Mito-logical

Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture – May 27th, 2005. It’s a dead rubber match in the J2 League, despite it’s only Spring and the season still has a lot to offer. Yokohama FC are the guests at the Kasamatsu Stadium, ready to square off against Mito HollyHock. Only 1,875 people are at the stadium, and it’s not exactly the atmosphere of a sold-out game.

You have all the nostalgia elements you might need. Mito have Koji Homma in goal, who was just 28 years old at the time. On the other hand, a young Takenori Sugeno is defending Yokohama FC’s posts. A wild bunch of foreigners are on the pitch – Silvio Spann (Trinidad & Tobago), Jefferson (Brazil), Derlis Florentín (Paraguay). Not exactly memorable names.

The game might be remembered because an old Shoji Jo is playing (and scoring!), but another frame of history is coming into place. When the game is already at 2-2, HollyHock use the last substitution, throwing in another defender. Little did the defender know that it would be his last game as a pro, after three years spent in Mito. 

Naoki Mori doesn’t know that it’s gonna take him 20 years and a lot of work to get to what he didn’t achieve as a player. Because if he’s been very average as a player, he’ll remember forever as a head coach – he just brought Mito HollyHock to J1. A feat that many thought impossible.

The Player

Naoki Mori was born in 1977, and he didn’t attend a fancy football-related university. Doto University was his way towards professionalism, and he did indeed land a nice spot: he joined Cerezo Osaka in 2000, although for three years he wouldn’t see too much pitch. In fact, Mori gathered just 10 games between J1 and J2. He had to go to find more time.

He chose Mito HollyHock as the next stop, and it worked – 38 games and two goals in 2003, 32 matches and two goals in 2004. He became a fan favourite, especially in a time when the J2 League had way fewer teams than now. Unfortunately for Mori, things were going to turn for the worse in 2005.

Mori played just 11 matches and then retired at the end of the season. It was a strange turn for a professional player who was just 28 at the time. Nonetheless, Mori took it as a chance to shine in Ibaraki, but just in a different role. Many different roles…

The Manager

It’s incredible how Mori didn’t lose his faith in football. At 28, he could have chosen to walk away and start over somewhere else. Instead, he’s been immediately involved as a coach for the youth ranks, and then climbed the rankings until becoming first an assistant for four different head coaches, then a scout and lastly Head of Development. That’s the role he had back in 2024, when HollyHock had other plans for him.

After losing 2-0 in Yokohama, Mito were 19th and a true risk of relegation. That’s when the board opted to let Yoshiki Hamasaki go and hire Naoki Mori. First, it was a temporary move, but after a debut with a 2-0 home win against Kumamoto, HollyHock stood by their new head coach and kept him around. It kinda worked – the club had a terrible final stretch of the 2024 season, but kept their J2 status.

And Mori kept his job as well, receiving a renewal for 2025. In the pre-season, we highlighted how Mito HollyHock were at risk of losing their J2 spot for the first time. Besides Kashima Antlers and Yokohama F. Marinos, they were the longest-serving club in any Japanese professional division. In the end, it happened… just not the way we pictured it. 

The Miracle Maker

A 4-4-2 with a double pivot was enough to settle the record straight in terms of the squad. Furthermore, HollyHock signed a couple of important players last Winter: for example, they snatched keeper Konosuke Nishikawa for free from Oita Trinita, who let him go with no clear explanation. They welcomed Arata Watanabe, always from Oita, as the captain and leader. 

Furthermore, Mito took in Rio Omori (from Tochigi SC), Takahiro Iida (from Kyoto Sanga), Travis Takahashi (from FC Tiamo Hirataka!), and welcomed back Koya Okuda (always from Tochigi SC). When they lost talented winger Takumi Tsukui (he moved to RB Omiya Ardija mid-season), they replaced him cleverly with Chihiro Kato from Montedio Yamagata. 

And even if Watanabe got seriously injured in the end, others carried the bag towards the finish line. Vice-captain Koshi Osaki, for example, was in our MIP candidates – switching from being a solid left-back to a holding midfielder engineer for the team. Other university kids who just joined – Kenta Itakura and Hayata Yamamoto, over everyone – helped finish the job.

Mori helped put everything together, and that’s what a good head coach should do, especially in the case of teams like Mito HollyHock, who don’t have the spending power or the market attractiveness to make it by themselves. You gotta be creative, and now dreams have come true.