Japan 1996

J-League 1996
=============

FINAL STANDINGS (9 November 1996)

Pos Prev Team                 Games  Won  Lst   GF-GA  Pnt
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 1. ( 1) Kashima Antlers         30   21    9   61-34   66
 2. ( 4) Nagoya Grampus Eight    30   21    9   63-39   63
 3. ( 2) Yokohama Flugels        30   21    9   58-44   63
 4. ( 3) Jubilo Iwata            30   20   10   53-38   62
 5. ( 5) Kashiwa Reysol          30   20   10   67-52   60
 6. ( 6) Urawa Reds              30   19   11   51-31   59
 7. ( 7) Verdy Kawasaki          30   19   11   68-42   57
 8. ( 9) Yokohama Marinos        30   14   16   39-40   42
 9. ( 8) JEF United Ichihara     30   13   17   45-47   40
10. (10) Shimizu S-Pulse         30   12   18   50-60   37
11. (11) Bellmare Hiratsuka      30   12   18   47-58   36
12. (13) Gamba Osaka             30   11   19   38-59   33
13. (12) Cerezo Osaka            30   10   20   38-56   30
14. (14) Sanfrecce Hiroshima     30   10   20   36-60   30
15. (15) Avispa Fukuoka          30    9   21   42-64   29
16. (16) Kyoto Purple Sanga      30    8   22   22-54   24

Round 1 [Mar 16] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Kyoto Purple Sanga       1-0          12,835 
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 35] 
Kashima Antlers         - Shimizu S-Pulse          4-1          15,922 
  [Mazinho 1, 29, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 66, 76 – Masaaki Sawanobori 11] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      - Kashiwa Reysol           2-1          20,124 
  [Yasushi Fukunaga 10, 66 – Takeshi Watanabe 25] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Bellmare Hiratsuka       4-1          22,021 
  [Dragan Stojković 21, Tetsuhiro Kina 48, Tetsuya Asano 67, 
   Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 78 – Yasuharu Sorimachi 83] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Yokohama Flugels         0-2           8,087 
  [Evair 45, Yoshiro Moriyama 74] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Avispa Fukuoka           3-0          13,439 
  [Masashi Nakayama 49, 90, Toshiya Fujita 90+] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      0-1          10,722 
  [Pieter Huistra 61] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Gamba Osaka              1-2          11,728 
  [Alberto Acosta 47 pen - Mladen Mladenović 45, 59] 

Round 2 [Mar 20] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Nagoya Grampus Eight     2-3  (OT)    25,948 
  [Edilson 39, Yuji Yokoyama 61 – Takashi Hirano 7, 
   Dragan Stojković 13, Yasuyuki Moriyama 110] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Jubilo Iwata             0-1  (OT)    12,840 
  [Hiroshi Nanami 96] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Verdy Kawasaki           0-4          12,716 
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 9, Donizete 61, 70, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 69] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Cerezo Osaka             2-1          16,413 
  [Kenta Hasegawa 86, Masaaki Sawanobori 89 – Marquinhos 74] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - JEF United Ichihara      0-2           8,318 
  [Eisuke Nakanishi 12, Shinichi Muto 65] 
Gamba Osaka             - Yokohama Flugels         0-1           9,739 
  [Hiroki Hattori 13] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Kashima Antlers          1-2  (OT)    18,863 
  [Takuya Takagi 47 – Leonardo 74, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 118] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Urawa Reds               1-2  (OT)    17,323 
  [Yoshinori Furube 55 – Osamu Hirose 58, 114] 

Round 3 [Mar 23] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Gamba Osaka              2-0          11,927 
  [Masashi Nakayama 73, Salvatore Schillaci 78] 
Kashima Antlers         - Kyoto Purple Sanga       5-1          15,224 
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 24, 90, Hisashi Kurosaki 40, Mazinho 59, 
   Leonardo 64 – Rikizo Matsuhashi 79] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Bellmare Hiratsuka       0-2          10,293 
  [Koji Seki 71, Koji Noguchi 86] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Kashiwa Reysol           2-3  (OT)    11,599 
  [? (K) 12 og, Bismarck 61 – Edilson 26, Nozomu Kato 74, 
   Yuji Yokoyama 95] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Shimizu S-Pulse          1-0  (OT)    10,296 
  [Atsuhiro Miura 101] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      1-2  (OT)     6,276 
  [Hiroaki Morishima 14 – Yasuhiro Yoshida 27, Takuya Takagi 97] 
Urawa Reds              - Yokohama Marinos         2-0          49,094 
  [Yasushi Fukunaga 57, Uwe Bein 59] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Avispa Fukuoka           3-1          20,793 
  [Yasuyuki Moriyama 3, 13, Takashi Hirano 58 – Pedro Troglio 46] 

Round 4 [Mar 30] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Urawa Reds               1-1 (3-4)    12,730 
  [Dunga 12 – Uwe Bein 28] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - JEF United Ichihara      0-2          10,272 
  [Atsuhiko Ejiri 54, Nenad Maslovar 66] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Nagoya Grampus Eight     0-1          12,013 
  [Franck Durix 3] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Kashima Antlers          1-0  (OT)    23,748 
  [Koji Noguchi 110] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Cerezo Osaka             0-2           5,231 
  [? (K) 25 og, Hiroaki Morishima 79] 
Gamba Osaka             - Shimizu S-Pulse          2-2 (4-3)     5,674 
  [Mladen Mladenović 3, 55 – Hideki Nagai 26, Yoshika Matsubara 90] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Yokohama Flugels         0-1  (OT)     7,105 
  [Cézar Sampaio 104] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Verdy Kawasaki           1-2  (OT)    16,328 
  [Pedro Troglio 90 pen – Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 31, Kazuyoshi Miura 95] 

Round 5 [Apr 3] 
Kashima Antlers         - Kashiwa Reysol           5-1          15,489 
  [Mazinho 3, Jorginho 21, Ichiei Muroi 34, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 62, 
   Hisashi Kurosaki 66] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Avispa Fukuoka           0-1           8,028 
  [Hugo Maradona 30 pen] 
Urawa Reds              - Gamba Osaka              4-1          20,614 
  [Yasushi Fukunaga 58, Uwe Bein 66, Guido Buchwald 74, 
   Masaki Tsuchihashi 77 – Hans Gillhaus 17] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Yokohama Marinos         3-2  (OT)    35,518 
  [Tetsuji Hashiratani 19, Kazuyoshi Miura 87 pen, Bismarck 91 – 
   Takahiro Yamada 44, Takehito Suzuki 89] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Kyoto Purple Sanga       3-0           6,162 
  [Zinho 49, Evair 72, Takeo Harada 90] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      1-0  (OT)    12,363 
  [Daniele Massaro 117] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Jubilo Iwata             1-2          21,576 
  [Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 73 – Nobuhiro Takeda 77, Toshiya Fujita 79] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Bellmare Hiratsuka       2-3  (OT)     6,389 
  [Hiroaki Morishima 67, 74 – Koji Noguchi 30, Masato Harasaki 40, 
   ? (C) 115 og] 

Round 6 [Apr 6] 
Urawa Reds              - Nagoya Grampus Eight     0-2          19,608 
  [Tetsuya Asano 62, Yasuyuki Moriyama 90] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Verdy Kawasaki           2-1          16,381 
  [? (V) 38 og, Salvatore Schillaci 69 – Kazuyoshi Miura 36] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Cerezo Osaka             3-0           8,790 
  [Kenichi Sugano 20, 90, Nozomu Kato 50] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Yokohama Flugels         0-4           8,855 
  [Evair 7 pen, 80, ? (B) 26 og, Masakiyo Maezono 63] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Shimizu S-Pulse          1-5           8,683 
  [Takashi Nagata 46 – Daniele Massaro 34, 61, 
   Masaaki Sawanobori 57, 68, Teruyoshi Ito 67] 
Gamba Osaka             - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      2-1  (OT)     7,042 
  [Mladen Mladenović 74, Masanobu Matsunami 99 – Noh Jung-Yoon 82] 
Yokohama Marinos        - JEF United Ichihara      2-1          28,584 
  [Alberto Acosta 53, 62 – Eisuke Nakanishi 88] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Kashima Antlers          2-4          11,087 
  [Pedro Troglio 36, Atsushi Nagai 65 – Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 22, 
   Hisashi Kurosaki 24, 28, Leonardo 29] 

Round 7 [Apr 13] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Kashiwa Reysol           2-1           8,083 
  [Evair 19, Cézar Sampaio 75 – Kentaro Sawwada 58] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Kyoto Purple Sanga       3-0           7,098 
  [Noh Jung-Yoon 75, 77, Takuya Takagi 90] 
Kashima Antlers         - Yokohama Marinos         3-1          16,034 
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 18, Leonardo 59, Tadatoshi Masuda 84 – 
   Néstor Gorosito 24] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Urawa Reds               2-0          45,555 
  [Kentaro Hayashi 71, Kazuyoshi Miura 84 pen] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Bellmare Hiratsuka       5-1          14,477 
  [Fernando Oliva 25, 56, Daniele Massaro 29, 49, 84 – 
   Paulinho 58 pen] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Gamba Osaka              2-0          22,105 
  [Takashi Hirano 4, Dragan Stojković 73] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Avispa Fukuoka           1-2           7,096 
  [Makoto Yonekura 82 – Pedro Troglio 1, 78] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Jubilo Iwata             2-4          13,652 
  [Eisuke Nakanishi 63, Ivan Hašek 87 – Masashi Nakayama 46, 
   Takashi Fukunishi 56, Hiroshi Nanami 68, Nobuhiro Takeda 82] 

Round 8 [Apr 17] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Shimizu S-Pulse          2- 1  (OT)    9,212 
  [Nozomu Kato 81 pen, Koichi Hashiratani 96 – Masaaki Sawanobori 78] 
Urawa Reds              - JEF United Ichihara      1- 0         19,366 
  [Osamu Hirose 5 pen] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Cerezo Osaka             3- 0         10,057 
  [David Bisconti 9, Néstor Gorosito 35, Kei Mikuriya 45] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      0- 1  (OT)    5,747 
  [Kenichi Uemura 102] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Kashima Antlers          2- 2 (4-3)   14,165 
  [Masashi Nakayama 3, Nobuhiro Takeda 61 – Jorginho 1, Leonardo 82] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Verdy Kawasaki           3- 1         22,613 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 3, Donald-Olivier Sié 22, Dragan Stojković 55 – 
   ? (N) 57 og] 
Gamba Osaka             - Kyoto Purple Sanga       4- 2          6,349 
  [Mladen Mladenović 12, 59, Hitoshi Morishita 48, Hans Gillhaus 76 – 
   Takashi Nagata 30, Flávio Campos 56] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Yokohama Flugels         3- 4         10,551 
  [Hugo Maradona 5, Atsushi Nagai 17, Yusaku Ueno 48 – 
   Evair 22, 84, Atsuhiro Miura 68, Hiroki Hattori 90] 

