Wonderkid Factory | Part 12 | Gunma’s Champions League Return

An improved season saw Thespakusatsu Gunma compete for the Japanese title for the second time in four seasons, two years on from a relegation battle. That improvement saw the club qualify for the Asian Champions League for the second time.

Last season’s record-breaking sales of star academy talents left Gunma in a very strong financial position, with £26m in the bank, £32m in the transfer budget and £37k spare in the £73k weekly wage budget. The club also completed its latest training facility improvements, taking them to state of the art alongside excellent youth facilities and exceptional junior coaching and youth recruitment.

Rasamu only made one signing, bringing in Brazilian midfielder Leonardo for £775k from Cuiabá, and promoted promising 17-year-old midfielder Mitsuhiro Kato. He also dished out a club-record wage of £12,500 per week to keep striker Matar Moussa Fayé at the club. While the news that captain Diogo Suares Cruz gained Japanese nationality left the manager with one of his five foreign registration slots spare.

Rasamu stuck with his 3-4-2-1 approach and, most likely for the first time in this entire save, the same starting 11 as last season. Seven of the starting 11 came through the Gunma academy, only five of the first-team squad didn’t come through the academy, and the entire squad signed before the age of 19, making the club fully homegrown.

A Positive Start

The bookies have boosted Gunma’s odds this season, predicting them to finish 10th with title odds slashed to 50/1 alongside five other teams. Gamba Osaka are huge 1/4 favourites, followed by Kashiwa Reysol (14/1), Kashima Antlers (18/1) and Kawasaki Frontale (33/1).

Gunma began the season with an attacking injury crisis, but that didn’t stop them dominating promoted Albirex Niigata 6-0, led by a Peter Tweh hat trick. Kato’s first senior goal nicked a 2-1 win at Sapporo before another first senior goal for Jun Tagashira got them started in a comfortable 2-0 victory over Nagoya Grampus. That good form continued as Gunma only lost twice in the first half of the season, but still trailed Urawa Reds by 6 points going into the winter break.

Gunma recorded a huge statement win as Tweh scored one and created two in a 4-0 domination of Gamba in mid-March. That moved them into 3rd, 6 points back from Urawa with three games in hand, building up to a busy conclusion to the campaign. However, the Champions League backlog meant Gunma had to play their 14 league games in an eight-week period between 4 April and 30 May.

Gunma Return to the Champions League

After two years away, Gunma returned to Asia’s elite. They began well as Tweh’s brace led a 6-0 win at Bangkok United, before the Liberian scored the only goal at home to Shanghai Port. Faye nicked a 1-0 win at Korean side Daejeon Hana Citizen and a brace by wingback Yoshiki Tanaka led a 4-0 thumping of their compatriots Suwon Bluewings. A couple of draws followed but a 4-0 domination of Seoul, thanks to an unlikely hat trick by left wingback Yoshimitsu Mito, secured qualification in 5th place.

They faced Sydney FC in the last 16 and Fayé’s late penalty earned a draw in Australia, before Tanaka and Tweh secured an easy 2-0 home win. That sent them into the odd quarter-final system with one-off games at neutral venues against Saudi side Al-Nassr, who had three players earning £1m a week! And one of them scored a hat trick in an entertaining 4-2, which saw Gunma fall at the same stage again. On the plus side, Gunma were named as winners of the competition’s Fair Play award.

J League Title Race

Gunma kept the pressure on, including Tweh and midfielder Takaya Kawashima braces inspiring a 5-1 home thumping of Frontale and Fayé and Tweh leading a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Kashima. But consecutive 0-0s put them on the backfoot and trailing Urawa – who’d only lost once since November – by 4 points with a game in hand. And that became trailing by 7 points with three games in hand heading into a busy May, in which Gunma played their final eight games in 28 days.

That left Gunma 4 points back with a game in hand and 3 games remaining. However, the positives of that win were quickly forgotten as injuries hit before a poor performance in a 2-0 defeat at Kashima. And the title was decided as Gunma got dominated at Kobe and lost 1-0.

A final-day win secured Gunma in 2nd place for the third time in five seasons. They finished on 76 points after 22 wins, 10 draws and 6 defeats, scoring 62 and conceding a league-low of 28. Fayé was the 8th top scorer with 13 in 32, but former striker Ishii was the 2nd top scorer (21) and the league’s best player (7.62). While Mito was the 3rd top assister with 10 and Tweh was 10th with 8.

Another Solid Title Challenge

Rasamu was delighted that Gunma managed to back up a strong J1 League season with another for the first time. His young players had made significant progress over the last 12 months and he was probably more excited about this group of players than ever before. Fayé led the way with 20 goals in 45 games, followed by Tweh (15), Tanaka (9), Tagashira (7) and Kawashima and Mito (6). While Mito led the way with 13 assists, followed by Tanaka (12), Tweh (10), Shimizu (8) and Nobuhiro Yoshida and Fayé (7). But the surprise star of the season was probably Tanaka, who delivered 21 goal contributions from wingback.

Fayé remains the best player at the club, improving by 2 points to 403 in Rasamu’s attribute ID system. He’s closely followed by Yoshida (402), goalkeeper Daiki Honda (392), Mito (378) and youngsters Kato and Yuya Sugiyama (377).

There’s still plenty of potential in the youth teams, led by last year’s star intake product, midfielder Rintaro Okamoto, who scored 16 goals with 9 assists. Click the table below to see how the team’s youth players are developing.

Gunma had another solid youth intake with three elite prospects in midfielders Kei Fuijhara and Hiroshi Ando and striker Kyohei Harada.

Rasamu was delighted with the progress his young team was making but, after 12 years at Gunma and six seasons in J1, he thought the next step ought to be challenging for trophies.

Could Gunma go one step better in 2038? Join us next Friday to find out!