Urawa Red Diamonds

Urawa Red Diamonds
Basic data
Surname	Urawa Red Diamonds ( Japanese 浦 和 レ ッ ド ダ イ ヤ モ ン ズ )
Seat	Urawa
founding	1992 ( Mitsubishi FC: 1950 )
Colours	red-white-black
president	Mitsunori Fujiguchi
Website	urawa-reds.co.jp
First soccer team
Head coach	Tsuyoshi Otsuki
Venue	Saitama Stadium 2002 Urawa Komaba Stadium
Places	63,718 21,500
league	J1 League
2019	14th place
home Away Alternatively

The Urawa Red Diamonds ( Japanese 浦 和 レ ッ ド ダ イ ヤ モ ン ズ , Urawa reddo daiyamonzu ), often also called Urawa Reds ( 浦 和 レ ッ ズ , Urawa rezzu ), are a Japanese football club from the Urawa district of the Saitama community . The club plays in the top division of Japan, the J1 League .

Predecessor clubs

Old Mitsubishi Urawa FC club logo

In 1950, dominated as Japan Football Still of university teams, was in Urawa the bu Sakka-Naka-Nihon Jukogyo founded, the company sports group of Naka-Nihon Jukogyo, a company based in Kobe , which in breaking up of the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu by the GHQ was born. Two years later, the company and works team were renamed, and the Shin- Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō Kobe Sakkā-bu was created . In 1958 the team moved to Tokyo and was renamed in 1964 in Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō Sakkā-bu (English Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Football Club ). In 1990 the team was transferred to Mitsubishi Jidōsha Kōgyō (English Mitsubishi Motors ) and was consequently called Mitsubishi Jidōsha Kōgyō Sakkā-bu , before the team was converted into an independent company in 1992.

This makes the club older than most of its comrades in the J. League, most of whom were founded around 1970. When football became increasingly popular during the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and companies discovered the sport as an advertising platform, the club was expanded. As a result of this work, Mitsubishi was the dominant team in the country with four championships and four Imperial Cup victories between 1969 and 1982. It is worth mentioning here that the club finished the championship in one of the first two places for ten years in a row between 1969 and 1978.

Naming

When the decision to found a professional league was made in 1992, Mitsubishi had ceded the leadership role to teams like Yomiuri or Nissan , but was nonetheless a founding member of the J.League. Like other clubs, the club adopted a new, western-style name: Urawa Red Diamonds. On the one hand, this referred to the owner Mitsubishi, whose company logo consists of three red diamonds , through the colloquial nickname Reds and the playing clothes with a red jersey, white shorts and black stockings, they also referred to the English top club Manchester United .

organization

In 1992 the team was founded in its current form as a stock company: The KK Mitsubishi Jidōsha Football Club ( 株式会社 三菱 自動 車 フ ッ ト ボ ー ル ク ラ ブ , KK Mitsubishi Jidōsha Futtobōru Kurabu ) belongs to over 50% Mitsubishi Jidōsha Kōgyō , and the city of Saitama is five percent prefecture; the remaining shares are distributed among 27 companies. The board of directors ( torishimariyakukai ) has three representatives from Mitsubishi Jidōsha Kōgyō, the lieutenant governor of Saitama and the mayor of Saitama (as of April 2010).

history

Transfers from Germany

After Urawa had finished the first three J. League half-series as the last, which at that time did not lead to relegation, as the league was continuously topped up, two world champions from 1990 with Guido Buchwald and Uwe Bein were committed in 1994 , which quickly became The league's audience favorites advanced. After a German coach was signed with Holger Osieck a year later, things went uphill for a short time. After Bein, Buchwald and Osieck left the club again, a decline set in, which neither newcomer Michael Rummenigge nor the new coach Horst Köppel could stop. In the 1999 season, the club finally rose to the Japanese second division.

Resurgence and first successes

Despite the relegation, the fans remained loyal to the Red Diamonds; the club achieved in the second division season 2000 a higher average attendance than all first division clubs. After the direct resurgence, Urawa achieved the highest number of visitors in J.League history in the newly built World Cup stadium in Saitama on the first day of the 2001 season. In the 2003 season, the Red Diamonds were finally able to win their first title since the introduction of the J. League with the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup . In addition, the club was also in the final for this cup in 2002 and 2004.