Round 9 [Apr 20] 
Kashima Antlers         - Urawa Reds               1- 0         10,643 
  [Koji Kumagai 78] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Nagoya Grampus Eight     3- 0         10,156 
  [Atsuhiko Ejiri 59, ? (N) 67 og, Nenad Maslovar 79] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Yokohama Marinos         1- 2  (OT)   13,670 
  [Zinho 77 – Masami Ihara 56, Satoru Noda 101] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Avispa Fukuoka           0- 2         14,011 
  [Pedro Troglio 50, Hugo Maradona 57] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Bellmare Hiratsuka       0- 2          6,622 
  [Paulinho 60, Hidetoshi Nakata 82] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Kashiwa Reysol           0- 1          7,126 
  [Yuji Yokoyama 12] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Jubilo Iwata             2- 1          6,323 
  [Narcízio 33, 38 – Nobuhiro Takeda 24] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Gamba Osaka              2- 3         10,858 
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 41, ? (G) 44 og – Naoki Hiraoka 60, 
   Hitoshi Morishita 78, Masanobu Matsunami 88] 

Round 10 [Apr 27] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Nagoya Grampus Eight     3- 2  (OT)   11,046 
  [Katsuo Kanda 14, 120, Hiroaki Morishima 20 – Franck Durix 48, 
   Yasuyuki Moriyama 86] 
Kashima Antlers         - Verdy Kawasaki           2- 1         15,702 
  [Tadatoshi Masuda 68, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 76 - ? (K) 41 og] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Yokohama Marinos         0- 3         12,453 
  [Néstor Gorosito 59, Satoru Noda 61, Fumitake Miura 86] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Kashiwa Reysol           0- 1          9,229 
  [Tomohiro Katanosaka 7] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Jubilo Iwata             1- 2  (OT)   21,931 
  [? (J) 56 og – Hideto Suzuki 75, Toshiya Fujita 92] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Avispa Fukuoka           0- 3          7,664 
  [? (K) 38 og, Yoshiteru Yamashita 78, Yusaku Ueno 84] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Gamba Osaka              2- 1         13,153 
  [Shoji Jo 50, Kazuya Igarashi 90 – Masanobu Matsunami 75] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Urawa Reds               1- 4         14,692 
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 75 – Osamu Hirose 8, Basile Boli 25, 
   Ken Iwase 58, Masayuki Okano 78] 

Round 11 [May 1] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Kyoto Purple Sanga       2- 0          7,422 
  [Kenji Arima 48, Antonio Wagner 64] 
Urawa Reds              - Cerezo Osaka             0- 0 (4-5)   17,789 
Verdy Kawasaki          - JEF United Ichihara      2- 1  (OT)   10,021 
  [Donizete 53, Tomo Sugawara 101 – Sandro 85] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Shimizu S-Pulse          1- 2         25,782 
  [David Bisconti 50 – Toninho 31, Masaaki Sawanobori 65] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Yokohama Flugels         2- 3         14,231 
  [Salvatore Schillaci 15, Gerald Vanenburg 33 pen – 
   Norihiro Satsukawa 30, Hiroki Hattori 67, Masakiyo Maezono 76] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Kashima Antlers          3- 1         21,438 
  [? (K) 13 og, Dragan Stojković 18, 32 pen – Mazinho 39] 
Gamba Osaka             - Bellmare Hiratsuka       2- 1  (OT)    7,153 
  [Masanobu Matsunami 4, Kunio Kitamura 111 – Koji Noguchi 32] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      0- 2          7,895 
  [Pieter Huistra 48, Hajime Moriyasu 83] 

Round 12 [May 4] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Kashima Antlers          3- 2         40,016 
  [Ivan Hašek 2, 28, Nozomi Hiroyama 15 – Hisashi Kurosaki 3, 
   Leonardo 6 pen] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      1- 0         16,639 
  [Gerald Vanenburg 25 pen] 
Gamba Osaka             - Kashiwa Reysol           1- 7         10,646 
  [Mladen Mladenović 71 pen – Edilson 49, 64, 78, 88, 89, 
   Nozomu Kato 56, Kenji Arima 90] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Cerezo Osaka             1- 2  (OT)   15,298 
  [Keisuke Kurihara 90 – Marquinhos 83, 110] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Kyoto Purple Sanga       1- 0         12,533 
  [Satoru Noda 70] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Yokohama Flugels         2- 3         23,861 
  [Yasuyuki Moriyama 78, Kazuhisa Iijima 90 – 
   Masakiyo Maezono 38, 56, Zinho 81 pen] 
Urawa Reds              - Shimizu S-Pulse          2- 1  (OT)   19,213 
  [Ken Iwase 45, Masahiro Fukuda 99 – Daniele Massaro 80] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Bellmare Hiratsuka       0- 4         11,286 
  [Masato Harasaki 3, 20, Koji Noguchi 13, Simão 87] 

Round 13 [May 11] 
Cerezo Osaka            - JEF United Ichihara      2- 3          5,896 
  [Sergio Manoel 32, 60 pen – Shoji Jo 31, Tadahiro Akiba 41, 
   Ivan Hašek 84] 
Kashima Antlers         - Gamba Osaka              4- 0         15,142 
  [Mazinho 26, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 30, ? (G) 41 og, Naoki Soma 67] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Avispa Fukuoka           5- 2         11,229 
  [Edilson 15, 45, Valdir 40, Tomohiro Katanosaka 49, Nozomu Kato 88] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Verdy Kawasaki           4- 3  (OT)   14,329 
  [Zinho 4, Evair 24, 77, Motohiro Yamaguchi 102 – Donizete 11, 78, 
   Tetsuji Hashiratani 75] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Nagoya Grampus Eight     1- 4          7,348 
  [Yoshika Matsubara 65 - Dragan Stojković 27, Tetsuya Okayama 50, 
   Takashi Hirano 67, Franck Durix 78] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Urawa Reds               1- 3          9,681 
  [Kenichi Uemura 45 – Takafumi Hori 40, 49, Masahiro Fukuda 72] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Jubilo Iwata             1- 2  (OT)   16,980 
  [Alexandre 52 – Gerald Vanenburg 70 pen, Salvatore Schillaci 91] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Yokohama Marinos         0- 2         31,699 
  [Fumitake Miura 45, David Bisconti 79] 

Round 14 [May 15] 
Kashima Antlers         - Cerezo Osaka             1- 0  (OT)   15,213
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 94] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Yokohama Flugels         4- 2         10,042
  [Nenad Maslovar 7, Ivan Hašek 13, 33, Sandro 82 – 
   Evair 17 pen, Masakiyo Maezono 34] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Shimizu S-Pulse          5- 3         12,016
  [? (S) 10 og, Caíco 25, Kazuyoshi Miura 37, 47, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 70 – 
   Toshihide Saito 43, ? (V) 58 og, Kenta Hasegawa 68] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Kashiwa Reysol           1- 2          8,395
  [Takehito Suzuki 41 – Edilson 58, ? (Y) 66 og] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Bellmare Hiratsuka       3- 4         11,924
  [Salvatore Schillaci 58, 84, 90 – Simão 4, Betinho 50 pen, 56, 82] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      1- 2         21,303
  [Dragan Stojković 65 – Pieter Huistra 70, Takuya Takagi 81] 
Gamba Osaka             - Avispa Fukuoka           3- 0          5,389
  [Hans Gillhaus 50, Shigeru Morioka 64, Vjekoslav Škrinjar 88] 
Urawa Reds              - Kyoto Purple Sanga       1- 0  (OT)   50,974
  [Yoshinori Taguchi 110] 

Round 15 [May 18] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Jubilo Iwata             4- 0         13,462
  [Edilson 28, 36, 59, Takeshi Watanabe 45] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Urawa Reds               5- 3         12,337
  [Teruo Iwamoto 42, 77, Akira Narahashi 65, Simão 80, 
   Koji Noguchi 84 – Masayuki Okano 11, 40, Masahiro Fukuda 31] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Gamba Osaka              0- 2          9,325
  [Hans Gillhaus 53, Masao Kiba 90] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 3         12,124
  [Takuya Takagi 90 – Donizete 2, Shintetsu Gen 32, Kazuyoshi Miura 33] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Yokohama Marinos         0- 1         14,295
  [Akihiro Endo 30] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - JEF United Ichihara      1- 2         13,380
  [Fernando Oliva 88 – Shoji Jo 11, Nenad Maslovar 69] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Nagoya Grampus Eight     2- 3          9,023
  [Yoshiaki Sato 9, Hiroshi Noguchi 25 – Tetsuya Asano 45, 
   Yasuyuki Moriyama 48, Dragan Stojković 61] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Kashima Antlers          1- 1 (6-5)   45,159
  [Zinho 75 – Mazinho 54] 

Round 16 (28 August)
Kashima Antlers         - JEF United Ichihara      2- 0         16,046
  [Naruyuki Naito 7, Rodrigo Mendes 17] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Gamba Osaka              1- 0          6,093
  [Kentaro Ishikawa 17] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Nagoya Grampus Eight     1- 2         30,128
  [Cézar Sampaio 90 – Tetsuya Asano 25, Franck Durix 90] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Avispa Fukuoka           1- 4          5,539
  [Hidetoshi Nakata 86 – Takahiro Endo 23, Hugo Maradona 56, 
   Shuta Sonoda 68, Pedro Troglio 78] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Urawa Reds               2- 3         10,151
  [Katsumi Oenoki 29, ? (U) 62 og – Kenji Oshiba 44, 
   Nobuhisa Yamada 76, Masayuki Okano 77] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Yokohama Marinos         0- 3         13,848
  [Alberto Acosta 6, Satoru Noda 8, David Bisconti 38] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Verdy Kawasaki           2- 4         13,069
  [Hiroaki Morishima 55, 78 – Magrão 40, 90+, Yasutoshi Miura 51, 
   Bismarck 90] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Jubilo Iwata             0- 3          6,585
  [Dunga 1, 62, Masashi Nakayama 42] 

Round 17 (31 August)
JEF United Ichihara     - Cerezo Osaka             1- 0   (OT)   7,469
  [Eisuke Nakanishi 95] 
Urawa Reds              - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      5- 1         20,028
  [Takafumi Hori 29, Uwe Bein 31, Nobuhisa Yamada 37, 39, 
   Masayuki Okano 45 – Takuya Takagi 82] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Yokohama Flugels         3- 2         14,280
  [Magrão 77, Shintetsu Gen 89, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 90 – 
   Evair 17, Cézar Sampaio 67] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Bellmare Hiratsuka       2- 1         13,978
  [Alberto Acosta 29, Norio Omura 79 – Simão 45] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Shimizu S-Pulse          2- 1         21,008
  [Alexandre Torres 29, Takashi Hirano 57 – Yoshika Matsubara 38] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Kyoto Purple Sanga       2- 1         12,358
  [Masashi Nakayama 16, Toshihiro Hattori 81 pen – Rikizo Matsuhashi 19] 
Gamba Osaka             - Kashima Antlers          0- 1          8,665
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 58] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Kashiwa Reysol           4- 5   (OT)   7,174
  [Hideaki Mori 6, Yusaku Ueno 11, Pedro Troglio 27, Hugo Maradona 66 – 
   Michihisa Date 18, Edilson 38, Naoki Sakai 67, 70, Nozomu Kato 104 pen] 

