Shogun Soccer Scouting #7: Hiroki Sekine

Strong and aggressive, in the air and ground!

Jan 07, 2025

Happy New Year! It’s 2025 and here is a new Shogun Soccer Scouting piece on Kashiwa Reysol’s Right Back, Hiroki Sekine!

Date of Birth: August 11, 2002
Age: 22 years old
Nationality: Japan
Position: Right Back
Club: Kashiwa Reysol (J1)
Squad Number: #32 (2024 season)
Height/Weight: 1.87 m // 82 kg (Source: Soccer Digest)

Hiroki Sekine was born and raised in Shizuoka. He joined Shizuoka Gakuen and was part of the team that won the All Japan High School Championship but only played two minutes in that tournament (while in the other two years, the school did not make it to the final tournament). Sekine would go on to play for Takushoku University in the Kanto University League where he won a starting spot on the team near the end of his first season and cemented his place for the next few years until signed by Kashiwa Reysol. Sekine was due to officially join up in 2025 but his arrival was brought forward to the J1 2024 season. After hitting the ground running from February, he was signed to a full professional “A” contract in March (automatically as he played the required amount of minutes).

Sekine has gained plenty of National Team experience as well, being involved at the youth levels. His first major tournament was the 2022 Asian Games (played in 2023) where he played in most games as Japan reached the final. Following his quick assimilation to professional football, he joined up with the U-23 Japan team to win the U-23 Asian Cup and participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics both as the starting Right Back. Sekine capped off 2024 with two call-ups to the senior national team in October and November, both times as a back-up after injuries.

VIDEO NOTE: Hiroki Sekine plays on the Right, wears #32. Reysol’s kit colors are yellow with black lettering (home) and white with black lettering (away). Often wears bright yellow boots.

Let’s get started!

Defending

Kashiwa Reysol mostly played as a mid-block, middle-3rd pressing team in 2024. Sekine was part of a fairly solid Back 4 unit and performed typical duties of a “traditional” Right Back.

Block Defending

In the block, Sekine is aggressive and quick to close down on opponent’s ball reception to prevent their next action and apply pressure to force them backwards, if not win the ball outright. He keeps his position in line relative to his fellow defenders as he regularly scans his surrounding area well and was part of a Reysol defense that caught opponents offside the 3rd most in the league. As part of the block Sekine also had good anticipation for interceptions. In any situation, Sekine is quite vocal in communicating with his teammates.

One of Sekine’s biggest strengths as part of a defensive unit is his great aerial ability. As a fairly tall player for a Full Back position, he was excellent at headed clearances against long balls from deep or opponent attempts at long diagonals to switch play against Reysol’s block.

1v1 Approach

Alongside his aerial ability, what stands out about Hiroki Sekine is his great defending in 1v1 situations. As mentioned in the previous section, he has good anticipation to jump out from the block and put pressure on the attacker. When facing an attacker in deeper positions he can also be more patient and wait for the best opportunity to win the ball and makes quick short adjustment steps, waiting to pounce.

Sekine is not caught square on against dribblers, he holds his body low on the balls of his feet to quickly react to sudden changes in direction. His good acceleration and decent sprint speed allows him to follow the bursts of pace down the wing from opponents. When making interventions, he uses his long legs to reach over to tackle or get his body in between to take control of the ball with his large frame.

Transition Defending

In transition situations, Sekine is alert to cover for teammates pushing up/out to challenge opponent ball-holder. His speed allows him to quickly track forward runners as well. His great 1v1 is especially useful as he can jockey the dribbler out wide and delay them while teammates get back to help. There were some cynical fouling in transition moments which led to yellow cards.

Box Defending

Sekine’s natural athleticism comes to the fore in his own box. His aerial ability has him marking one of the opponent’s best aerial threats quite often on set pieces and makes his body large for blocks. He is very communicative in the box, talking with his teammates and exchanging opponent markers when necessary.

