By Jason Cruz
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Credit: From Team Captain Takahiro Sekine’s Instagram account
One year away from the biggest soccer tournament in the world coming to the U.S., Japan’s best club teams in soccer are in Seattle competing in the FIFA Club World Cup. Tournament games began last week at Seattle’s Lumen Field and other venues across the United States.
The Urawa Red Diamonds (known by fans as the “Reds”) are one of the most successful club teams in Japan and play in the top league in Japanese professional soccer, known as J1. It is the only Asian club team to make it in the 32-team tournament.
In its first game of the tournament, the Reds fell to River Plate of the Argentinian Primera Division, 3-1 at Lumen Field this past Tuesday. The Reds next play Italian club Inter Milan at Lumen Field on Saturday night.
The FIFA Club World Cup tournament puts together the champions of each continental confederation’s club tournaments to compete against each other. To qualify, a team must have won its continental club championship in the four years leading up to the tournament or be highly ranked in their confederations club competitions during that period. Notably, the Seattle Sounders qualified for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup by winning the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League. The Reds have won three Asian Football Confederation Champions League titles, most recently in 2022, which qualified the team for this opportunity.
“To take the Urawa Reds to the world, I think it will be a great opportunity for Japanese football to represent Japan as one of the top football nations in Asia and to play against the best teams in the world, and I think it will be a good opportunity to show the strength of the J-League,” said team captain Takahiro Sekine. “We want to seize such opportunities with a firm sense of responsibility.”
“This is a first for us,” explained midfielder Genki Haraguchi. “I’ve played in many leagues and tournaments, including the (FIFA) World Cup, but the (FIFA) Club World Cup is a new tournament, so it’s difficult to imagine what it will be like.” Haraguchi is excited by all of the “big clubs” in the world of soccer coming to compete in this tournament. Although Haraguchi has never played in the United States, he understands its rise in popularity.
“[T]here are a number of stars playing in the United States at the moment, such as Maya Yoshida, a former Japan international, and [Lionel] Messi, who I’m sure is one of the reasons why football is becoming more popular there.”
Japan’s domestic football scene is on the rise, according to Haraguchi.
“I felt that the level of the leagues [in Japan] has gone up a lot,” he added. “Urawa Red Diamonds is a very defensive team, but we can be quite competitive. We’ve certainly improved over the past 10 years.”
The Reds’ manager, Maciej Skorza, embraces the tournament and acknowledges its underdog role.
“We are aware that we are not the favorites to win this tournament. However, we have our ambitions. We want to show our value, good play, good organization, and bold, attacking football.” Skorza added, “Above all, we want to present ourselves in the best possible way. We want to advance from the group stage and then, with each subsequent match, strive to achieve the best possible result in the tournament.” Skorza is a former Polish football player that manages the Reds in the J1 league.
“Preparing for a tournament like this will definitely be demanding, but I must say that for me, as a coach, it is also a fascinating experience. For the first time in football history, we will find ourselves in a situation where teams from different continents compete on such a large scale, allowing us to truly compare styles [and strategies].”
The FIFA Club World Cup goes through July 13, with the semifinals and finals happening in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Of course, this year’s tournament is a precursor to the FIFA World Cup, which will take place next year. The United States, Canada, and Mexico are co-hosts. Seattle is one of 11 cities that will host games for the world tournament, which will expand from 32 to 48 countries in 2026.
Jason can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.