Round 18 (7 September)
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Verdy Kawasaki           0- 2         15,814
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 31, Magrão 35] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Kashima Antlers          2- 4          6,467
  [Masanori Kizawa 13, Tomotaka Fukagawa 80 – 
   Atsushi Yanagisawa 36, 66, Rodrigo Mendes 74, 83] 
Yokohama Flugels        - JEF United Ichihara      2- 0         11,103
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 28, Takayuki Yoshida 62] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Jubilo Iwata             3- 0          8,015
  [Koji Seki 50, 71, Almir 83] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Yokohama Marinos         4- 0         11,883
  [Tatsuma Yoshida 17, Naoki Sakai 42, ? (Y) 74 og, 
   Antonio Wagner 89] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Urawa Reds               1- 0         10,088
  [Alexandre 14] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Nagoya Grampus Eight     2- 3         10,185
  [Takuya Takagi 13, Masato Fue 68 – Tetsuya Okayama 45, 
   Yasuyuki Moriyama 71, Dragan Stojković 73 pen] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Gamba Osaka              1- 0          6,596
  [? (G) 24 og] 

Round 19 (14 September)
Kashima Antlers         - Yokohama Flugels         2- 1         15,435
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 34, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 78 – Masakiyo Maezono 53] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Shimizu S-Pulse          0- 1   (OT)   7,848
  [? (J) 92 og] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Kyoto Purple Sanga       3- 0         21,181
  [Tetsuya Okayama 73, Yasuyuki Moriyama 76, Tetsuya Asano 88] 
Gamba Osaka             - Cerezo Osaka             2- 0          7,210
  [Yoshiyuki Matsuyama 54, Masanobu Matsunami 59] 
Urawa Reds              - Bellmare Hiratsuka       3- 2         17,825
  [Masayuki Okano 36, Kenji Oshiba 64, Takafumi Hori 87 – 
   Koji Seki 45, Almir 60] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Kashiwa Reysol           2- 3   (OT)  13,163
  [Salvatore Schillaci 36, Toshihiro Hattori 73 pen – 
   Naoki Sakai 27, Edilson 86, 109] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Avispa Fukuoka           0- 0  (3-1)  10,268
Verdy Kawasaki          - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      5- 1         11,782
  [? (S) 2 og, Kazuyoshi Miura 16, 35, Magrão 47, 76 – 
   Noh Jung-Yoon 33] 

Round 20 (21 September)
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Kashima Antlers          0- 2         10,673
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 35, Hisashi Kurosaki 73] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Cerezo Osaka             2- 1         10,644
  [Evair 29, Motohiro Yamaguchi 85 – Narcízio 45] 
Gamba Osaka             - Yokohama Marinos         4- 5   (OT)   7,874
  [Yoshiyuki Matsuyama 10, Mladen Mladenović 51, 84, Boban Babunski 76 – 
   Alberto Acosta 2, 118, David Bisconti 35, 58, Norio Omura 64] 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Urawa Reds               0- 7         35,926
  [Kenji Oshiba 3, Masayuki Okano 22, Basile Boli 45, 
   Yasushi Fukunaga 48, 66, Guido Buchwald 85 pen, Ken Iwase 88] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Nagoya Grampus Eight     2- 3   (OT)   7,537
  [Koji Seki 45, Betinho 89 – Tetsuya Okayama 9, 42, 105] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Verdy Kawasaki           2- 0         18,058
  [Takayuki Yamaguchi 13, Shinji Fujiyoshi 78] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Jubilo Iwata             1- 3          8,287
  [Richart Báez 45 - ? (A) 35 og, Gerald Vanenburg 60, 71] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - JEF United Ichihara      3- 4          7,389
  [Takuya Takagi 26, 34, 67 – Shoji Jo 8, Wynton Rufer 11, 59, 
   Ivan Hašek 83] 

Round 21 (28 September)
Urawa Reds              - Avispa Fukuoka           1- 1  (3-2)   5,611
  [Masayuki Okano 2 – Carlos Mayor 4] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Yokohama Marinos         1- 0         14,688
  [Salvatore Schillaci 90] 
Kashima Antlers         - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      1- 1  (8-9)  15,975
  [Tadatoshi Masuda 34 – Pieter Huistra 73 pen] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Kyoto Purple Sanga       1- 0          7,142
  [Ivan Hašek 63] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Kashiwa Reysol           1- 2   (OT)  21,295
  [Yasuyuki Moriyama 81 – Nozomu Kato 45, Tomohiro Katanosaka 94] 
Cerezo Osaka            - Shimizu S-Pulse          2- 3          8,043
  [Akinori Nishizawa 20, Narcízio 58 pen – Carlos Alberto Santos 52, 
   Kenta Hasegawa 53, 76] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Gamba Osaka              3- 2   (OT)   7,035
  [Hiroki Hattori 22, Evair 43 pen, 103 - Mladen Mladenović 49, 
   Takahiro Shimada 68] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Bellmare Hiratsuka       1- 0         27,001
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 13] 

Round 22 (2 October)
Kashiwa Reysol          - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 2   (OT)  10,654
  [Valdir 10 – Kazuyoshi Miura 32, Magrão 118] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Urawa Reds               0- 1         11,798
  [Guido Buchwald 9 pen] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - JEF United Ichihara      0- 4          6,010
  [Ivan Hašek 32, 36, Shinichi Muto 39, Shoji Jo 41] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Yokohama Flugels         4- 2         16,788
  [Kenta Hasegawa 9, Masaaki Sawanobori 60, Fernando Oliva 62, 87 pen – 
   Motohiro Yamaguchi 43, 88] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Kashima Antlers          1- 0          7,691
  [Takayuki Yamaguchi 45] 
Gamba Osaka             - Jubilo Iwata             0- 1          5,025
  [Salvatore Schillaci 16] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Cerezo Osaka             2- 1   (OT)   5,387
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 79, 91 - ? (S) 73 og] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Nagoya Grampus Eight     1- 3          7,247
  [Richart Báez 57 – Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 13, Franck Durix 36, 
   ? (A) 61 og] 

Round 23 (5 October)
Cerezo Osaka            - Kyoto Purple Sanga       2- 1          8,236
  [Sergio Manoel 62 pen, Akinori Nishizawa 66 – Takayuki Yamaguchi 12] 
Kashima Antlers         - Bellmare Hiratsuka       2- 0         15,931
  [Yasuo Manaka 63, 87] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Kashiwa Reysol           2- 3          8,600
  [Ivan Hašek 10, Eisuke Nakanishi 41 – Koichi Hashiratani 52, 
   Naoki Sakai 53, 54] 
Urawa Reds              - Jubilo Iwata             0- 2         20,044
  [Masashi Nakayama 23, Hiroshi Nanami 83] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Avispa Fukuoka           1- 2   (OT)  14,446
  [Keisuke Kurihara 76 – Yusaku Ueno 61, Hugo Maradona 102] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Gamba Osaka              3- 2   (OT)  11,046
  [Hideki Nagai 80, Teruyoshi Ito 85, Tatsuru Mukojima 107 – 
   Hans Gillhaus 45, 50] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      2- 0          7,111
  [Evair 17, 40] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Yokohama Marinos         2- 0         21,984
  [Tetsuya Okayama 6, Takashi Hirano 13] 

Round 24 (16 October)
Kashiwa Reysol          - Kashima Antlers          1- 0         12,256
  [Naoki Sakai 12]
Yokohama Marinos        - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 3         21,870
  [Alberto Acosta 44 - Magrão 23, Bismarck 72, Kazuyoshi Miura 81]
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Cerezo Osaka             3- 1          5,365
  [Koji Noguchi 36, 545, Koji Seki 73 – Akinori Nishizawa 50]
Jubilo Iwata            - Nagoya Grampus Eight     0- 2         13,512
  [Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 76, Franck Durix 86]
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Yokohama Flugels         0- 1          8,227
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 76]
Gamba Osaka             - Urawa Reds               1- 0   (OT)   5,254
  [Hans Gillhaus 94]
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Shimizu S-Pulse          2- 3          6,314
  [Ryuji Michiki 20, 27 – Hideki Nagai 67, Kenta Hasegawa 87, 90]
Avispa Fukuoka          - JEF United Ichihara      3- 2          5,309
  [Kiyotaka Ishimaru 21, Yusaku Ueno 28, Hugo Maradona 50 pen – 
   Shoji Jo 27, 90]
 
Round 25 (19 October)
Kashima Antlers         - Avispa Fukuoka           3- 1         15,976
  [Tadatoshi Masuda 44, Rodrigo Mendes 67, Yasuo Manaka 74 – 
   Hugo Maradona 29]
JEF United Ichihara     - Yokohama Marinos         1- 2         16,902
  [Shoji Jo 61 - Takehito Suzuki 60, Sotaro Yasunaga 83]
Verdy Kawasaki          - Jubilo Iwata             0- 1         10,250
  [Salvatore Schillaci 7]
Yokohama Flugels        - Bellmare Hiratsuka       1- 0         10,348
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 26]
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Kyoto Purple Sanga       0- 2          8,902
  [Shinji Fujiyoshi 47, Alexandre 55]
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Urawa Reds               0- 1         22,267
  [? (N) 28 og]
Cerezo Osaka            - Kashiwa Reysol           5- 1         11,118
  [Makoto Yonekura 37, Kazunari Koga 42, Takayuki Yokoyama 59, 65, 
   Narcízio 73 - Nozomu Kato 72]
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Gamba Osaka              2- 0          7,202
  [Noh Jung-Yoon 52, Pieter Huistra 57]
 
Round 26 (26 October)
Yokohama Marinos        - Kashima Antlers          0- 1         16,110
  [Mazinho 88]
Jubilo Iwata            - JEF United Ichihara      2- 1         12,164
  [Salvatore Schillaci 17, Masashi Nakayama 78 - Ivan Hašek 30]
Kashiwa Reysol          - Yokohama Flugels         1- 2         13,181
  [? (Y) 53 og – Atsuhiro Miura 22, Evair 62]
Urawa Reds              - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 0         19,495
  [Masayuki Okano 86]
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Shimizu S-Pulse          3- 0          8,240
  [Koji Noguchi 19, ? (S) 68 og, Betinho 90]
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      2- 1   (OT)   7,315
  [Edmilson 17, Hiroshi Noguchi 109 – Pieter Huistra 26]
Gamba Osaka             - Nagoya Grampus Eight     0- 3         13,517
  [Dragan Stojković 39, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 61, Takashi Hirano 64]
Avispa Fukuoka          - Cerezo Osaka             0- 1          5,351
  [Takayuki Yokoyama 85]
 
