2006 J.League Division 1

J.League Division 1
Season	2006
Champions	Urawa Red Diamonds; 1st J.League title; 5th Japanese title
Relegated	Avispa Fukuoka; Cerezo Osaka; Kyoto Purple Sanga
Champions League	Urawa Red Diamonds; Kawasaki Frontale; (all to the group stage)
Matches played	306
Goals scored	976 (3.19 per match)
Top goalscorer	Magno Alves & Washington (26)
Highest attendance	62,241 (Round 34,; Reds vs. Gamba)
Lowest attendance	3,671 (Round 6,; Sanga vs. Avispa)
Average attendance	18,292
	← 2005 2007 →

The 2006 J.League Division 1 season was the 14th season since the establishment of the J.League Division 1. It began on March 4 and ended on December 2.

General

Promotion/relegation

At the end of the 2005 season, Kyoto Purple Sanga, Avispa Fukuoka, and Ventforet Kofu were promoted to J1.
At the end of the 2005 season, Kashiwa Reysol, Tokyo Verdy 1969, and Vissel Kobe were relegated to J2.
At the end of the 2005 season, Ehime FC was promoted to J2.

Changes in competition format

The Division 2 was expanded to 13 clubs.
In games that require extra time in case of a tie (i.e. two-legged league cup games) away goals rule is adopted.

Changes in clubs

none

Honours

Competition	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd place
J.League Division 1	Urawa Red Diamonds	Kawasaki Frontale	Gamba Osaka
J.League Division 2	Yokohama FC	Kashiwa Reysol	Vissel Kobe
Emperor's Cup	Urawa Red Diamonds	Gamba Osaka	Kashima Antlers Consadole Sapporo
Nabisco Cup	JEF United Ichihara Chiba	Kashima Antlers	Kawasaki Frontale Yokohama F. Marinos
XEROX Super Cup	Urawa Red Diamonds	Gamba Osaka

Clubs

JEF United
Ichihara Chiba

Location of the clubs in Japan

The following eighteen clubs participated in J.League Division 1 during 2006 season. Of these clubs, Kyoto Purple Sanga, Avispa Fukuoka, and Ventforet Kofu were newly promoted clubs.

Personnel

Club	Head coach
Albirex Niigata	Jun Suzuki
Avispa Fukuoka	Ryoichi Kawakatsu
Cerezo Osaka	Yuji Tsukada
FC Tokyo	Hisao Kuramata
Gamba Osaka	Akira Nishino
JEF United Ichihara Chiba	Amar Osim
Júbilo Iwata	Adilson Batista
Kashima Antlers	Paulo Autuori
Kawasaki Frontale	Takashi Sekizuka
Kyoto Purple Sanga	Naohiko Minobe
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Sef Vergoossen
Oita Trinita	Péricles Chamusca
Omiya Ardija	Toshiya Miura
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Mihailo Petrović
Shimizu S-Pulse	Kenta Hasegawa
Urawa Red Diamonds	Guido Buchwald
Ventforet Kofu	Takeshi Oki
Yokohama F. Marinos	Takashi Mizunuma

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Non-visa foreign	Type-C contract	Former players
Albirex Niigata	Edmílson	Fabinho Santos	Silvinho
Avispa Fukuoka	Alex	Baron	Roberto		Alexandre	Gláucio
Cerezo Osaka	Bruno Quadros	Pingo	Zé Carlos		Japa	André Neitzke
FC Tokyo	Jean	Lucas Severino	Washington		Rychely	Santiago Salcedo
Gamba Osaka	Fernandinho	Magno Alves	Sidiclei		Lucas Chiaretti
JEF United Ichihara Chiba	Mario Haas	Ilian Stoyanov	Nebojša Krupniković	Kim Dong-soo
Júbilo Iwata	Fabrício	Kim Jin-kyu
Kashima Antlers	Alex Mineiro	Fábio Santos	Fernando		Chumbinho
Kawasaki Frontale	Juninho	Magnum	Marcão	Jong Tae-se		Marcus Vinícius
Kyoto Purple Sanga	André Pinto	Paulinho	Pinheiro		Diego	Alemão Ricardo
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Frode Johnsen	Marek Špilár	Kim Jung-woo
Oita Trinita	Edmilson Alves	Rafael	Túlio		Platini	Osmar
Omiya Ardija	Alison	Toninho				Rodrigo Gral Saúl Martínez
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Beto	Ueslei	Dario Dabac	Ri Han-jae	Jo Woo-jin	Dininho
Shimizu S-Pulse	Alexandre Goulart	Marquinhos	Cho Jae-jin
Urawa Red Diamonds	Nenê	Robson Ponte	Washington		Sergio Escudero
Ventforet Kofu	Alair	Baré	Biju		Josimar Neto
Yokohama F. Marinos	Dutra	Marques				Magrão

Format

Eighteen clubs will play in double round-robin (home and away) format, a total of 34 games each. A club receives 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. The clubs are ranked by points, and tie breakers are, in the following order:

Goal differential
Goals scored
Head-to-head results

A draw would be conducted, if necessary. However, if two clubs are tied at the first place, both clubs will be declared as the champions. The bottom two clubs will be relegated to J2, while the 16th placed club plays a two-legged Promotion/relegation Series.

