{"id":67214,"date":"2026-08-07T11:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/67214\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T11:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:21:32","slug":"sydney-fc-boss-kisnorbo-lauds-impact-of-takahiro-sekine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/67214\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney FC boss Kisnorbo lauds impact of Takahiro Sekine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sydney FC boss Patrick Kisnorbo has praised the impact Japanese forward Takahiro Sekine has had since joining the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two-time AFC Champions League Elite winner is one of the biggest names to have arrived this Isuzu UTE A-League off-season having inked a three-year deal after departing Japanese powerhouse Urawa Red Diamonds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Handed a start against Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur in the Sydney Super Cup, the 31-year-old bagged his first goal for the club in the 54th minute, slotting home to give the Sydney FC fans a glimpse of what\u2019s in store this coming season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TRANSFER CENTRE: <a href=\"https:\/\/aleagues.com.au\/news\/isuzu-ute-a-league-2026-27-transfer-centre-ins-outs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isuzu UTE A-League 2026-27 Transfer Centre: Your club\u2019s moves<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TRANSFER NEWS: <a href=\"https:\/\/aleagues.com.au\/news\/aleague-men-melbourne-city-awer-mabil-signing-confirmed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Socceroo Coup: Melbourne City sign Awer Mabil on three-year deal<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number 14 will now be looking to take that positive form into Sunday\u2019s Australia Cup Round of 16 clash with fellow Isuzu UTE A-League side Brisbane Roar, with Kisnorbo revealing he\u2019s been impressed with what he\u2019s seen from the Japanese creator thus far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think with Taka (Sekine), it\u2019s trying to get him as fit as possible,\u201d Kisnorbo said, when speaking ahead of the Australia Cup clash in Queensland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cObviously he didn\u2019t come in at the start, so look, he has transitioned great. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of work for him to do, but you know, he\u2019s settled into the squad really well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe trains the right way, with the right intensity, and we\u2019re just trying to get him as fit as possible leading into the the season, but he\u2019s adapted really well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/aleagues.com.au\/matches\/a-league-men\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL 2026\/27 ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE FIXTURE LIST<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"362698\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/aleagues.com.au\/news\/aleague-men-australia-cup-sydney-brisbane-roar-takahiro-sekine\/sydney-fc-v-tottenham-hotspur-sydney-super-cup-4\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/aleagues.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288128120.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"5420,3613\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Getty Images&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS R3&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JULY 29:  Takahiro Sekine of Sydney FC celebrates scoring a goal during the Sydney Super Cup match between Sydney FC and Tottenham Hotspur at Allianz Stadium on July 29, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King\/Getty Images)&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1785358556&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;2026 Getty Images&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;400&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;2000&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Sydney FC v Tottenham Hotspur: Sydney Super Cup&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Sydney FC v Tottenham Hotspur: Sydney Super Cup\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA \u2013 JULY 29:  Takahiro Sekine of Sydney FC celebrates scoring a goal during the Sydney Super Cup match between Sydney FC and Tottenham Hotspur at Allianz Stadium on July 29, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King\/Getty Images)&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288128120.jpg\" height=\"683\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288128120.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-362698\"  \/>Takahiro Sekine of Sydney FC <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Sky Blues cruised through to the Australia Cup Round of 16 after dismantling Western Australia\u2019s Bayswater City 5-1 in the Round of 32, with prodigious young attacking talent Tiago Quintal bagged a hat-trick in the win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also starring in that win were fellow youngsters Akol Akon and Mathias Macalister whilst Joe Lacey and Ethan Dyer were rewarded with minuted off the bench and Kisnorbo says the youngsters will get another chance to shine this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think they\u2019ve all done well. They\u2019ve all had to adapt really well. You know, a lot of them were in the youth team set-up last season, and I brought them in for pre-season, which they\u2019ve done really well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut again, there\u2019s still a lot of work to do with them to understand what we want to do and how we work. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe key thing for me is adaptation, and they\u2019ve done that. But they need to keep going and pushing and working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">REVEALED: <a href=\"https:\/\/aleagues.com.au\/news\/aleague-men-women-ifab-law-changes-enforced-season-2026-27\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The three new law changes coming to the A-Leagues this season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney FC boss Patrick Kisnorbo has praised the impact Japanese forward Takahiro Sekine has had since joining the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1264,1417,1418,30846,152,247],"class_list":["post-67214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-a-league-men","tag-a-leagues","tag-almfeatured","tag-australia-cup","tag-news","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}