Round 27 (30 October)
Kashima Antlers         - Jubilo Iwata             2- 2  (4-3)  15,823
  [Mazinho 41, 77 – Salvatore Schillaci 2, Takashi Fukunishi 56]
JEF United Ichihara     - Urawa Reds               1- 0          8,337
  [Wynton Rufer 39]
Verdy Kawasaki          - Nagoya Grampus Eight     1- 0         12,258
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 74]
Yokohama Flugels        - Avispa Fukuoka           3- 1          5,321
  [Evair 6, 68 pen, 76 - Richart Báez 34]
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Kashiwa Reysol           2- 4         10,237
  [Tatsuru Mukojima 51, 90 – Takeshi Watanabe 2, Careca 6, 
   Naoki Sakai 65, Edilson 88]
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Gamba Osaka              2- 1          7,003
  [Edmilson 63, Luiz Carlos 71 - Vjekoslav Škrinjar 55]
Cerezo Osaka            - Yokohama Marinos         1- 0          8,573
  [Takayuki Yokoyama 85]
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Bellmare Hiratsuka       3- 2          5,037
  [Takuya Takagi 12, Pieter Huistra 31, Mitsuaki Kojima 53 – 
   Tetsuya Takada 20, Koji Noguchi 87]
 
Round 28 (2 November)
Jubilo Iwata            - Cerezo Osaka             3- 0         12,019
  [? (C) 45 og, Salvatore Schillaci 66, Toshiya Fujita 76]
Kashiwa Reysol          - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      3- 0          7,035
  [Valdir 38, Edilson 58, 84]
Urawa Reds              - Kashima Antlers          0- 0  (4-5)  45,794
Yokohama Marinos        - Yokohama Flugels         1- 2         12,016
  [David Bisconti 57 – Masakiyo Maezono 41, Cézar Sampaio 90]
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Kyoto Purple Sanga       0- 1          5,874
  [Edmilson 63]
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - JEF United Ichihara      1- 1  (4-2)  20,679
  [Go Oiwa 38 – Yasuhiko Niimura 4]
Gamba Osaka             - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 3         12,431
  [Hiromi Kojima 61 - Magrão 54, 67, Kazuyoshi Miura 87]
Avispa Fukuoka          - Shimizu S-Pulse          1- 3          5,616
  [Pedro Troglio 90 – Toshihide Saito 33, Masaaki Sawanobori 58, 76]
 
Round 29 (6 November)
Kashima Antlers         - Nagoya Grampus Eight     4- 2         16,234
  [Yasuo Manaka 30, 40, Mazinho 66, Naoki Soma 67 – 
   Alexandre Torres 8, Yasuyuki Moriyama 86]
JEF United Ichihara     - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 5          7,767
  [Wynton Rufer 62 - Kazuyoshi Miura 1, 11, 90, Bismarck 37, Magrão 85]
Yokohama Flugels        - Jubilo Iwata             1- 2         14,070
  [Masakiyo Maezono 48 - Dunga 64, Toshihiro Hattori 90]
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Gamba Osaka              2- 0          6,335
  [? (G) 9 og, Koji Noguchi 89]
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Yokohama Marinos         0- 2         10,898
  [Alberto Acosta 11, 54]
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Kashiwa Reysol           0- 1          6,310
  [Edilson 11]
Cerezo Osaka            - Urawa Reds               3- 1          7,493
  [Hiroaki Morishima 31, 72, Sergio Manoel 50 – Masayuki Okano 2]
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Avispa Fukuoka           2- 4          4,491
  [Hajime Moriyasu 54, 89 – Yoshiteru Yamashita 31, Carlos Mayor 49, 
   Yusaku Ueno 67, 80]
 
Round 30 (9 November)
Kashiwa Reysol          - Bellmare Hiratsuka       2- 4         12,126
  [Careca 77, Michihisa Date 86 - ? (K) 48 og, Teruo Iwamoto 49, 
   Betinho 59 pen, 75]
Urawa Reds              - Yokohama Flugels         3- 0         19,357
  [Uwe Bein 25, Masayuki Okano 34, Yuki Takita 80 pen]
Verdy Kawasaki          - Kashima Antlers          5- 0         21,074
  [Magrão 19, 47, Tadashi Nakamura 21, Kazuyoshi Miura 38, 83]
Yokohama Marinos        - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      3- 1         10,858
  [Norio Omura 20, 51, 90 - ? (Y) 13 og]
Jubilo Iwata            - Shimizu S-Pulse          1- 2         17,543
  [Salvatore Schillaci 65 – Teruyoshi Ito 37, 90]
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Cerezo Osaka             2- 1         21,358
  [Tetsuya Okayama 26, Takafumi Ogura 46 – Sergio Manoel 13]
Gamba Osaka             - JEF United Ichihara      2- 1          8,090
  [Hiromitsu Isogai 35, Hans Gillhaus 90 pen – Shoji Jo 36]
Avispa Fukuoka          - Kyoto Purple Sanga       0- 2         11,710
  [Rikizo Matsuhashi 25, Edmilson 33]

FINAL STANDINGS (9 November 1996)

Pos Prev Team                 Games  Won  Lst   GF-GA  Pnt
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 1. ( 1) Kashima Antlers         30   21    9   61-34   66
 2. ( 4) Nagoya Grampus Eight    30   21    9   63-39   63
 3. ( 2) Yokohama Flugels        30   21    9   58-44   63
 4. ( 3) Jubilo Iwata            30   20   10   53-38   62
 5. ( 5) Kashiwa Reysol          30   20   10   67-52   60
 6. ( 6) Urawa Reds              30   19   11   51-31   59
 7. ( 7) Verdy Kawasaki          30   19   11   68-42   57
 8. ( 9) Yokohama Marinos        30   14   16   39-40   42
 9. ( 8) JEF United Ichihara     30   13   17   45-47   40
10. (10) Shimizu S-Pulse         30   12   18   50-60   37
11. (11) Bellmare Hiratsuka      30   12   18   47-58   36
12. (13) Gamba Osaka             30   11   19   38-59   33
13. (12) Cerezo Osaka            30   10   20   38-56   30
14. (14) Sanfrecce Hiroshima     30   10   20   36-60   30
15. (15) Avispa Fukuoka          30    9   21   42-64   29
16. (16) Kyoto Purple Sanga      30    8   22   22-54   24

TOP SCORERS (final standings, after 30 rounds)

 1. Kazuyoshi Miura              Jpn   Verdy Kawasaki            23
 2. Edilson                      Bra   Kashiwa Reysol            21
 3. Evair                        Bra   Yokohama Flugels          20
 4. Salvatore Schillaci          Ita   Jubilo Iwata              15
 5. Magrao                       Bra   Verdy Kawasaki            13
 6. Yoshiyuki Hasegawa           Jpn   Kashima Antlers           12
    Ivan Hasek                   Cze   JEF United Ichihara       12
 8. Mladen Mladenovic            Cro   Gamba Osaka               11
    Dragan Stojkovic             Yug   Nagoya Grampus Eight      11
    Takuya Takagi                Jpn   Sanfrecce Hiroshima       11
    Yasuyuki Moriyama            Jpn   Nagoya Grampus Eight      11
    Kouji Noguchi                Jpn   Bellmare Hiratsuka        11
    Mazinho                      Bra   Kashima Antlers           11
    Masayuki Okano               Jpn   Urawa Reds                11
15. Pedro Troglio                Arg   Avispa Fukuoka            10
    Alberto Acosta               Arg   Yokohama Marinos          10
17. Masashi Nakayama             Jpn   Jubilo Iwata               9
    Masaaki Sawanobori           Jpn   Shimizu S-Pulse            9
    Hiroaki Morishima            Jpn   Cerezo Osaka               9
    Tetsuya Okayama              Jpn   Nagoya Grampus Eight       9
    Shouji Jou                   Jpn   JEF United Ichihara        9
22. Motohiro Yamaguchi           Jpn   Yokohama Flugels           8
    Hugo Maradona                Arg   Avispa Fukuoka             8
    Nozomu Katou                 Jpn   Kashiwa Reysol             8
    Naoki Sakai                  Jpn   Kashiwa Reysol             8
    Masakiyo Maezono             Jpn   Yokohama Flugels           8
    Hans Gillhaus                Ned   Gamba Osaka                8


This year for the first time the J.League have instituted a new season
finale: the J.League Champions Cup, aka the Suntory Cup. The Suntory
Cup pits the numbers 1 and 2 of the J.League against the finalists of
the J.League Cup (Nabisco Cup), but it must be said that the title is
purely honorary: the true champions will be the team that won the
J.League, Kashima Antlers, no matter what happens in the Champions Cup.
The reason why this competition was instituted is probably that with
the single-season format that was adopted this year, there is no
longer a Championship Series and they wanted a final game anyway.

The semifinals were played on Wednesday 13 November 1996, right after
the end of the regular competition.

Kashima Antlers         - Verdy Kawasaki           1- 1  (4-2)  16,081
(h1) 9. Mazinho 1-0, (h2) 25. K.Miura 1-1. Shots: 18-13. At Kashima.

Shimizu S-Pulse         - Nagoya Grampus Eight     0- 0  (1-3)  15,285


The 1996 J.League Champions Final (Suntory Cup) was played on
Wednesday 20 November 1996 at the National Stadium in Tokyo. The
regular league numbers 1 and 2, Kashima Antlers and Nagoya Grampus
Eight, faced each other for the title after defeating the numbers
2 and 1 respectively of the J.League Cup aka Nabisco Cup (Verdy
Kawasaki and Shimizu S-Pulse) a week earlier. I said in my report of
the semifinals that the title was purely honorary, but this is not
quite so: apart from the fact that the money was good (50 million yen,
roughly half a million dollars), the winner of this Cup will get to
participate in the Sanwa Bank Cup next year before the start of the
season. The Sanwa Bank Cup always pits the winner of the J.League
season finals (normally the J.League champion) against a champion from
some other part of the world -- last year the Marinos faced FC
Goeteborg from Sweden. Next year's opponent will be the United States'
Major League Soccer's inaugural champions, Washington DC United.

But the official J.League champion of 1996 will be the Kashima Antlers
no matter what, and it's the Antlers who will be playing in the Asian
Champions' Cup next season.

Kashima Antlers         - Nagoya Grampus Eight     0- 1   (OT)  25,017
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(o2) 5. Stojkovic 0-1. Shots: 17-10. At National Stadium, Tokyo.
20 November 1996, kickoff 19:00. Referee: Leslie Mottram.

