If Japan is to have one representative at the newly expanded Club World Cup, there is arguably no better fit than Urawa Red Diamonds (generally referred to as simply Urawa Reds), a club that boasts not only the country’s most successful continental track record, but one of the region’s most enthusiastic fan bases and sky high ambitions for international glory. As a member of the J.League’s “Original 10” the club prides itself on setting the standard for Japan and Asia, and has spent the last two years preparing for this tournament.

How they qualified: Won the 2022 AFC Champions League

Coach: Maciej Skorża

Domestic league: J1 League

How they performed in 2024: 13th of 20 teams

How they’re performing in 2025: 3rd (as of June 13) of 20 teams

Transfermarkt value: €20.53m

Seattle matches: vs. River Plate, June 17, noon; vs. Inter Milan, June 21, noon

Key players

• Shusaku Nishikawa - The 37-year-old veteran is familiar with this stage, having participated in three Club World Cups with both Urawa and Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Nishikawa does not appear to be slowing down with age and is capable of frustrating even elite opponents on a good day.
• Danilo Boza - A key offseason pickup from Brazil’s Juventude, the 27-year-old has become an irreplaceable part of the back line (along with CB partner Marius Høibråten) and helped stabilize a defense that struggled through much of 2024.
• Matheus Sávio - The 28-year-old Brazilian midfielder is a constant threat in the midfield, having recorded two goals and four assists so far this season. The former Flamengo man’s winter move to Urawa came after six seasons at Kashiwa Reysol, including an impressive 2024 campaign that earned him a spot in the year-end J.League Best XI.
• Ryoma Watanabe - The former Ingolstadt reservist’s explosive form after coming back from injury in late March has been a key factor in Urawa’s springtime resurgence, which has seen the Reds rise to third despite winning just one of their first seven games.

Roster

Style of play

The Polish manager’s aim this season has been to rebuild the brutally efficient defense that saw the team concede just 27 goals in 2023 under his command; Skorża left after that campaign only to return mid-2024 after the team’s disappointing run under Per-Mathias Høgmo led to the Norwegian's dismissal.

Urawa’s 4-2-3-1 formation prioritizes a strong defensive base that transitions into counterattacks, with players such as Sávio, Taishi Matsumoto and Kaito Yasui leading the press.

Given the quality of opposition, it’s hard to envision Urawa taking the attack to them. Skorża will instead be drilling his team on maintaining discipline and looking for chances when they come.

One fact to impress your friends

With the exception of the pandemic-impacted 2020 and 2021 seasons, Urawa has maintained the J.League’s top average attendance annually since 2006. This year, they’re averaging better than 37,000 per game.

What are their chances of winning the whole thing?

Probably around zero, but given the team’s resurgence this spring it wouldn’t be out of the question to see them produce at least one shock result before their exit.

What makes this team interesting?

In a Club World Cup mired in controversy and tainted in all the worst ways by the bloated excess of modern football, Japan’s Urawa Reds offer a refreshingly naive option for the jaded neutral: A club virtually unknown outside of Asia yet wholly committed to the belief that not only does it deserve to be competing alongside some of the biggest clubs in the world, but that it can absolutely win the whole thing.

Nevermind a squad that, like a child’s first Warhammer army, can appear as though it was cobbled together based on how cool the individual parts looked rather than how well they actually fit.

Nevermind the complete lack of youth in a squad that has been built with all eyes toward this tournament, with its youngest player — 24-year-old forward Hiiro Komori — having just arrived on a transfer last Thursday from second-division JEF United Chiba.

And nevermind that their Group G opponents include one of Argentina’s most storied clubs in River Plate, recent Champions League runners-up Inter, and that ever-dangerous quarry — a Mexican club playing on U.S. soil — in Monterrey.

Belief is a powerful drug, one that Urawa’s front office has doled out in heroic doses to its legions of enthusiastic fans — scores of whom will travel to the west coast for these three group stage games, expecting and demanding nothing less than victory, because that is what they have been raised to expect since the beginning. That Urawa boasts three continental titles compared to just one J.League championship is testament to the power of their belief and the mythology that has grown around the club.

In the end, you likely won’t remember the names of the Reds starters against River Plate, Inter or Monterrey.

But you will remember the sight of as many as 5,000 supporters — men and women who have spit in the face of a historically weak yen and spent the last two years putting aside funds for the most consequential ocean voyage of their lives — massing behind the goal, their flags snapping in the wind like flames reaching from the depths of hell (and let’s face it, Saitama, with its reputation as the New Jersey of Japan, is close enough).

You will remember their chants of “We are Reds!” echoing through the stadium as though God had plugged in her Stratocaster, turned the amplifier to 11 and aimed it toward the cosmos in defiance of a universe that cannot grasp her majesty. 

And you will remember that their very presence and all the factors that led to it — the development of Japanese soccer through English, Brazilian and German influences, the spread of European supporter culture across continents through fan zines and grainy VHS tapes, the explosive growth of the sport in Asia and so much else — are reminders of why soccer is truly a global game, and why, despite its freefall into late-stage capitalism hell, there is still beauty to be found, even in corporate showpieces like this.

Dan Orlowitz is a Tokyo-based journalist and sportswriter specializing in Japanese soccer. Find his hot takes, especially the non-sports ones, on Bluesky @aishiterutokyo.bsky.social.