Promotion to the top club

With the return of Guido Buchwald as coach for the 2004 season, the Red Diamonds were finally able to establish themselves at the top of Japanese club football. By winning the return series of the 2004 season, the club was able to qualify for the championship finals for the first time, but lost it to Yokohama F. Marinos . For the 2005 season, the previous separate evaluation of the first and second round with a final final of the two winners for the championship title of the J.League was given up and replaced by a normal championship round with home and away games. Even under the new mode, the Red Diamonds were again runner-up behind Gamba Osaka ; they also won the Kaiser Cup at the end of the season with a 2-1 win over Shimizu S-Pulse .

Double and Champions League victory

In the 2006 season, the Red Diamonds finally managed to win the Japanese championship ahead of Kawasaki Frontale . In addition, at the end of the season, the club defended the Kaiser Cup with a 2-1 win in the final against Gamba Osaka. After three doubles from the predecessor club Mitsubishi FC, this was the Red Diamonds' first double win. Buchwald left the club after the season and the new coach was again Holger Osieck.

Under him, the Red Diamonds finally achieved the greatest success in the club's history when they won the AFC Champions League in the 2007 season . In the finals , they defeated Sepahan Isfahan from Iran 1: 1 and 2: 0. Urawa thus qualified for the first time for the FIFA Club World Cup , where the team was eliminated in the semifinals against eventual tournament winners AC Milan and ultimately came third. In the J-League, the club missed the title defense when they lost 1-0 to the relegated Yokohama FC on the last day of the match and were intercepted by the Kashima Antlers .

Since 2008

After two match days in the 2008 season, when you couldn't get a single point, coach Holger Osieck was dismissed. His successor was the previous assistant coach Gert Engels . The season ended with the Red Diamonds in seventh place. For the 2009 season, Volker Finke, another German, was hired as a coach. Finke signed a two-year contract and ended the season with the club in sixth place. When Finke moved to 1. FC Köln as sports director in February 2011 , Željko Petrović took over the team. At the end of the season, Urawa RD landed in 15th place - one place and three points ahead of the first relegated Ventforet Kofu . The following season, 2012, went much better and ended with third place and qualification for the AFC Champions League 2013 . There the team failed in the group stage to Guangzhou Evergrande and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors . In the J-League, 6th place jumped out at the end of the season, with the gap to 4th place being only one point. 4th place would have entitled to participate in the AFC Champions League again.

On March 23, 2014, the Red Diamonds became the first Japanese team to play a home game without spectators (against Shimizu S-Pulse ). The League Association imposed this penalty because Urawa fans hung a poster over a grandstand entrance at the home game against Sagan Tosu on March 8, 2014 , saying "For Japanese only". This was seen by the league association as a racist attack on opposing professionals from abroad. The club itself had this poster removed only after the game.

Second Asian Champions League victory, Emperor's Cup victory and instability

In 2015 and 2016, the J1 was again held in two phases, consisting of round-trip rounds and play-offs for the two winners and the winner of the overall points. Although Urawa would have won both years in regular rankings, they lost in the playoffs in 2015 in the semifinals against Gamba Osaka and in 2016 in the final against Kashima Antlers . These two years were playfully the highlight of Urawa's in the JLeague. In 2017, inconsistent ideas in the JLeague and the corresponding place in the middle of the table led to Misha Petrovic being dismissed in July 2017. Originally planned as an interim coach, Takafumi Hori took over the team as coach. With a more cautious style of play, Urawa stabilized a little in the JLeague and won the JLeague Cup. Despite almost hopeless first leg defeats at Jeju United (2: 0) and Kawasaki Frontale (3: 1), Urawa was able to win the second legs in eighth (3: 0) and quarter-finals (4: 1) and move into the semi-finals. Urawa was also able to prevail against the superstars at Shanghai SIPG around Hulk (soccer player) and Oscar (soccer player, 1991) and won the Asian Champions League title again after 10 years in the final against Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia) . After the ACL win, Takafumi Hori remained the coach, but since the beginning of the JLeague season was again very moderate, Tsuyoshi Otsuki took over until Oswaldo de Oliveira , a well-known coach, was signed at the end of April 2018. The situation in the JLeague improved again, but it was no longer possible to catch up with the first 4 places, which would have made at least an ACL qualification possible. The victory of the Kaiser Cup ensured direct participation in the ACL from the group stage (without having to contest the ACL qualification).

In 2019 the picture was similar to previous years. Although they had supposedly strengthened themselves (and had declared the victory of the JLeague and the ACL as a goal), the first half of the JLeague went very badly again, which cost Oswaldo de Oliveira his job at the end of May 2019. This time Tsuyoshi Otsuki was made head coach on a regular basis.