Kashima Antlers - GK Furukawa, DF Naitou, Akita, Okuno, Souma,
 MF Jorginho, Honda, Masuda, Rodrigo, FW Mazinho, Manaka.
 Subs: Kurosaki (h2-31) for Masuda, Oniki (h2-39) for Rodrigo.
 Cards: Akita, Rodrigo.
Nagoya Grampus Eight - GK Y.Itou, DF Iijima, Torres, Ooiwa, Nishigaya,
 MF Mochizuki, Durix, Nakanishi, Hirano, FW Stojkovic, Ogura.
 Subs: Okayama (h2-18) for Ogura, Moriyama (h2-35) for Hirano,
  Kina (o2-0) for Durix.
 Cards: Ooiwa, Iijima, Nakanishi.

Team promoted for 1997 competition: Vissel Kobe.



The Emperor's Cup 1996
======================

round 1      :  3 November (all J.League teams get a bye)
round 2      : 10 November (all J.League teams get a bye)
round 3      : 17 November (J.League teams participate; 16 matches)
round 4      : 23 December 1996
quarterfinals: 26 December 1996
semifinals   : 29 December 1996
final        :  1 January 1997

First round (3 November 1996)

 Denso                               3 -  1 Juntendo Univ.
  [Omi Sato 61, Tatsuya Kobayashi 73, 82 – Nobuo Kawaguchi 13] 
 Blaze Kumamoto                      2 -  1 Kwansei Gakuin Univ.
  [Masashi Shimamura, Narita Takaki – Tatsuya Omori] 
 World Blitz Oyama                   0 -  7 Vissel Kobe
  [Akihiro Nagashima 21, 52, 75, Ziad Tlemçani 56, 86, 87, Takuya Jinno 83] 
 Nihon Bunri Univ.                   1 -  3 Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima
  [Takahiro Akiyoshi – Seiji Hamaguchi, Tatsuo Suzuki, Nobuyoshi Higaki] 
 Kaiho Club                          0 -  4 Montedio Yamagata
  [Kenji Takahashi, Angelo, Hiroshi Teguramori, Kenji Hirosawa] 
 Renaiss Gakuen Koga SC              1 -  1 Hokkaido Educ. Univ. at Hakodate
                                     5 PK 3
  [Tomotake Takada – Yasutoshi Sasaki] 
 Morioka Zebra                       0 -  6 Fujitsu Kawasaki
  [Akira Ito, Masahide Kawamoto, Seiichi Makita, Takahisa Gempei, 
   Kozaburo Shigeno, Tomoya Takehana] 
 Fukuoka Univ.                       2 -  2 Albireo Niigata
                                     5 PK 4
  [Nobuhiro Shiba, Koki Ariyoshi – Michael Pao, Manabu Sugiyama] 
 Kawasoe Club                        2 -  5 Ventforet Kofu
  [Kenichi Okawa, Satoshi Komiya – Baron (2), Pepe (2), Kenji Nakada] 
 SC Matsue                           0 -  9 Kokushikan Univ.
  [Jin Sato (2), Naoki Urata (5), Makoto Atsuta, Masahiro Miyashita] 
 Matsuyama Univ.                     0 - 11 Brummell Sendai
  [Frank Ordenewitz (4), Pierre Littbarski, Takeshi Mizuuchi (2), 
   Yasunobu Chiba, Satoshi Taira (3)]
 Tokai Univ.                         1 -  0 Osaka Commerce Univ.
  [Hitoshi Yui] 
 Wakayama Univ.                      0 -  3 Consadole Sapporo
  [Pavel Řehák 11, Tatsuya Asanuma 44, Yuji Nakayoshi 59] 
 Gonohe Town Office SC               2 -  1 Sanyo Electrics
  [Takahiro Tachibana 27, Hiroshi Nakagawahara 71 – Nobuhiro Takeda 2h] 
 Fukushima FC                        2 -  1 Hitachi Shimizu
  [Tadaaki Kawahara 64, Kinya Takehara 77 – Kazuto Okamura 2h] 
 Teihens FC                          0 -  4 Tsukuba Univ.
  [Kenji Wakai, Shugo Nishikawa, Hiroshi Horinouchi, Mitsuhiro Toda] 
 NTT Kanto                           2 -  0 Doshisha Univ.
  [Takaaki Inoue pen, Ryugo Okamoto] 
 YKK FC                              0 -  5 Waseda Univ.
  [Mitsuteru Watanabe, Tetsuya Nishiwaki, Toshiro Tomochika (2), 
   Jun Hashimoto] 
 MIND HOUSE                          1 -  5 Tokyo Gas
  [Junichi Uehara – Jun Wada (2), Amaral (2), Edwin Ifeanyi] 
 Ueda Gientian                       1 -  2 Kunimi FC
  [Koichi Shioiri – Akira Arai, ? (U) og] 
 Central Kobe                        0 -  3 Tosu Futures
  [Edwin Uehara, Tetsuya Tanaka (2)] 
 Sony Sendai                         2 -  1 Hiroshima Teachers Club
  [Masayuki Mita 34, Hidenori Tabata 88 – Kazunori Kimoto 74] 
 Tenri Univ.                         0 -  1 Cosmo Yokkaichi
  [Kim Byung-Soo] 
 Prima Ham Tsuchiura                 2 -  3 Komazawa Univ.
  [Yuji Ozaki (2) – Keisuke Koike, Masanori Kurao, Kohei Morita] 
 Tokushima Commerce High School      1 -  5 Oita F.C.
  [Toshiaki Yazawa 90 – Lee Woo-Young 21, Hwangbo Kwan 29, 32, 59, 
   Yasushi Hara 75 pen] 
 Volca Kagoshima                     3 -  1 TDK Akita
  [Satoru Kokubo 83, Shiro Hashimitsu 87, Shinichi Nishi 90 – 
   Toshiki Sato 1h] 
 Yamagata FC                         1 -  7 Otsuka F.C.
  [Kazutoshi Takahashi – Juninho pen, Satoru Yoshida, 
   Toshiyuki Akimoto (4), Akira Oba] 
 Kochi Univ.                         8 -  1 Miyazaki Teachers SC
  [Taimei Tsuchiya, Daisuke Yoshimura (2), Shigehiro Imamura (2), 
   Toshiro Sagara, Daisuke Yamamoto, Keisuke Kimura – Masashi Inada] 
 Aoyama Gakuin Univ.                 0 -  4 Honda Giken
  [Hideo Yoshizawa 55, Douglas 70, Walter 74 pen, Wagner Lopes 79] 
 East Asia Univ.                     3 -  4 Kagawa Shiun Club
  [Soichi Sano, Daisuke Masuda (2) – Yuji Tamura (2), Koji Sasaki, 
   Mikio Doi]  
 Maruoka High School                 0 -  4 Seino Transport
  [Satoshi Sadoya, Junji Kawabata (2), Tsutomu Sato] 
 Yonago Hogashi High School          0 -  4 Kansai Univ.
  [Takeshi Nakamura, Yoshiyuki Yokose, Satoshi Matsuya, 
   Takahiro Yamashita] 

Second round (10 November 1996)

 Denso                               3 -  1 Blaze Kumamoto
  [Tatsuya Kobayashi (2), Takaaki Tokushige – Masashi Shimamura pen] 
 Vissel Kobe                         4 -  2 Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima
  [Ziad Tlemçani 15, 50, Michael Laudrup 31, Takuya Jinno 74 – 
   Shigeo Ogura 2, Nobuyoshi Higaki 58] 
 Montedio Yamagata                   6 -  0 Renaiss Gakuen Koga SC
  [Kenji Hirosawa (4; 1 pen), Hiroshi Teguramori, Angelo] 
 Fujitsu Kawasaki                    3 -  0 Fukuoka Univ.
  [Kozaburo Shigeno, Akira Ito, Wilson] 
 Ventforet Kofu                      1 -  2 Kokushikan Univ.
  [Osamu Takada – Jo Kanazawa, Makoto Atsuta] 
 Brummell Sendai                     4 -  1 Tokai Univ.
  [Frank Ordenewitz 12, Masanaga Kageyama 25, Toru Yoshida 30, 
   Takeshi Mizuuchi 74 – Daisuke Sudo 20] 
 Consadole Sapporo                   4 -  0 Gonohe Town Office SC
  [Kim Jong-Song 18, 64, Kota Yoshihara 43, Yoshikazu Goto 71] 
 Fukushima FC                        3 -  0 Tsukuba Univ.
  [Gwak Kyung-Keun 30, ? (T) 77 og, Makoto Segawa 79] 
 NTT Kanto                           1 -  0 Waseda Univ.
  [Ryutoku Matsui] 
 Tokyo Gas                           8 -  0 Kunimi FC
  [Jun Wada (3), Amaral (2), Edwin Ifeanyi, Yoshiyuki Takemoto, 
   João Carlos] 
 Tosu Futures                        5 -  2 Sony Sendai
  [Junichi Mori (2), Mario Lopez, Tetsuya Tanaka, Edwin Uehara – 
   Hidenori Tabata 28, Hiroshi Arakawa 78] 
 Cosmo Yokkaichi                     3 -  0 Komazawa Univ.
  [Kenji Ito (3)] 
 Oita F.C.                           6 -  1 Volca Kagoshima
  [Hwangbo Kwan 4, 59, Lee Woo-Young 21, 63, Shuichiro Ogushi 51, 
   Kenji Shuto 82 – Shinichi Nishi 90] 
 Otsuka F.C.                         2 -  1 Kochi Univ.
  [Takeshi Motoyoshi, Koji Kataoka – Ken Hosokawa] 
 Honda Giken                         3 -  2 Kagawa Shiun Club
  [Vágner Mancini 22, Armindo 30, Douglas 39 pen – 
   Yuji Tamura 49 pen, Takuji Suenaga 65] 
 Seino Transport                     1 -  2 Kansai Univ.
  [Shigehito Tsuchiya – Takahiro Yamashita, Takeshi Nakamura] 

Third Round (16, 17 November 1996)

Cerezo Osaka            - Tokyo Gas                3- 1          1,470 
  [Makoto Yonekura 2, Sergio Manoel 67, Tomotaka Fukagawa 83 – 
   Amaral 37] 
Yokohama Flugels        - Nippon Denso             4- 0          1,902 
  [Zinho 12, Shinya Mitsuoka 80, 90, 90+] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Vissel Kobe              4- 3          4,829 
  [Shinji Fujiyoshi 5, Ruy Ramos 14, 55, Takayuki Yamaguchi 37 – 
   Akihiro Nagashima (2), Michael Laudrup] 
Gamba Osaka             - Montedio Yamagata        4- 1          1,028 
  [Hiromitsu Isogai, Naoki Hiraoka, Mladen Mladenović, 
   Masanobu Matsunami – Masayuki Ota] 
JEF United Ichihara     - Fujitsu Kawasaki         0- 0  (4-5)   2,030 
Kashiwa Reysol          - Kokushikan Univ.         1- 0
  [Naoki Sakai] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Brummell Sendai          2- 0          1,800 
  [Takuya Takagi, Hiroshige Yanagimoto] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         - Consadole Sapporo        1- 0          6,169 
  [Kenta Hasegawa 46] 
Jubilo Iwata            - Fukushima FC             1- 2          6,233 
  [Takashi Fukunishi 82 – Hiroyuki Kawaguchi 55, ? (J) 66 og] 
Urawa Reds              - NTT Kanto                3- 0
  [Masayuki Okano (2), Ken Iwase] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Tosu Futures             1- 0
  [Almir] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    - Cosmo Yokkaichi          0- 1          6,638 
  [Kim Byung-Soo] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Oita FC                  4- 0
  [Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 7, Kazuyoshi Miura 31, 86 pen, Bismarck 67] 
Yokohama Marinos        - Vortis Tokushima         1- 2   (OT)
  [Alberto Acosta pen – Tsuyoshi Furukawa, Takao Sekiguchi] 
Avispa Fukuoka          - Honda Giken              3- 1
  [Shuta Sonoda 6, Yoshiteru Yamashita 11, 86 – Nariyasu Yasuhara 3] 
Kashima Antlers         - Kansai Univ.             2- 0
  [Mazinho, Jorginho] 

