SAITAMA –

Urawa Reds and Japan goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa has urged his teammates to seize the moment over the year ahead after suffering disappointment for both club and country in the last two months.

Nishikawa was outstanding as Urawa led the J. League for the majority of last season, helping the team set a new league record of seven consecutive clean sheets only to blow a five-point lead with three games remaining and hand the championship to Gamba Osaka.

The 28-year-old then sat on the bench for the duration of Japan's Asian Cup title defense in Australia, which ended in a quarterfinal defeat to the United Arab Emirates last Friday after first-choice 'keeper Eiji Kawashima came up second best in a penalty shootout.

Now Nishikawa is aiming to set the record straight as he prepares for the new season with Urawa, with substance over style the priority after watching Japan attempt 35 shots to the UAE's three yet still go on to lose after a 1-1 draw.

"As a team we were united, but the fact that we weren't able to get results shows we weren't good enough," Nishikawa said of Japan's campaign, after his first day back at Urawa's training ground. "It doesn't matter how much you control the game, you have to deliver in the end and that is something we have to work on. Not just with the national team but in the J. League as well, we have to insist on taking that final step.

"We've got a lot of new players coming into the club this year and it's my second season here, and I think we have grown stronger."

Urawa hoped that Nishikawa would be the final piece in the championship puzzle when he arrived from Sanfrecce Hiroshima at the start of last season, coming to the club with two league-winner's medals and a hunger to add more to his collection.

Reds teammate Tomoaki Makino was disappointed to see Japan's Asian Cup campaign end prematurely, but the defender knows that having Nishikawa back earlier than expected can only help Urawa's preparations.

"The sooner he comes back the more time we can spend together, and we can get on the same page in terms of awareness of what we're doing and what our goals are," said Makino. "Also with the new players coming in, if he comes back early then that's a plus.

"He looks like he's lost weight. All the players who were at the Asian Cup who didn't play will have lost something physically, so I want him to be working hard at our next camp."

Urawa's training schedule was disrupted by snow on Friday, with manager Mihailo Petrovic taking advantage of the bad weather to give his players a video tutorial on where they went wrong last season.

"We need to train hard, but in this situation, to be able to see what we have to do on video is a positive thing," said Makino. "It's difficult to find the time to do something like that in camp because you're always training and you just want to relax in the evenings.

"When my video came up, there were a lot of scenes of me up against the players who have just joined us, with them beating me. It's good to watch videos because you can see clearly what you need to do."

Reds have been active in the transfer market over the offseason, with forward Naoki Ishihara joining from Sanfrecce, Slovenian striker Zlatan Ljubijankic crossing the Saitama divide from local rivals Omiya Ardija, defender Wataru Hashimoto arriving from Kashiwa Reysol and forward Takayuki Takagi coming in from Shimizu S-Pulse, among others.

"There is a slight difference here, but through training and practice matches you learn and confirm what you're doing," said Ishihara, who also won two league titles with Sanfrecce and scored 10 goals last season.

"My position is the same but the players are different, so there's a slight difference in the timing of passes and so on. It will take some time to get used to, but the communication is good and we'll talk it through."

Reds begin the J. League season away to promoted Shonan Bellmare on March 7, 10 days after they kick off their bid to reclaim the Asian Champions League trophy they won in 2007.

"The first thing we have to do is get through the group stage," said Nishikawa of the ACL.

"In order to do that, it's very important that we make a good start."