Passing

Sekine combines well with teammates out wide but he is not hugely creative in the final 3rd unless it’s a cross. He can be the supplier that gets the ball into the final 3rd or box for the team’s primary creator though. From the wide areas he can play well weighted through-balls down the line for an attacker drifting wide ahead of him, or curl passes inside or to under-lapping runners in the half-spaces.

Sekine’s lofted long balls/diagonals don’t always align in terms of his execution despite his good vision to spot these opportunities, with the resulting turnovers leading to counterattacks.

Crossing & Shooting

Hiroki Sekine’s attacking output is quite disappointing when looking at the numbers (zero assists, etc.). However from the games I’ve watched, he’s got good crossing technique with a variety of deliveries. There were “unsuccessful” crosses that were a whisker away from turning into assists or eventually turned into goals as well. I also feel given Reysol’s team quality (they scored under their xG by quite a lot in 2024) and play-style he didn’t have a whole lot of teammates to aim for or make good runs for him aside from Mao Hosoya. When I’ve seen him for the youth national team, he looked far more creative.

As a goal threat himself, Sekine takes the (very) rare shot from outside the box when running on to diagonal switches in space or loose balls from far post crosses. While he does get a lot of power behind his shots, just the 3 on target from 23 shots should tell you all you need to know.

Ball Control & 1st Touch, Receiving/Turning

As a Right Back that primarily stays out wide, Sekine is on the receiving end of a lot of passes, short and long. This is the way he receives the ball the most as he shifts into these spaces well to receive away from immediate pressure. I find a strength of his to be comfortably settling long diagonals and long balls with either foot (and chest-ing it down), both deeper in the build-up phase or in the final 3rd. As seen in his defensive duties, he’s quite vocal off-the-ball as well and actively signals to teammates that he’s open on the wings.

Dribbling & Carrying

1v1 dribbling is not a strength, Sekine at most creates a small gap to send in a cross or pass. A few step-overs at most and nothing particularly complicated. He can keep the ball even in tight spaces with his good balance and agility though.

In terms of ball progression, Sekine doesn’t really start forward with the ball himself, as he mostly runs on to the ball in space. In this regard he is still “gaining ground” as he times his runs well for teammates to play the pass into those open spaces but this perhaps might not show up in a stat like “progressive carries/runs” (depending on the data companies’ definition). In the rare times he initiates these runs himself, I think he is quite effective though so I feel perhaps this is more of a team style thing rather than a problem with Sekine himself.

Movement & Physical Attributes

(Re-)Positioning & Off-Ball Runs

Sekine is a good outlet in-possession when Reysol attempt to switch across from side-to-side with short passes or long diagonals. He is good at keeping position outside the opponent block or behind his opponent, waiting patiently as Kashiwa Reysol pass around the press. Sekine doesn’t move unnecessarily toward the ball-holder and restrict the space but keeps a proper distance between himself and his teammates. Once receiving, he can play quick combinations to make another movement behind. Whether in possession or fast-breaks, Sekine can also crash the far post effectively due to his good aerial ability to knock the ball back centrally but curiously hasn’t been given a lot of service to take shots in these areas.

Sekine is very active in transition moments by giving full-sprint support to the attackers on the overlap to send a cross in. However, I do think that since he doesn’t have elite-level sprinting speed that he can’t be as much of a threat as he could possibly be, which I find to be a shame as he does make good runs.

Speed & Agility

Sekine’s top speed comes out at 33.4 km/h according to the J.League’s official data, which is not anywhere near the fastest even on his own team but he does have some pace. He has quick acceleration but it appears so due to his good timing on pressing triggers or runs forward. Sekine is more about driving up-and-down the flank over long distances many times throughout the game rather than pure speed.

Sekine is quite agile which helps him in 1v1 battles as he can shift quickly with small steps to adjust and even when bypassed by a quick 1-2 or passing combo, he can spin quickly and track back. Despite his tall frame he can stretch down quickly to block or make slide tackles as well.

Physicality & Heading

Sekine is extremely good at dealing with aerials of all kinds whether they are long balls/clearances vertically, long diagonals, and crosses from the wide areas. He is quite tall for a Full Back and has a big leap that further accentuates his aerial ability. He can continue to make these big jumps to duel even late in the games. What’s impressive is his ability to hang in the air which allows him to divert a headed clearance into a softer pass to keep the ball in possession. Despite all this, it hasn’t translated to being an attacking threat from set pieces or open play crosses.