Fourth Round (23 December 1996)
Avispa Fukuoka          - Kashima Antlers          0- 2          4,966 
  [Mazinho, Tadatoshi Masuda] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      - Yokohama Flugels         1- 0          4,123 
  [Takayuki Yamaguchi 34] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Kashiwa Reysol           2- 1          2,168 
  [Antônio Carlos Santos, Yasuhiro Yoshida – Yuji Yokoyama] 
Fukushima FC            - Shimizu S-Pulse          1- 2          2,921 
  [Gwak Kyung-Keun 73 – Fernando Oliva 3, Kenta Hasegawa 80] 
Urawa Reds              - Cerezo Osaka             4- 0         10,143 
  [Uwe Bein 40, Yoshinori Taguchi 42, Yasushi Fukunaga 48, 
   Takafumi Hori 63] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      - Cosmo Yokkaichi          3- 1            964 
  [Koji Noguchi, Koji Seki, Betinho pen - ? (B) og] 
Verdy Kawasaki          - Vortis Tokushima         4- 0          5,075 
  [Bismarck, Magrão, ? (V) og, Kazuyoshi Miura] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        - Gamba Osaka              1- 3          5,571 
  [Akira Ito – Hitoshi Morishita, Hans Gillhaus, Masanobu Matsunami] 

QUARTERFINALS (played on 26 december 1996)
Verdy Kawasaki          - Kashima Antlers          2- 1          4,047 
  [Argel, Kazuyoshi Miura – Mazinho] 
Gamba Osaka             - Kyoto Purple Sanga       3- 2          1,413 
  [Hiromi Kojima, Hiromitsu Isogai, Hans Gillhaus – 
   Edmilson, Luiz Carlos] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Shimizu S-Pulse          3- 0          2,015 
  [Antônio Carlos Santos 81, Takuya Takagi 86, Noh Jung-Yoon 88] 
Urawa Reds              - Bellmare Hiratsuka       3- 0          2,774 
  [Takafumi Hori, Uwe Bein, Nobuhisa Yamada] 

SEMIFINALS (played on 29 December 1996)
Gamba Osaka             - Sanfrecce Hiroshima      0- 2          8,452
  [Noh Jung-Yoon 9, Antônio Carlos Santos 26] 
Urawa Reds              - Verdy Kawasaki           0- 3         28,994
  [Bismarck 58, Yasutoshi Miura 71, Keisuke Kurihara 84] 

Cup Final, played on 1 January 1997.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima     - Verdy Kawasaki           0- 3         38,737
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(h1) 3. Kitazawa 0-1, 11. Y.Miura 0-2, (h2) 14. Kurihara 0-3.
Shots at goal: 10-12. At Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima - GK Maekawa, DF Naitou, Yanagimoto, Kojima,
 MF Michiki, Moriyasu, Yoshida, Santos, Kuwabara, FW Noh, Takagi.
 Subs: Kubo (h2-26 for Naitou), Abe (h2-33 for Yoshida).
 Cards: Santos.
Verdy Kawasaki - GK S.Kikuchi, DF T.Kikuchi, Argel, Hayashi, Nakamura,
 Sugawara, MF Y.Miura, Bismarck, Kitazawa, FW Kurihara, K.Miura.
 Subs: Ishizuka (h2-36 for Kurihara).
 Cards: Y.Miura.



Nabisco Cup (or League Cup) 1996
================================

The J.League Cup, also known as the Nabisco Cup, started play on
1 June and will see the final on 25 September, which is in the middle
of the second half of the regular J.League competition.

The J.League Cup is being played for the fourth time this year: the
first time was in 1992 (that was the first J.League event, even before 
the inaugural competition), it was also played in '93 and '94, but in
1995 it was skipped because of the packed schedule of the J.League's
regular competition. The first three editions were all won by Verdy
Kawasaki. Note that the J.League Cup is not Japan's official Cup
Competition: it is the winner of the Emperor's Cup, played
traditionally in December, who gets to participate in the Asian Cup
Winners' Cup.

The format of the J.League Cup seems to change every year: this year
the participants are only the regular J.League teams (in previous
years the associate members (in the JFL) also got to participate but
there was apparently no room in their schedule this time). The
familiar 16 teams are divided in two groups, and get to play each
other in a home-and-away format. The interesting thing is that the
home and away games follow each other directly: so for instance on the 
first day (Saturday 1 June) the Yokohama Marinos hosted Gamba Osaka,
and on the second day (the following Wednesday, 5 June) Gamba hosted
the Marinos. The assignment of points is also interesting: only the
results over each two-match series count. If the series ends in a
draw (both games ended in draws, or both teams won once and scored the 
same number of goals) then both teams get 1 point. In all other cases, 
the team that scored the most goals is declared the winner and gets 3
points. The away goals rule is not applied, so a 1-0 home win followed 
by a 1-2 away defeat counts as a draw. Obviously there is no "V-goal"
(sudden-death) overtime, games end after 90 minutes and a draw is a
draw.

Group A

Round 1 [Jun 1] 
Yokohama Marinos        2-3  Gamba Osaka                    9,552 
  [Fumitake Miura 57, 78 – Hiromitsu Isogai 16, 53 pen, 
   Hans Gillhaus 19] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     1-0  Jubilo Iwata                  11,468 
  [Pieter Huistra 58] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      1-3  Kashiwa Reysol                20,230 
  [Yasushi Fukunaga 90 – Takeshi Watanabe 33, ? (U) 61 og, 
   Edilson 69] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      1-1  Bellmare Hiratsuka             9,254 
  [Raudnei 34 – Koji Seki 65] 

Round 2 [Jun 5] 
Kashiwa Reysol          2-0  Urawa Red Diamonds             9,348 
  [Nozomu Kato 43, Edilson 64] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      3-1  Kyoto Purple Sanga             8,107 
  [Teruo Iwamoto 4, Koji Seki 51, Yoshihiro Natsuka 70 – 
   Raudnei 24] 
Jubilo Iwata            1-0  Sanfrecce Hiroshima            8,354 
  [Masashi Nakayama 42] 
Gamba Osaka             1-1  Yokohama Marinos               7,114 
  [Yoshiyuki Matsuyama 67 – Takahiro Yamada 80] 

Round 3 [Jun 8] 
Kashiwa Reysol          0-0  Yokohama Marinos              12,768 
Urawa Red Diamonds      0-0  Bellmare Hiratsuka            19,287 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      0-1  Sanfrecce Hiroshima            6,827 
  [Yuta Abe 30] 
Jubilo Iwata            3-1  Gamba Osaka                   13,150 
  [Hiroshi Nanami 24, Toshiya Fujita 31, Salvatore Schillaci 90 – 
   Hans Gillhaus 13] 

Round 4 [Jun 12] 
Yokohama Marinos        3-1  Kashiwa Reysol                 8,280 
  [Fumitake Miura 10, Naoki Matsuda 45, David Bisconti 51 – 
   Edilson 76] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      1-2  Urawa Red Diamonds             7,893 
  [Betinho 37 – Basile Boli 51, Masahiro Fukuda 79] 
Gamba Osaka             0-5  Jubilo Iwata                   5,421 
  [Gerald Vanenburg 31, Masashi Nakayama 35, 90, 
   Nobuhiro Takeda 36, Satoshi Okura 72] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     0-0  Kyoto Purple Sanga             4,331 

Round 5 [Jun 15] 
Kashiwa Reysol          2-1  Jubilo Iwata                  11,276 
  [Antonio Wagner 25, Naoki Sakai 88 – Salvatore Schillaci 66] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      1-1  Yokohama Marinos              10,451 
  [Hidetoshi Nakata 67 – David Bisconti 68] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      1-1  Urawa Red Diamonds            14,992 
  [Raudnei 54 – Basile Boli 32] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     1-1  Gamba Osaka                    4,105 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 85 – Yoshiyuki Matsuyama 22] 

Round 6 [Jun 19] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      0-1  Kyoto Purple Sanga            18,742 
  [Toshihiro Yamaguchi 38] 
Yokohama Marinos        0-3  Bellmare Hiratsuka             8,717 
  [Teruo Iwamoto 9, Paulinho 54, 58] 
Jubilo Iwata            1-1  Kashiwa Reysol                 9,160 
  [Toshinobu Katsuya 65 – Careca 37] 
Gamba Osaka             0-3  Sanfrecce Hiroshima            5,074 
  [Hajime Moriyasu 38, Tatsuhiko Kubo 48, Ryuji Michiki 51] 

Round 7 [Jun 22] 
Yokohama Marinos        2-0  Urawa Red Diamonds            13,476 
  [Naoki Matsuda 15, Gustavo Zapata 17] 
Kashiwa Reysol          1-2  Sanfrecce Hiroshima            8,003 
  [? (S) 30 og – Pieter Huistra 22, Hiroyoshi Kuwabara 69] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      1-3  Jubilo Iwata                  10,069 
  [Yoshihiro Natsuka 90 – Gerald Vanenburg 51, 
   Nobuhiro Takeda 77, Masashi Nakayama 83] 
Gamba Osaka             4-3  Kyoto Purple Sanga             8,519 
  [Masanobu Matsunami 19, 32, ? (K) 58 og, Shigeru Morioka 77 – 
   Toshihiro Yamaguchi 73, Rikizo Matsuhashi 85, Yuji Okuma 90] 

Round 8 [Jun 26] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      2-1  Yokohama Marinos              18,914 
  [Masayuki Okano 79, Masahiro Fukuda 90 – David Bisconti 90] 
Jubilo Iwata            2-1  Bellmare Hiratsuka             8,696 
  [? (B) 10 og, Toshihiro Hattori 90 – Paulinho 67] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      1-2  Gamba Osaka                    8,508 
  [Raudnei 78 - Vjekoslav Škrinjar 44, Masanobu Matsunami 63] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     1-3  Kashiwa Reysol                 4,603 
  [Susumu Oki 3 – Careca 40, 45, Takahiro Shimotaira 51] 