Changes from previous year

none

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Urawa Red Diamonds (C)	34	22	6	6	67	28	+39	72	Qualification for 2007 AFC Champions League Group stage^[a]
2	Kawasaki Frontale	34	20	7	7	84	55	+29	67	Qualification for 2007 AFC Champions League Group stage^[a]
3	Gamba Osaka	34	20	6	8	80	48	+32	66
4	Shimizu S-Pulse	34	18	6	10	60	41	+19	60
5	Júbilo Iwata	34	17	7	10	68	51	+17	58
6	Kashima Antlers	34	18	4	12	62	53	+9	58
7	Nagoya Grampus Eight	34	13	9	12	51	49	+2	48
8	Oita Trinita	34	13	8	13	47	45	+2	47
9	Yokohama F. Marinos	34	13	6	15	49	43	+6	45
10	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	34	13	6	15	50	56	−6	45
11	JEF United Ichihara Chiba	34	13	5	16	57	58	−1	44
12	Omiya Ardija	34	13	5	16	43	55	−12	44
13	FC Tokyo	34	13	4	17	56	65	−9	43
14	Albirex Niigata	34	12	6	16	46	65	−19	42
15	Ventforet Kofu	34	12	6	16	42	64	−22	42
16	Avispa Fukuoka (R)	34	5	12	17	32	56	−24	27	2006 promotion/relegation Series
17	Cerezo Osaka (R)	34	6	9	19	44	70	−26	27	Relegation to 2007 J.League Division 2
18	Kyoto Purple Sanga (R)	34	4	10	20	38	74	−36	22	Relegation to 2007 J.League Division 2

Updated to match(es) played on December 2, 2006. Source: J. League Division 1
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Urawa Red Diamonds won the 2005 Emperor's Cup and already qualified for 2007 ACL; therefore Kawasaki Frontale takes the second ACL spot.

Results

Home \ Away	ALB	ANT	ARD	AVI	CER	FRO	GAM	GRA	JEF	JÚB	SAN	SFR	SSP	TOK	TRI	RED	VEN	FMA
Albirex Niigata		0–1	1–2	0–1	2–2	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	4–2	2–0	3–3	2–1	3–0	1–0
Kashima Antlers	5–1		2–1	4–1	2–0	2–4	3–1	2–1	0–4	3–0	1–0	0–2	3–1	3–2	0–1	2–2	3–1	0–3
Omiya Ardija	1–2	0–3		2–2	2–0	1–5	0–2	1–4	4–2	2–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–2	0–2	3–1	2–1
Avispa Fukuoka	2–0	2–1	1–1		1–0	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–3	2–1	4–5	0–2	1–2	0–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–3
Cerezo Osaka	3–1	2–2	0–1	0–0		1–3	1–6	1–1	3–2	2–3	2–2	4–2	1–1	1–5	0–2	1–2	2–3	2–0
Kawasaki Frontale	6–0	3–2	3–1	2–1	1–0		3–2	4–2	2–2	3–4	2–0	3–3	2–2	2–2	2–1	0–2	2–0	1–1
Gamba Osaka	3–0	1–0	3–1	2–2	3–1	4–0		5–1	1–0	2–2	3–2	3–2	3–0	1–0	1–3	1–1	2–0	1–1
Nagoya Grampus Eight	3–1	0–0	2–0	2–0	3–2	0–2	3–3		2–1	3–1	1–1	2–3	1–1	1–2	0–3	1–0	5–1	1–1
JEF United Ichihara Chiba	1–3	0–1	1–3	2–2	2–1	1–2	1–2	2–3		0–0	2–0	0–1	1–3	3–4	2–1	2–0	2–2	0–2
Júbilo Iwata	7–0	3–3	2–1	1–1	3–1	1–2	3–2	2–2	3–1		1–1	3–0	1–0	4–1	2–3	3–2	2–0	3–1
Kyoto Purple Sanga	1–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	4–4	2–7	1–4	0–1	1–2	1–3		2–2	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–5	1–1	0–4
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	2–1	3–4	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–3	1–3	0–0	2–4	2–1	1–0		1–2	5–2	0–1	1–4	1–3	3–0
Shimizu S-Pulse	1–1	1–2	1–1	4–0	1–0	4–3	2–3	2–0	1–2	2–0	1–0	3–0		2–0	4–1	2–1	4–0	1–0
FC Tokyo	1–4	2–4	1–2	5–1	2–3	5–4	3–2	2–1	2–3	3–1	2–1	0–2	0–1		2–0	0–0	1–3	1–2
Oita Trinita	4–0	2–0	1–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–3	1–2	2–1	1–1	3–3	0–1		2–1	3–2	1–2
Urawa Red Diamonds	3–1	4–0	2–0	2–1	3–0	2–2	3–2	0–0	2–0	3–1	3–0	2–1	1–0	4–0	1–0		3–0	1–0
Ventforet Kofu	0–4	2–1	3–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	3–2	2–1	2–3	1–1	3–1	1–0	0–2	1–3	2–0	1–1		1–0
Yokohama F. Marinos	2–0	2–1	1–2	0–0	3–1	1–2	3–4	2–1	1–1	0–1	4–1	2–1	2–3	1–1	0–1	1–3	3–0