Sekine is very fit, having completed the full 90 of most of his games. Most of his time missed in the league was due to his national team commitments along with one minor injury (I believe) over the summer. He can continue making runs forward on the overlap late into games and puts in considerable work across every third of the pitch throughout the 90.

2024 (J1): 31 appearances, 29.7 90s, total of 2672 minutes

Data & Miscellaneous

Hiroki Sekine’s data radar is fairly straightforward and tracks with what I’ve talked or shown in the previous sections.

I discussed Sekine’s lack of “progressive carries” and “acceleration with ball” in a previous section, noting how a lot of Sekine’s game comes from doing a lot of off-ball running before getting on the receiving end of passes into space. As discussed in the passing section, his long ball accuracy isn’t particularly great nor was his final 3rd creative output.

One thing to note might be the interesting contrast between fouls and cards. Sekine accumulated five yellow cards, which was the second most in a team that earned a lot of yellow cards overall. These were mostly cynical fouls to stop play in transitions so I’m not too worried as Sekine in general doesn’t give up a whole lot of fouls anyway. Going the other way, he can draw fouls due to his decent ball retention as well as the fact that he’s quite big and physical.

Summary

Hiroki Sekine is an athletic Right Back that really hit the ground running from his first professional season at the J.League level in 2024. His performances have led to youth and eventually a full senior national team call-up which highlights how highly he is rated by various figures in Japan.

Sekine is a reliable presence in the build-up as a willing receiver out wide from ground or aerial passes. He can patiently wait in position on the outside of the opponent block or in spaces between the lines. In this sense he is quite disciplined to not get sucked toward the ball-holder and restrict space for his teammates. Further forward, he can be an outlet through his overlapping runs for long diagonals or through-balls down the wing. While he is not much of a dribbler, if Sekine is fed into some space he can play incisive passes inside or simply cross the ball himself.

His defensive abilities is where he shines as he is a diligent and communicative member of the Back 4 unit. Sekine’s physical gifts allow him to easily knock back long balls or crosses with his head and is very good at shutting down opponent wingers through his agility in facing off or even intercepting the initial pass wide. Kashiwa Reysol mostly played in a mid-block and Sekine performed exceptionally well in this setup due to his good instincts for stepping forward aggressively or turning back quickly to chase a long ball.

In my opinion, the biggest aspect for a potential club to think about is how to consider Sekine’s lack of attacking output with that of Kashiwa Reysol as a team. Reysol were notoriously for being quite wasteful this season with their ability to get into the final 3rd and the opponent box squandered by their lack of ability to create or finish chances. On top of this, Reysol didn’t have a whole lot of dribblers in the team which meant that they could get stuck out wide in the final 3rd without a whole lot of individual inspiration to break teams down.

It’s an interesting thought experiment to try and project how Sekine would do on a “better” team, attacking-wise. Nevertheless, I think Sekine has shown various strengths that can be tailored to a variety of teams and it might even be interesting to see him play as a Center Back in a Back 3. On the other hand, his lack of elite speed might make Wing Back more difficult (but not impossible). To see him in different contexts, see his play in the U-23 Asian Cup or in the Olympics (ex. Quarter Final vs. Spain).

I think he can jump immediately to an upper tier club in Belgium, or a promotion-chasing English Championship club. At most (or in the near future), a mid-table club in France or Germany if the club is sold on his defensive acumen and are also confident of bringing out more of his attacking qualities in training and/or by having better players surrounding him in attack. The things to watch would be how his lack of elite speed might hinder him against better and quicker opponents as well as the language-barrier to communicate with new teammates. Hiroki Sekine has had a very rapid rise from being an “university rookie at the J1 level” to immediately getting national team exposure at the youth and senior team level. It’s only been a year as a professional player but I think he’s showcased enough at the J1 level already to make a step up in January or in the summer at the latest.

Thanks for reading!