Round 9 [Jun 29] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      1-2  Jubilo Iwata                  20,324 
  [Masahiro Fukuda 4 – Masashi Nakayama 63, 
   Salvatore Schillaci 90] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      1-3  Yokohama Marinos              10,726 
  [Raudnei 50 – Gustavo Zapata 23, Kunio Nagayama 76, 
   Norio Omura 83] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     2-3  Bellmare Hiratsuka             7,470 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 34, Pieter Huistra 59 – Paulinho 20, 
   Koji Seki 82, 90] 
Gamba Osaka             1-4  Kashiwa Reysol                 5,323 
  [Hans Gillhaus 42 – Michihisa Date 39, Valdir 63, 
   Kenji Arima 67, Nozomu Kato 86] 

Round 10 [Jul 3] 
Kashiwa Reysol          2-0  Gamba Osaka                    6,062 
  [Takeshi Watanabe 23, Edilson 54] 
Yokohama Marinos        0-1  Kyoto Purple Sanga             8,159 
  [Toshihiro Yamaguchi 67] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      3-0  Sanfrecce Hiroshima            7,178 
  [Koji Seki 16, 52, Paulinho 84] 
Jubilo Iwata            2-2  Urawa Red Diamonds            11,832 
  [Masashi Nakayama 67, Gerald Vanenburg 74 – 
   Masahiro Fukuda 54, Basile Boli 87] 

Round 11 [Aug 10] 
Kashiwa Reysol          3-1  Kyoto Purple Sanga            10,004 
  [Naoki Sakai 71, Koichi Hashiratani 80, Edilson 90 – 
   Yoshiaki Sato 31] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     2-3  Urawa Red Diamonds             9,271 
  [Antônio Carlos Santos 6, 40 – Uwe Bein 18, 
   Yasushi Fukunaga 53, ? (S) 60 og] 
Jubilo Iwata            0-2  Yokohama Marinos              17,139 
  [Norio Omura 25, 40] 
Gamba Osaka             1-1  Bellmare Hiratsuka             5,730 
  [Hans Gillhaus 51 – Simão 37] 

Round 12 
[Aug 14] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      0-2  Sanfrecce Hiroshima           19,386 
  [Antônio Carlos Santos 26, 78] 
Yokohama Marinos        2-0  Jubilo Iwata                  13,125 
  [Takehito Suzuki 32, David Bisconti 90] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      0-0  Gamba Osaka                    6,709 
[Aug 24] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      0-0  Kashiwa Reysol                 2,387 

Round 13 [Aug 17] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka      3-1  Kashiwa Reysol                 8,070 
  [Hidetoshi Nakata 13, Koji Seki 36, Akira Narahashi 64 – 
   Edilson 83] 
Yokohama Marinos        3-5  Sanfrecce Hiroshima           10,407 
  [Norio Omura 11, Takahiro Yamada 75, Alberto Acosta 90 – 
   Antônio Carlos Santos 17, 86, Takuya Takagi 31, 
   Pieter Huistra 66, Tatsuhiko Kubo 81] 
Jubilo Iwata            0-0  Kyoto Purple Sanga            12,658 
Gamba Osaka             1-1  Urawa Red Diamonds             8,010 
  [Yoshiyuki Matsuyama 90 – Kenji Oshiba 59] 

Round 14 [Aug 21] 
Kashiwa Reysol          1-2  Bellmare Hiratsuka             7,572 
  [Naoki Sakai 8 – Koji Seki 45, Koji Noguchi 61] 
Urawa Red Diamonds      3-0  Gamba Osaka                   18,483 
  [Yoshinori Taguchi 8, Kenji Oshiba 20, Masayuki Okano 35] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga      3-1  Jubilo Iwata                  10,320 
  [Luiz Carlos 44, Takayuki Yamaguchi 56, Alexandre 65 – 
   Masashi Nakayama 23] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima     2-2  Yokohama Marinos               8,250 
  [Pieter Huistra 45, Hajime Moriyasu 52 – Alberto Acosta 19, 23] 


Group B

Round 1 [Jun 1] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         1-0  Kashima Antlers               15,039 
  [Katsumi Oenoki 56] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    1-1  Yokohama Flugels              21,713 
  [Takashi Hirano 51 – Zinho 17] 
JEF United Ichihara     0-1  Avispa Fukuoka                 9,964 
  [Pedro Troglio 51] 
Cerezo Osaka            0-1  Verdy Kawasaki                13,389 
  [Bismarck 31] 

Round 2 [Jun 5] 
Kashima Antlers         2-2  Shimizu S-Pulse               15,330 
  [Leonardo 36, 70 – Fernando Oliva 60, Kenta Hasegawa 85] 
Verdy Kawasaki          3-0  Cerezo Osaka                   7,502 
  [Shintetsu Gen 25, 71, Takanori Nunobe 43] 
Yokohama Flugels        1-1  Nagoya Grampus Eight           8,065 
  [Zinho 20 – Yasuyuki Moriyama 84] 
Avispa Fukuoka          0-2  JEF United Ichihara            6,227 
  [Nenad Maslovar 41, Nozomi Hiroyama 58] 

Round 3 [Jun 8] 
Cerezo Osaka            3-3  JEF United Ichihara            2,218 
  [Rikiya Kawamae 8, Shigeki Kurata 76, Katsuo Kanda 84 – 
   ? (C) 56 og, Nenad Maslovar 70, ? (C) 72 og] 
Yokohama Flugels        0-1  Shimizu S-Pulse               10,839 
  [Hideki Nagai 59] 
Avispa Fukuoka          0-0  Kashima Antlers                9,125 
Verdy Kawasaki          4-0  Nagoya Grampus Eight          14,208 
  [Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 5, Bismarck 13, Takanori Nunobe 38, Caíco 42] 

Round 4 [Jun 12] 
Kashima Antlers         2-0  Avispa Fukuoka                14,915 
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 49, Leonardo 83] 
JEF United Ichihara     2-0  Cerezo Osaka                   6,042 
  [Ivan Hašek 12, Shoji Jo 80] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         3-3  Yokohama Flugels              14,949 
  [Masaaki Sawanobori 12, Kenta Hasegawa 61, Hideki Nagai 82 – 
   Masakiyo Maezono 25, 70, Norihiro Satsukawa 65] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    0-3  Verdy Kawasaki                23,637 
  [Takanori Nunobe 25, Shinji Fujiyoshi 88, Keiji Ishizuka 89] 

Round 5 [Jun 15] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         3-1  Avispa Fukuoka                13,079 
  [Daniele Massaro 23, Hideki Nagai 32, Fernando Oliva 56 – 
   Hugo Maradona 90] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    1-1  JEF United Ichihara           21,172 
  [Dragan Stojković 71 – Atsuhiko Ejiri 90] 
Yokohama Flugels        5-1  Verdy Kawasaki                11,820 
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 17, Masakiyo Maezono 33, 49, Zinho 65, 
   Cézar Sampaio 90 – Caíco 80] 
Cerezo Osaka            0-2  Kashima Antlers                9,978 
  [Leonardo 5, Hisashi Kurosaki 44] 

Round 6 [Jun 19] 
Kashima Antlers         0-3  Cerezo Osaka                  15,292 
  [Sergio Manoel 7, Akinori Nishizawa 20, Takayuki Yokoyama 90] 
JEF United Ichihara     1-0  Nagoya Grampus Eight           6,023 
  [Ivan Hašek 70] 
Verdy Kawasaki          3-1  Yokohama Flugels              11,431 
  [Caíco 57, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 60, Keisuke Kurihara 88 – Zinho 45] 
Avispa Fukuoka          0-1  Shimizu S-Pulse                6,519 
  [Kenta Hasegawa 81] 

Round 7 [Jun 22] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         2-1  Cerezo Osaka                  15,401 
  [Hideki Nagai 51, 70 – Narcízio 62] 
Kashima Antlers         2-0  Nagoya Grampus Eight          15,612 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 7, Mazinho 31] 
JEF United Ichihara     0-2  Verdy Kawasaki                15,515 
  [Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 24, Bismarck 72] 
Avispa Fukuoka          1-1  Yokohama Flugels              10,085 
  [Kiyotaka Ishimaru 6 – Yoshiro Moriyama 47] 

Round 8 [Jun 26] 
Verdy Kawasaki          1-2  JEF United Ichihara            6,862 
  [Takanori Nunobe 38 – Shoji Jo 62, Yasuhiko Niimura 77] 
Yokohama Flugels        4-1  Avispa Fukuoka                 4,503 
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 15, Masakiyo Maezono 36, Zinho 70, 
   Cézar Sampaio 90 – Hugo Maradona 58] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    0-2  Kashima Antlers               19,229 
  [Leonardo 27, Tadatoshi Masuda 90] 
Cerezo Osaka            0-1  Shimizu S-Pulse                5,677 
  [Masaaki Sawanobori 77] 

Round 9 [Jun 29] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         2-0  Nagoya Grampus Eight          19,283 
  [Fernando Oliva 21, 59] 
Yokohama Flugels        2-3  JEF United Ichihara            8,787 
  [Hiroki Hattori 21, Motohiro Yamaguchi 22 - Ivan Hašek 18, 41, 
   Sandro 80] 
Avispa Fukuoka          2-2  Cerezo Osaka                   6,354 
  [? (C) 49 og, Yoshiyuki Takemoto 67 – Akinori Nishizawa 45, 
   Makoto Yonekura 90] 
Verdy Kawasaki          1-1  Kashima Antlers               22,874 
  [Argel 79 – Masatada Ishii 30] 

Round 10 [Jul 3] 
Kashima Antlers         1-1  Verdy Kawasaki                15,594 
  [Ichiei Muroi 66 – Takanori Nunobe 58] 
JEF United Ichihara     1-5  Yokohama Flugels               6,169 
  [Ivan Hašek 84 – Motohiro Yamaguchi 5, 50, Denilson 59, 
   Zinho 76, 85] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    6-1  Shimizu S-Pulse               18,034 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 5, 69, Takashi Hirano 8, 43, 
   Tomasz Frankowski 76, Yasuyuki Moriyama 85 – Fernando Oliva 70] 
Cerezo Osaka            8-1  Avispa Fukuoka                 5,771 
  [Akinori Nishizawa 2, 12, Makoto Yonekura 28, Narcízio 37, 
   Katsuo Kanda 44, Marquinhos 53, Hiroaki Morishima 71, 78 – 
   Chikara Fujimoto 85] 

Round 11 [Aug 10] 
Kashima Antlers         1-1  JEF United Ichihara           15,436 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 62 – Shoji Jo 50] 
Yokohama Flugels        1-1  Cerezo Osaka                   6,055 
  [Masakiyo Maezono 45 – Hiroaki Morishima 38] 
Avispa Fukuoka          1-0  Nagoya Grampus Eight          10,480 
  [Yoshiteru Yamashita 85] 
Verdy Kawasaki          0-0  Shimizu S-Pulse               18,835 