Updated to match(es) played on December 2, 2006. Source: J. League Division 1
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Pos	Scorer	Club	Goals^[1]
1	Magno Alves	Gamba Osaka	26
1	Washington	Urawa Red Diamonds	26
3	Juninho	Kawasaki Frontale	20
4	Lucas Severino	FC Tokyo	18
	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
	Kazuki Ganaha	Kawasaki Frontale
7	Ueslei	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	16
	Ryūji Bando	Gamba Osaka
	Cho Jae-jin	Shimizu S-Pulse
10	Ryoichi Maeda	Júbilo Iwata	15

Attendance

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Urawa Red Diamonds	774,749	62,241	16,040	45,573	+15.8%^†
2	Albirex Niigata	658,050	42,056	33,993	38,709	−3.5%^†
3	FC Tokyo	409,634	41,528	17,033	24,096	−11.1%^†
4	Yokohama F. Marinos	402,270	50,572	11,623	23,663	−8.0%^†
5	Oita Trinita	345,955	28,690	12,843	20,350	−7.8%^†
6	Júbilo Iwata	306,033	37,711	10,560	18,002	+4.1%^†
7	Gamba Osaka	276,395	20,916	8,388	16,259	+1.8%^†
8	Kashima Antlers	262,365	34,236	7,427	15,433	−17.2%^†
9	Nagoya Grampus Eight	253,702	32,109	6,618	14,924	+12.3%^†
10	Kawasaki Frontale	243,780	23,005	9,430	14,340	+5.0%^†
11	Shimizu S-Pulse	243,137	24,920	9,079	14,302	+12.2%^†
12	Avispa Fukuoka	234,259	21,545	8,585	13,780	+27.8%^†
13	JEF United Ichihara Chiba	227,680	17,438	8,567	13,393	+40.5%^†
14	Cerezo Osaka	221,438	30,561	6,282	13,026	−26.2%^†
15	Ventforet Kofu	207,629	17,000	8,025	12,213	+76.2%^†
16	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	190,066	17,564	5,545	11,180	−10.8%^†
17	Omiya Ardija	173,986	35,059	4,873	10,234	+2.5%^†
18	Kyoto Purple Sanga	166,280	16,492	3,670	9,781	+24.5%^†
	League total	5,597,408	62,241	3,670	18,292	−2.5%^†

Updated to games played on December 2, 2006
Source: J. League Division 1
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in J2.

Awards

Individual

Award	Recipient	Club
Player of the Year	Marcus Tulio Tanaka	Urawa Red Diamonds
Young Player of the Year	Jungo Fujimoto	Shimizu S-Pulse
Manager of the Year	Guido Buchwald	Urawa Red Diamonds
Top Scorer	Magno Alves	Gamba Osaka
Top Scorer	Washington	Urawa Red Diamonds
Fair Play Player Award	Satoru Yamagishi	JEF United Ichihara Chiba
Fair Play Player Award	Yuichi Nemoto	Oita Trinita
Referee of the Year	Toru Kamikawa
Assistant Referee of the Year	Yoshikazu Hiroshima
Meritoriousness Player Award	Masaaki Sawanobori
	Naoki Soma
	Nobuyuki Kojima

Best Eleven

Position	Footballer	Club	Nationality
GK	Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (1)	Júbilo Iwata	Japan
DF	Akira Kaji (1)	Gamba Osaka	Japan
DF	Marcus Tulio Tanaka (3)	Urawa Red Diamonds	Japan
DF	Satoshi Yamaguchi (1)	Gamba Osaka	Japan
MF	Hiroyuki Taniguchi (1)	Kawasaki Frontale	Japan
MF	Keita Suzuki (1)	Urawa Red Diamonds	Japan
MF	Kengo Nakamura (1)	Kawasaki Frontale	Japan
MF	Yasuhito Endō (4)	Gamba Osaka	Japan
MF	Yuki Abe (2)	JEF United Ichihara Chiba	Japan
FW	Magno Alves (1)	Gamba Osaka	Brazil
FW	Washington (1)	Urawa Red Diamonds	Brazil