At Nissan Stadium on the afternoon of February 12, the Opening Year of the 2022 Japan J-League, the Japanese Super Cup officially kicked off. Last season's J-League champions Kawasaki lost 2-0 to Emperors Cup winner Urawa as runners-up. Urawa was able to win the title again after a gap of 16 years, thanks to Ren Ezaka, who scored twice in the final. In the final of the Emperor's Cup last year, it was also Esaka Ren who took the lead for the team. It can be said that this 29-year-old handsome attacker has grown into a big game player.
Born in Hyogo, he traveled to the Kanto Region
His hometown is Hyogo Prefecture in Kansai. In high school, Esaka was admitted to Kobe Hiroryo Gakuen High School. The private high school in Kobe, the capital of Hyogo Prefecture, has been a strong school in local football since the 1990s, and since 1989, the school's men's soccer department has reached the National Football Conference 11 times, and in 1993, it reached the quarterfinals, and the last appearance was in 2020. However, During his three years in high school, born in 1992, Esaka's three years in high school happened to be the worst time this team has performed the worst in the past 20 years, so it is a pity that Esaka has never been able to appear in the national conference of football.
The regrets of high school football are made up in college. After graduating from high school, Esaka was admitted to the university of circulation and economics, a famous football school, and the author had previously written an article about the head coach of this school, Yuji Nakano, entitled "As a rising star in college football, what did he rely on to help the Japanese international trained by flowing through the university?" , which will not be repeated here.
Under Coach Nakano, Esaka became a star in the college football arena. In the 2013 Prime Minister's Cup (a cup of Japanese university football), Esaka scored five goals in four games and won the championship. The following year, at the All Japan Collegiate Football Championship, he scored five goals and led the team to victory again. After four years of college football, Esaka decided to enter the professional arena.
Flowing through Ibaraki Prefecture in the Kanto region, Esaka actually spent all of his football career in the Kanto region after graduating from high school, including his later J-League career.
In 2015, Esaka joined J2's Gunma Kusatsu Onsen in graduation week. In his first professional season, Rei Esaka showed the smell of an attacker in front of goal, and he achieved full attendance that season, scoring 13 goals in a total of 42 league rounds, becoming the team's top scorer that season. It can be said that as an attacker of a midstream team, in his first career season, Ezaka Ren's performance was remarkable.
The sad "demoted little prince"
His excellent performance in the sub-league allowed Ezaka to get the attention of the J1 league team. At the beginning of the 2016 season, he moved to join the Omiya Squirrels. But to his surprise, here he will encounter the first Waterloo of his career.
The J-League was played in two phases that season. In the first stage, the newcomer Ren Esaka did not get much chance to play, and he spent most of his time as a substitute, until he scored his first goal in J1 in the 13th round against Tosu, and then scored again against Kobe. Scoring in two consecutive games allowed Esaka to sit firmly in the main force. And his position on the field, from the beginning of the left winger to the forward, the second forward, to get more opportunities to face the goal. In the second stage of the season, Esaka only missed one game, and he scored 6 goals in the remaining 16 games, which was very efficient.
In the 2017 season, Esaka achieved full league attendance, scoring 7 goals in 34 league rounds, and his performance was slightly regressed. The background of this performance is Omiya's defeat in the league - starting with 8 rounds without a win, ending with 12 rounds without a win, and winning only 5 games. In these 5 matches, only 1 match was played against Sendai, and Esaka Rei did not participate in goals or assists, which shows the importance of his performance to Omiya. However, his performance was not enough to save the team. At the end of the season, Omiya was relegated and Esaka left the team with regrets.
In 2018, Esaka transferred to Kashiwa Helios, this time changing his number from No. 7 to No. 10. A number that symbolizes the absolute core. However, the legendary figure on the football field did not bring good luck to Esaka and Kashiwa. Dragged down by the AFC Champions League, Kashiwa's performance this season has slipped sharply from the previous year, falling into an intermittent circle of invincibility in the middle of the season, and Esaka's state has also fluctuated. Although he scored 9 goals in 33 appearances throughout the season, and scored and assisted consecutively in the last 3 key relegation games, it was still difficult for the team to escape the doom of relegation. In this regard, Esaka Ren followed different teams from J1 for 2 consecutive seasons, and was once ridiculed by the outside world as a "relegated little prince". In his third year of playing professional football, he experienced a tragic experience that he could not have imagined in any way. But happily, this season, Esaka Made his first appearance in the AFC Champions League and scored 1 goal against Jeonbuk Hyundai.
Where to fall from there to get up, in the 2019 season in the J2 League, Esaka Ren started from the bench, step by step to regain his main position, and constantly in the forward, forward, two forward, left wing and other positions constantly switched, successfully in the middle and late part of the season to adjust their state to the best, the last 6 rounds of league contribution 2 goals and 4 assists, to help the team play back J1.
Mr. Key
In the 2020 epidemic season, the state of Esaka Ren and Kashiwa Helios was still not ideal in the opening stage. Although the first round of the first round was beaten 4-2 to Sapporo to complete the scoring twice, but then experienced a 12-round goal drought. Over time, both he and the team found the winning track. In the end, he scored nine goals and nine assists in 32 appearances, and Rei Ezaka remained the most important player in the offensive line. But the good times did not last long, and The 2021 season of Bai fell into a downturn and made up his mind to leave the team.
After Urawa unexpectedly won the AFC Champions League in 2017, results on all fronts fell all the way. To this end, the team has introduced a "3-year plan", and the team needs to carry out a comprehensive renewal. In the offseason of last year's Olympic Games, Esaka joined Urawa. During his half season at Urawa, Esaka was more often placed in the centre forward position, and his performance did not live up to the trust of manager Rodriguez, scoring 5 goals in 16 appearances in the league. His most important goal was undoubtedly a goal just six minutes into the opening of the Emperor's Cup final, laying the foundation for Urawa to win the title. And this time in the Super Cup final, he once again played Mr. Key. There is no doubt that after several years of professional experience, Esaka Ren has grown from the "relegated little prince" of that year to an excellent key gentleman of the competition.
It is worth mentioning that Ren Esaka also has an "undefeated myth" in the J League. In the 26 games he scored in since June 2019, including in the J2 league for Kashiwa Helios, the team he played for remained unbeaten. Although he is not a super efficient striker, as an attacker who can play multiple positions in the frontcourt, Esaka Ishito's efforts from his high school days are being rewarded little by little through the last 2 trophies. The reason why he is now able to get opportunities in multiple positions is inextricably linked to his years of exercise to balance his left and right feet. Hitoshi Shiota, who is currently working as an assistant coach at Urawa, was once a goalkeeper at Omiya, and he recalls staying behind every day to accompany Esaka to practice shooting. The team's coach at the time, Yoshiki Shibuya, who now coaches Iwata, was even more blunt: "He's like an idiot, you won't stop if you let him stop." ”
The season has just begun, will Urawa, which has been dormant for many years, bring some surprises to the fans in the new season? Maybe the lineup doesn't seem to have enough topicality, but like Ren Ezaka, here are all players who are playing in a down-to-earth manner, and this ordinary Urawa will bring an extraordinary experience to the fans in the last year of the "3-year plan". For Ezaka, he hopes to use his outstanding performance this season to catch the last train to the World Cup in Qatar.
Text/Supine Braces - Yangyuan Zhang