Stadion

Saitama Stadium 2002

The club plays its home games at the Saitama Stadium 2002 in Saitama in Saitama Prefecture from. The stadium has a capacity of 63,718 spectators. The sports facility is owned by Saitama Prefecture.

Coordinates: 35 ° 54 '10.8 "  N , 139 ° 43' 3.1"  E

Current squad

Status: June 2020

No. position Surname 1 TW Shūsaku Nishikawa 2 FROM Maurício Antônio 3 MF Tomoya Ugajin 4th FROM Daisuke Suzuki 5 FROM Tomoaki Makino 6th FROM Ryosuke Yamanaka 7th MF Kazuki Nagasawa 8th MF Ewerton (on loan from FC Porto ) 9 ST Yūki Mutō 10 MF Yōsuke Kashiwagi ( team captain ) 11 ST Quenten Martinus 12 ST Fabrício 13 MF Ryōtarō Itō 14th ST Kenyu Sugimoto 16 MF Takuya Aoki

No. position Surname 20th FROM Thomas Deng 22nd MF Yūki Abe 24 MF Kōya Yuruki 25th TW Haruki Fukushima 26th FROM Takuya Ogiwara 27 FROM Daiki Hashioka 28 FROM Katsuya Iwatake 29 MF Kai Shibato 30th ST Shinzo Koroki 31 FROM Takuya Iwanami 32 TW Ryo Ishii 35 MF Tomoaki Okubo 36 TW Zion Suzuki 37 MF Hidetoshi Takeda 39 MF Kosuke Taketomi 41 MF Takahiro Sekine 45 ST Leonardo

Borrowed Players

No. position Surname MF Haruki Izawa (after Kagoshima United FC )

successes

(until 1992 as Mitsubishi Urawa FC; since 1992 as Urawa Red Diamonds)

National

• Japan Soccer League : 4th

1969, 1973, 1978, 1982

• Japan Soccer League Cup : 2nd

1978, 1981

• J. League Division 1 : 1

2006

• J. League Cup : 2

2003, 2016

• Kaiser Cup : 7

1971, 1973, 1978, 1980, 2005, 2006, 2018

• Japanese Supercup : 4th

1979, 1980, 1983, 2006

International

• AFC Champions League :

Winner: 2007 , 2017

2nd place: 2019

• Copa Suruga Bank :

2017

Former German players

• Michael Rummenigge (1993–1995)
• Uwe Rahn (1993–1995)
• Uwe Bein (1994–1996)
• Guido Buchwald (1994–1997)

Coach chronicle

Trainer	nation	from	to
Yoshisada Okano	Japan	February 1, 1950	January 31, 1966
Tomohiko Ikoma	Japan	1st February 1966	January 31, 1967
Hiroshi Ninomiya	Japan	February 1, 1967	January 31, 1976
Kenzō Yokoyama	Japan	February 1, 1976	January 31, 1984
Kuniya Daini	Japan	1st February 1984	June 30, 1989
Kazuo Saitō	Japan	July 1, 1989	June 30, 1992
Takaji Mori	Japan	July 1, 1992	January 31, 1994
Kenzō Yokoyama	Japan	February 1, 1994	January 31, 1995
Holger Osieck	Germany	February 1, 1995	December 31, 1996
Horst Köppel	Germany	February 1, 1997	January 31, 1998
Hiromi Hara	Japan	February 1, 1998	June 30, 1999
Yasushi Yoshida	Japan	4th December 1999	January 31, 2000
Aad de Mos	Netherlands	July 1, 1999	December 3, 1999
Kazuo Saitō	Japan	February 1, 2000	October 2, 2000
Kenzō Yokoyama	Japan	October 3, 2000	January 31, 2001
Tita	Brazil	February 1, 2001	August 27, 2001
Pita	Brazil	August 28, 2001	January 31, 2002
Hans Ooft	Netherlands	February 1, 2002	January 31, 2004
Guido Buchwald	Germany	February 1, 2004	January 31, 2007
Holger Osieck	Germany	February 1, 2007	March 16, 2008
Gert Engels	Germany	March 16, 2008	November 27, 2008
Volker Finke	Germany	February 1, 2009	January 31, 2011
Željko Petrović	Montenegro Netherlands	February 1, 2011	October 20, 2011
Takafumi Hori	Japan	October 20, 2011	January 31, 2012
Michael Petrovic	Austria , Serbia	February 1, 2012	July 30, 2017
Takafumi Hori	Japan	July 30, 2017	2nd April 2018
Tsuyoshi Otsuki	Japan	3rd April 2018	April 24, 2018
Oswaldo de Oliveira	Brazil	April 25, 2018	May 28, 2019
Tsuyoshi Otsuki	Japan	May 28, 2019	today

