F. Marinos | 38 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 82 | 35 | +47 | 79 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage |
| 3 | Vissel Kobe | 38 | 21 | 10 | 7 | 62 | 36 | +26 | 73 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League play-off round |
| 4 | Kashima Antlers | 38 | 21 | 6 | 11 | 62 | 36 | +26 | 69 | |
| 5 | Nagoya Grampus | 38 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 44 | 30 | +14 | 66 | |
| 6 | Urawa Red Diamonds | 38 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 45 | 38 | +7 | 63 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage |
* ↑ The JPFL awarded a 3–0 win to Shonan Bellmare after Urawa Red Diamonds fielded Zion Suzuki who was an ineligible player. The original score was 3–2 for Shonan Bellmare.
* ↑ Qualified as winners of the 2021 Emperor's Cup.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: 4 December 2021. Source: J.League data site

#### Results by matchday

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Ground | H | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | A | H | A | A | A | H | H | H | A | H | A | A | H | H | H | A |
| Result | L | W | D | L | L | L | W | D | W | D | W | W | W | W | L | W | L | D | D | W | L | W | W | W | L | W | W | L | W | L | W | L | W | W | W | D | W | W |
| Position | 17 | 13 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 |

#### Results
### Emperor's Cup

After comfortably beating lower division teams in the early rounds of the tournament, Kashima were beaten comfortably 3–1 by Kawasaki Frontale in the quarter-finals, with Ryotaro Araki scoring a 90th minute consolation goal. With five goals in four games, Everaldo ended up as the top scorer in the whole tournament, in spite of Kashima not making it past the quarter-final stage.

### J.League Cup

Kashima were drawn into Group A as the team that finished fifth in the league in 2020 – the four teams above them received byes from the group stage of the cup. They were unbeaten in the group stage with three wins and three draws. At the play-off stage, Kashima went onto beat Shimizu S-Pulse in both legs of the tie, but were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by eventual champions Nagoya Grampus. Like the Emperor's Cup, Everaldo was the highest scorer for Kashima in this competition, scoring three goals in six appearances.

#### Group stage

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | ANT | CON | AVI | SAG |
| 1 | Kashima Antlers | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 4 | +10 | 12 | Advanced to play-off stage | — | 3–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 |
| 2 | Consadole Sapporo | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 11 | Advanced to play-off stage | 0–0 | — | 1–1 | 2–1 |
| 3 | Avispa Fukuoka | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 11 | −1 | 8 | | 1–5 | 2–3 | — | 4–1 |
| 4 | Sagan Tosu | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 17 | −12 | 1 | | 2–2 | 1–5 | 0–1 | — |

#### Play-off stage

Kashima Antlers won 3–1 on aggregate.

#### Quarter-finals

Nagoya Grampus won 4–0 on aggregate.

