Oita Prefecture, 2004. Japan has just won the AFC Asian Cup back-to-back, the World Cup is just behind us, and youngsters are taking over the older generation of the national team. There’s a young kid, who just turned 18 years old, training as a special registered player for Oita Trinita. He came from Usa, the venue of Usa Jingū, one of the most sacred Shinto shrine in the country. He’s a son of the Prefecture.
Back then, Oita Trinita were just starting their longest stint in the top-flight, the first. They stayed there from 2003 – after winning the J2 League the year before – to 2009, winning in the process the 2008 J.League Cup and reaching fourth place in the same year. The squad, under the guidance of Brazilian head coach Pericles Chamusca, will do miracles in those years.
That will be possible thanks to the youth sector and the scouting of Oita Trinita, who will produce some shining, young, bright talent. Masato Morishige didn’t grow up there, but he was given his first shot by the club. Same happened for Mu Kanazaki, a name that fade into mystery, but back then was highly-regarded. Hiroshi Kiyotake, one of the classiest Japanese footballers from the last two decades, was born and raised in Oita.
And then there was this kid. He lived his first 24 years of life in Oita, taking the no. 1 spot between the posts at just 20, and never looked back. He played in so many different competitions, he won a lot in his career, and yet he might be missing something. What he doesn’t lack, though, is a legacy. Because reaching 600 games in the J1 League makes you unforgettable. And Shusaku Nishikawa isn’t over yet.
Oita, Hiroshima, Saitama
We could say Nishikawa has gone through three statuses as player. The “young gun”, promising prospect in Oita, which was his home, and the place which gave him the real shot to become a pro. Hwangbo Kwan, the South Korean head coach at the time, saw something in him in 2005. Luckily he did, because Nishikawa enjoyed a good run with Oita, and left only because of relegation to the second division and financial issues.
In Hiroshima, Nishikawa became one of the best players of the whole country. He wasn’t a potential factor anymore, he became a “game changer”. Like in that 2013 Emperor’s Cup semifinal, where in the PKs lottery, he saved three and scored one himself to get Sanfrecce to the final. That night, he showed a leadership that was meant to bring him forward, but somewhere else.
But there’s more to that – he won the first two J1 League titles, he won more trophies with Hiroshima. And it was then that Urawa Red Diamonds felt they needed him, that he was going to be the missing piece of the puzzle to become champions again. Which it happened, theoretically – Urawa won the regular season in 2016, but then lost in the championship phase to Kashima.
In Saitama, though, Nishikawa became a “legend”. And it isn’t just because of the numbers, but because where he’s been. We don’t know how many players can count on appearance on the FIFA Club World Cup, the Suruga Bank Championship, the AFC Champions League, plus all competitions in Japan. Like Yasuhito Endo or Seigo Narazaki, he became significant for Japanese football without ever feeling the need of leaving for Europe.
Blessed between the posts, cursed in blue
There’s the club career, and then there’s Samurai Blue misunderstanding. Despite enjoying massive success at the club level, Nishikawa has (almost) never been a starter for Japan. Sure, he hung around a lot with the national team – from 2009 to 2021 -, but there was never a moment where any head coach saw Nishikawa as a real starting option. It was a curse for him, despite the accolades and the reputation at home.
Nishikawa featured for Japan in the U-20 World Cup, at the 2008 Olympic Games, in two different Asian Cups (2011 & 2015), in one World Cup (2014). And yet no one among Okada, Zaccheroni or Aguirre thought of making him start. Only Vahid Halilhodžić saw him as a valuable option, and Nishikawa had a run of consecutive starts as no. 1 between 2015 and 2016.
In the end, though, that did happen because Kawashima was going through a bad slump of form, between unemployment, a stuff stint with Dundee United, and a partial rebirth with FC Metz. Despite having contributed to the qualification to the 2018 tournament, Nishikawa wasn’t even called up for Russia. And when his former coach Hajime Moriyasu took over Japan and had to rely anyway on an older option, Nishikawa was never in the conversation.
That’s kind of a curse. Among the Top 5 for most games played in the J1 League, he’s the one of the fewer caps with Japan. Nishikawa was crushed between the era when Seigo Narazaki and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi dominated the no. 1 and the era when Eiji Kawashima took over them to never let go that spot, even when he was time to do so. Surely and incredibly unfortunate.
A keeper like no others
Japanese keepers are growing, but they haven’t been that different from one to another. Surely they have different styles – Kawaguchi and Narazaki didn’t have the same habits in goal, just like Osako and Suzuki are not the same right now. But in the end, Nishikawa was a unique interpreter of the role – because he tried to push the sweeper-keeper attitude through the Japanese football movement.
Shusaku Nishikawa looked like Roberto “El Pato” Abbondanzieri (the famous Argentinian keeper from Boca Juniors throughout the 90s and 2000s), but with better reflexes in goal. He has always had a shifty and precise left-footed jibe to play with. He was so gifted that, before joining Oita Trinita, he was even scoring goals from set pieces at the youth level – there’s a fascinating science behind it.
Today he’s collating an immense legacy around him – Nishikawa has been featuring in the J.League Best Eleven for six times, just like Seigo Narazaki (the most a goalkeeper has ever done). And Narazaki might be the next stop (631 games played), since Nishikawa is third in the all-time caps table in the J1 League and leading Yasuhito Endo might be a bit out of reach (672).
While celebrating this wonderful achievement in a home game against Yokohama F. Marinos, many asked Nishikawa how he’d like to be remembered. His answer was calm, like he’s always been: “I’d like to be positively remember whenever I’ll retire. I don’t know if I’ll be remembered for what I won – I’d like to be remembered more for being a keeper with certain traits. Surely I want to leave everyone with a positive image of me”.