Season placement

season	league	Teams	Item	Add./sp.	Emperor's Cup	J. League Cup	Supercup	AFC CL	FIFA Club World Cup
1992					Semifinals	Group stage
1993	J1	10	10.	11,459	2nd round	Group stage
1994	J1	12	12.	18,475	3rd round	Quarter finals
1995	J1	14th	4th	19,560	Quarter finals
1996	J1	16	6th	24,329	Semifinals	Group stage
1997	J1	17th	10.	20,504	4th round	Quarter finals
1998	J1	18th	6th	22,706	Quarter finals	Group stage
1999	J1	16	15. ▼	21,206	4th round	Quarter finals
2000	J2	11	2. ▲	16,923	4th round	1 round
2001	J1	16	10.	26,720	Semifinals	Quarter finals
2002	J1	16	11.	26,296	3rd round	2nd place
2003	J1	16	6th	28,855	3rd round	winner
2004	J1	16	2.	36,660	Semifinals	2nd place
2005	J1	18th	2.	39,357	winner	Semifinals
2006	J1	18th	1.	45,573	winner	Quarter finals	winner
2007	J1	18th	2.	46,667	4th round	Quarter finals	2nd place	winner	3rd place
2008	J1	18th	7th	47,609	5th round	Group stage		Semifinals
2009	J1	18th	6th	44.210	2nd round	Quarter finals
2010	J1	18th	10.	39,941	Quarter finals	Group stage
2011	J1	18th	15th	33,910	Quarter finals	2nd place
2012	J1	18th	3.	36,634	4th round	Group stage
2013	J1	18th	6th	37,100	3rd round	2nd place		Group stage
2014	J1	18th	2.	35,516	3rd round	Quarter finals
2015	J1	18th	3.	38,745	2nd place	Quarter finals	2nd place	Group stage
2016	J1	18th	2.	36,935	4th round	winner		Round of 16
2017	J1	18th	7th	33,542	4th round	Quarter finals	2nd place	winner	5th place
2018	J1	18th	5.	34,798	winner	PlayOff
2019	J1	18th	14th	34,184	4th round	Quarter finals	2nd place	2nd place
2020	J1	18th

Awards

Player of the year

• Emerson (2003)
• Marcus Tulio Tanaka (2006)
• Robson Ponte (2007)

Top scorer of the year

• Masahiro Fukuda (1995)
• Emerson (2004)
• Washington (2006)

Young Player of the Year

• Shinji Ono (1998)
• Keisuke Tsuboi (2002)

Eleven of the year

• Guido Buchwald (1995, 1996)
• Masahiro Fukuda (1995)
• Masayuki Okano (1996)
• Shinji Ono (1998)
• Emerson (2002, 2003, 2004)
• Keisuke Tsuboi (2003)
• Marcus Tulio Tanaka (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• Makoto Hasebe (2004)
• Keita Suzuki (2006, 2007)
• Washington (2006)
• Yūki Abe (2007, 2016)
• Ryota Tsuzuki (2007)
• Robson Ponte (2007)
• Daisuke Nasu (2013)
• Shūsaku Nishikawa (2014, 2015, 2016)
• Tomoaki Makino (2015, 2016)
• Yōsuke Kashiwagi (2016)
• Shinzo Koroki (2017)

Web links

Commons : Urawa Red Diamonds  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official website of the Urawa Reds (Japanese, English)
• Urawa Red Diamonds Fan Website (Japanese)
• Urawa Red Diamonds in the database of weltfussball.de
• Urawa Red Diamonds in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Urawa Red Diamonds in the soccerway.com database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Urawa Red Diamonds: 年表
2. ↑ Urawa Red Diamonds: 会 社 概況
3. ↑ spox.com: Racism scandal in the Japanese league
4. ↑ J. League Championship 2016 at transfermarkt.de
5. ↑ Squad of Urawa Red Diamonds - season 2017 at transfermarkt.de
6. ↑ AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE (ACL) 2017 日程 ・ 結果 at jleague.jp
7. ↑ Table 2018 (Japanese) at jleague.jp
8. ↑ Emperor's Cup JFA 98th Japan Football Championship at jfa.jp
9. ↑ J. League Data Site