Urawa Reds, who were playing away at the start of the 2025 Meiji Yasuda J1 League season, came close to taking the lead against last year's champions Vissel Kobe, but they were unlucky, including an unexpected handball at the end of a goal, and ended up failing to score.
On the defensive side, the team found themselves in a pinch towards the end of the game when Osako Yuya advanced into the penalty area, but Shusaku Nishikawa made a brilliant save to stop the opposing ace's shot.
The scoreless draw was the first time in four years since 2021 (1-1 against FC Tokyo) that the team had earned a point in the opening match. And this match against Kobe was Nishikawa's 199th J1 League match without conceding a goal.

Nishikawa, who joined the Reds from Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2014, started his new career with a win in his opening league match. Playing away against Gamba Osaka, he kept a clean sheet to open his season with the Reds, defending a goal scored by Makino Tomoaki from a corner kick in the 43rd minute.
In the 11 seasons since then, up until last season, Nishikawa has been in goal for 371 J1 League games, of which 118 have seen the Reds fail to score - a total of 198 games since he turned pro in 2005.

To finish a game with a clean sheet, it is essential that the entire team has a defensive mindset, not just the goalkeeper or the defenders. However, Nishikawa, who is the last line of defense to protect the goal, has the pride and sense of responsibility to say, "If I don't get scored on, the team won't lose." No matter how well a game is played, if you don't score and you concede a goal with the opponent's one chance, all the efforts of the entire team will be for naught. The Kobe match mentioned at the beginning was exactly that kind of game.

Nishikawa's clean sheet record and the Reds' performance were inseparably linked.
In 2014, when he joined the Reds, he kept 16 games without conceding a goal, immediately breaking the previous record of 15 games that he had set with Hiroshima the previous year. That year, the Reds were leading the championship race until the end of the league season.
In 2016 (two-stage system), when they finished with the most points, they kept 15 clean sheets. In 2023, when manager Maciej Skorza took over for the first time, they also kept 15 clean sheets and boasted the best defense in the league with 27 goals conceded, helping them to reach 4th place, their highest ranking since 2017.

After keeping a clean sheet in his 199th match, the team conceded five goals in three matches. The team had a tough time since the start of the season, going winless in the first four matches. Nishikawa must have felt more frustrated than anyone else.
Before the match against Okayama, Nishikawa said:
"We have conceded five goals in four games so far. If we can keep the score at zero in the next game, we will return to an average of one goal conceded per game. We want to win without conceding any goals."


Nishikawa, who kept his 200th clean sheet in the match against Fagiano Okayama, was delighted with the unprecedented feat, but he must also be even more determined to achieve his goal of winning the J1 League this season.
To break his own record of 16 clean sheets in a season. With the number of games increasing, he would like to extend that streak to 18 or 19 games, which would directly bring the team closer to winning the J1 League.
We can't try to catch two rabbits at once. The J1 League championship is just a matter of keeping a string of clean sheets.