## Statistics
### Appearances

Last updated: 20 January 2022. Source: jleague.co, Soccer D.B.
| No. | Pos. | Name | J1 League | J1 League | Emperor's Cup | Emperor's Cup | J.League Cup | J.League Cup | Total | Total |
| No. | Pos. | Name | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers |||||||||||
| 1 | GK | Kwoun Sun-tae | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| 29 | GK | Tomoki Hayakawa | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 31 | GK | Yuya Oki | 33 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 38 | 0 |
| Defenders |||||||||||
| 2 | DF | Koki Anzai | 12+4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
| 14 | DF | Katsuya Nagato | 22+7 | 1 | 0+1 | 0 | 3+2 | 0 | 35 | 1 |
| 22 | DF | Rikuto Hirose | 7+8 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 6+1 | 1 | 17 | 1 |
| 23 | DF | Naoki Hayashi | 5+1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7+1 | 1 | 17 | 2 |
| 28 | DF | Koki Machida | 34 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1+2 | 0 | 39 | 5 |
| 32 | DF | Keigo Tsunemoto | 25+1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4+3 | 0 | 37 | 2 |
| 33 | DF | Ikuma Sekigawa | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 21 | 1 |
| 39 | DF | Tomoya Inukai | 23+6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 5+1 | 0 | 37 | 5 |
| Midfielders |||||||||||
| 4 | MF | Léo Silva | 20+9 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
| 6 | MF | Ryota Nagaki | 5+10 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 5+1 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| 7 | MF | Juan Alano | 21+6 | 3 | 1+1 | 0 | 3+1 | 1 | 33 | 4 |
| 11 | MF | Ryuji Izumi | 12+11 | 1 | 1+2 | 0 | 2+1 | 1 | 29 | 2 |
| 17 | MF | Arthur Caíke | 5+9 | 5 | 2+2 | 2 | 3+1 | 0 | 22 | 7 |
| 20 | MF | Kento Misao | 29+5 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 4+3 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| 21 | MF | Diego Pituca | 21+5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 5+2 | 0 | 37 | 2 |
| 25 | MF | Yasushi Endo | 2+21 | 1 | 2+1 | 2 | 6+3 | 0 | 35 | 3 |
| 26 | MF | Naoki Suto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 27 | MF | Yuta Matsumura | 6+16 | 2 | 2+1 | 1 | 2+6 | 1 | 33 | 4 |
| 34 | MF | Yu Funabashi | 1+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Forwards |||||||||||
| 8 | FW | Shoma Doi | 28+8 | 6 | 2+1 | 0 | 4+2 | 0 | 36 | 6 |
| 9 | FW | Everaldo | 17+11 | 1 | 3+1 | 5 | 4+2 | 3 | 38 | 9 |
| 13 | FW | Ryotaro Araki | 27+9 | 10 | 1+2 | 1 | 4+3 | 2 | 45 | 13 |
| 18 | FW | Ayase Ueda | 19+10 | 14 | 1+2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 36 | 19 |
| 19 | FW | Itsuki Someno | 1+8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3+2 | 1 | 14 | 1 |
| Players loaned or transferred out during the season |||||||||||
| 5 | DF | Daiki Sugioka | 5+2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6+1 | 1 | 16 | 2 |
| 15 | DF | Bueno | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 37 | MF | Kei Koizumi | 8+9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3+2 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| 41 | MF | Ryōhei Shirasaki | 11+6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4+1 | 2 | 23 | 4 |

### Goalscorers

The list is sorted by shirt number when total goals are equal.
| Rnk | Pos | No. | Player | J1 League | Emperor's Cup | J.League Cup | Total |
| 1 | FW | 18 | Ayase Ueda | 14 | 3 | 2 | 19 |
| 2 | FW | 13 | Ryotaro Araki | 10 | 1 | 2 | 13 |
| 3 | FW | 9 | Everaldo | 1 | 5 | 3 | 9 |
| 4 | MF | 17 | Arthur Caíke | 5 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| 5 | FW | 8 | Shoma Doi | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 6 | DF | 28 | Koki Machida | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 6 | DF | 39 | Tomoya Inukai | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 8 | MF | 7 | Juan Alano | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 | MF | 27 | Yuta Matsumura | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 | MF | 41 | Ryōhei Shirasaki | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| 11 | MF | 25 | Yasushi Endo | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 12 | DF | 5 | Daiki Sugioka | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | MF | 11 | Ryuji Izumi | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | MF | 21 | Diego Pituca | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | DF | 23 | Naoki Hayashi | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | DF | 32 | Keigo Tsunemoto | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 | DF | 14 | Katsuya Nagato | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | FW | 19 | Itsuki Someno | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | DF | 22 | Rikuto Hirose | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | DF | 33 | Ikuma Sekigawa | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTALS | TOTALS | TOTALS | TOTALS | 62 | 15 | 16 | 93 |
Last updated: 20 January 2022. Source: jleague.co, besoccer.com

### Clean sheets

The list is sorted by shirt number when total clean sheets are equal.
| Rnk | No. | Player | J1 League | Emperor's Cup | J. League Cup | Total |
| 1 | 31 | Yuya Oki | 11 | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| 2 | 1 | Kwoun Sun-tae | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| TOTALS | TOTALS | TOTALS | 15 | 1 | 3 | 19 |
Last updated: 20 January 2022. Source: fbref.com