After a poor start to the season losing four of their first six league games, manager Antônio Carlos Zago was dismissed in April 2021 and was replaced by Naoki Soma as interim manager who would take control until the end of the season.

Source: J.League data site After comfortably beating lower division teams in the early rounds of the tournament, Kashima were beaten comfortably 3–1 by Kawasaki Frontale in the quarter-finals, with Ryotaro Araki scoring a 90th minute consolation goal.

With five goals in four games, Everaldo ended up as the top scorer in the whole tournament, in spite of Kashima not making it past the quarter-final stage.

Like the Emperor's Cup, Everaldo was the highest scorer for Kashima in this competition, scoring three goals in six appearances.

Source: jleague.co, besoccer.com The list is sorted by shirt number when total clean sheets are equal.