Round 12 [Aug 14] 
JEF United Ichihara     1-1 Kashima Antlers                11,635 
  [Ivan Hašek 22 – Mazinho 15] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         0-0  Verdy Kawasaki                21,438 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    3-3  Avispa Fukuoka                17,611 
  [Tetsuya Asano 3, Takashi Hirano 55, Yasuyuki Moriyama 77 – 
   Yoshiteru Yamashita 21, Kiyotaka Ishimaru 40, Pedro Troglio 60] 
Cerezo Osaka            1-1  Yokohama Flugels              23,052 
  [Akimasa Tsukamoto 65 – Masakiyo Maezono 16] 

Round 13 [Aug 17] 
Kashima Antlers         1-1  Yokohama Flugels              15,736 
  [Jorginho 89 – Norihiro Satsukawa 45] 
Avispa Fukuoka          2-5  Verdy Kawasaki                12,932 
  [Hugo Maradona 48, 75 – Magrão 25, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 34, 60, 
   Kazuyoshi Miura 53, 70] 
JEF United Ichihara     3-1  Shimizu S-Pulse                9,071 
  [Eisuke Nakanishi 24, Nenad Maslovar 57, Shoji Jo 80 – 
   Masaaki Sawanobori 75] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight    6-1  Cerezo Osaka                  19,268 
  [Dragan Stojković 11, 85, Takashi Hirano 20, Takafumi Ogura 35, 
   44, Yasuyuki Moriyama 89 – Makoto Yonekura 49] 

Round 14 [Aug 21] 
Verdy Kawasaki          0-1  Avispa Fukuoka                12,483 
  [Takahiro Endo 50] 
Yokohama Flugels        1-1  Kashima Antlers               11,186 
  [Hiroki Hattori 6 – Toru Oniki 61] 
Shimizu S-Pulse         4-0  JEF United Ichihara           12,788 
  [Kenta Hasegawa 11, 39, Fernando Oliva 50, Ryuzo Morioka 84] 
Cerezo Osaka            3-1  Nagoya Grampus Eight           7,129 
  [Akinori Nishizawa 36, Hiroaki Morishima 78, Sergio Manoel 85 – 
   Tetsuya Asano 67] 


FINAL STANDINGS

GROUP A

   Team                 Games  (W-D-L)  GF-GA  Pnt
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1. Kashiwa Reysol          15  (7-3-4)  24-16   +8
2. Bellmare Hiratsuka      13  (6-5-3)  23-15   +8
3. Sanfrecce Hiroshima     13  (6-3-5)  22-20   +2
4. Yokohama Marinos        12  (5-4-5)  22-20   +2
5. Jubilo Iwata            10  (6-3-5)  21-17   +4
6. Gamba Osaka              7  (3-5-6)  15-30  -15
7. Urawa Reds               6  (4-4-6)  16-20   -4
8. Kyoto Purple Sanga       6  (3-5-7)  14-19   -5

GROUP B

   Team                 Games  (W-D-L)  GF-GA  Pnt
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1. Shimizu S-Pulse         16  (8-4-2)  22-16   +6
2. Verdy Kawasaki          14  (7-4-3)  25-13  +12
3. Yokohama Flugels        12  (3-8-3)  27-20   +7
4. JEF United Ichihara     10  (6-4-4)  20-22   -2
5. Kashima Antlers          9  (4-8-2)  16-12   +4
6. Cerezo Osaka             7  (3-4-7)  23-26   -3
7. Nagoya Grampus Eight     7  (2-4-8)  19-26   -7
8. Avispa Fukuoka           3  (3-4-7)  14-31  -17


The results of the semifinals of the 1996 J.League Cup (Nabisco Cup),
which were played on Wednesday 4 September.

Kashiwa Reysol        - Verdy Kawasaki         1- 2             14,155
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(h1) 11. Argel 0-1, (h2) 0. Magrao 0-2, 14. Arima 1-2.
Shots at goal: 6-12. At National Stadium, Tokyo.

Shimizu S-Pulse       - Bellmare Hiratsuka     5- 0             13,629
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(h1) 15. Oliva 1-0, 18. Ooenoki 2-0, 22. Oliva 3-0,
(h2) 11. Hasegawa 4-0, 39. T.Itou 5-0.
Shots at goal: 15-16. At Nihondaira Stadium.


Final

(Played on 25 September 1996, at National Stadium Tokyo)

Shimizu S-Pulse         - Verdy Kawasaki           3- 3  (5-4)  28,232
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(h2) 23. Hasegawa 1-0, 36. Oliva 2-0, 42. Horiike 2-1 (OG),
44. Argel 2-2, (o1) 0. Santos 3-2, (o2) 0. Bismarck 3-3.
Shots at goal: 13-17. At National Stadium, Tokyo. Referee: xx.
Penalties: K.Miura 0-1, Sawanobori 1-1, Magrao x, Santos 2-1,
Bismarck 2-2, Ooenoki 3-2, Kitazawa 3-3, Morioka 4-3, Argel 4-4,
Oliva 5-4.

Lineups
Shimizu S-Pulse - GK Sanada, DF Andou, Saitou, Horiike, Morioka,
 MF Santos, Ooenoki, Nagai, Oliva, Sawanobori, FW Hasegawa.
 Substitutions: Shirai (o1-10, for Nagai).
 Cards: Sawanobori, Santos.
Verdy Kawasaki - GK S.Kikuchi, DF Ishikawa, Argel, Hashiratani,
 Nakamura, Sugawara, MF Y.Miura, Bismarck, Kitazawa, FW Magrao,
 K.Miura.
 Substitutions: Gen (h2-30, for Nakamura), T.Kikuchi (h2-36, for
 Ishikawa), Nishizawa (h2-41, for Y.Miura).
 Cards: Nakamura, Magrao, Hashiratani, Argel.

J.League Cup (Nabisco Cup) Top Scorers
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1. Fernando Oliva      Arg   Shimizu S-Pulse         9
2. Kouji Seki          Jpn   Bellmare Hiratsuka      8



Japan 1996 Second Level (Football League)
=========================================

JFL Final Standings
 
Pos. Team                Games  Win Lose (PK-Ls)  GF-GA  GDf  Pts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  1. Honda Giken Hamamatsu  30   25    5          83-35  +48   75
* 2. Vissel Kobe            30   25    5          78-32  +46   75
  3. Tokyo Gas              30   24    6   (1)    63-28  +35   73
* 4. Tosu Futures           30   20   10   (2)    68-43  +25   62
* 5. Consadole Sapporo      30   20   10   (2)    60-43  +17   62
* 6. Brummell Sendai        30   18   12   (2)    67-52  +15   56
  7. Vortis Tokushima       30   18   12   (1)    56-41  +15   55
  8. Montedio Yamagata      30   16   14   (1)    45-49   -4   49
  9. Fujitsu Kawasaki       30   15   15          48-45   +3   45
 10. Oita Trinity           30   13   17          42-52  -10   39
 11. Ventforet Kofu         30   11   19          50-56   -6   33
 12. Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi    30   11   19          31-59  -28   33
 13. NTT Kanto              30    7   23   (2)    36-55  -19   23
 14. Fukushima FC           30    7   23   (1)    30-63  -33   22
 15. Nippon Denso           30    5   25   (1)    40-90  -50   16
 16. Seino Transports       30    5   25          28-82  -54   15
 
(an asterisk marks the J.League associate members.)
(games go to OT and PK to decide the winner if necessary.
 3 points for a win, 1 point for a loss after penalty kicks)
 
After the 1996 season,
- Vissel Kobe was promoted to the J.League.
- Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi was disbanded.
- Tosu Futures was disbanded, and a new club was formed called Sagan
  Tosu. The club lost its J.League associate membership but retained
  JFL status.
- Fujitsu Kawasaki was renamed Kawasaki Frontale, and applied for
  J.League associate membership.
- Honda Giken Hamamatsu also applied for J.League associate membership,
  a new name was not decided in time for the new season.
- Prima Ham Tsuchiura and Jatco were promoted to the JFL.
- Prima Ham Tsuchiura was relocated to Mito, and renamed Mito
  Hollyhock.

Round 1 [Apr 21] 
Tokyo Gas               1-1  Oita Trinity        [pen 8-9]  1,705 
  [Jun Wada – Koichi Sugiyama] 
Tosu Futures            3-4  Denso                          4,885 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 7, 65, Edwin Uehara 62 – Takaaki Tokushige 14, 
   ? (S) 29 og, Toshihiro Nishimura 35, Shogo Hayashi 74] 
Vortis Tokushima        4-3  Seino Transports               1,858 
  [Lê (3), Ken Kasahara – Koichi Tanaka (2), ? (V) og] 
Honda FC                1-0  NTT Kanto                      1,239 
  [Wagner Lopes 81] 
Ventforet Kofu          0-1  Fujitsu Kawasaki               6,585 
  [Wilson 39] 
Montedio Yamagata       1-0  Cosmo Yokkaichi                  900 
  [Masayuki Ota] 
FC Fukushima            1-4  Consadole Sapporo              6,133 
  [Masahiro Sukigara 69 – Kota Yoshihara 22, 69, Raul Otero 65, 
   Kosuke Ono 74] 
Brummell Sendai         3-2  Vissel Kobe                    7,889 
  [Frank Ordenewitz 1h, 84, Kazuo Echigo 1h - Ziad Tlemçani 49, 
   Akihiro Nagashima 73] 

Round 2 [Apr 28] 
Seino Transports        0-1  Tosu Futures        [aet]      1,066 
  [Fumiaki Aoshima 91] 
Montedio Yamagata       2-1  Oita Trinity        [aet]      1,050 
  [Angelo, Nobuhide Yamada – Koji Yoshikawa] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         1-0  Ventforet Kofu                 1,413 
  [? (V) 57 og] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        3-1  Consadole Sapporo              6,013 
  [André Paus 14, Nobuyuki Hosaka 44, Akira Ito 48 – 
   Kota Yoshihara 55] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Honda FC            [aet]      2,127 
  [Hiroyuki Kawaguchi – Tsuyoshi Ikawa, Wagner Lopes] 
NTT Kanto               1-2  Vissel Kobe                    4,635 
  [Yoshinori Oe 64 – Masakazu Koda 22, Akihiro Nagashima 37] 
Brummell Sendai         3-0  Vortis Tokushima               6,590 
  [Frank Ordenewitz (2), Shuji Kusano] 
Denso                   1-5  Tokyo Gas                      1,900 
  [Toshihiro Nishimura – Jun Wada (2), Jun Yoshida, 
   Takashi Okuhara, Tetsuro Uki] 

Round 3 [May 5] 
Ventforet Kofu          3-1  Montedio Yamagata              1,781 
  [Osamu Takada 41, 53, Baron 47 – Hiroshi Teguramori 59] 
Tokyo Gas               2-0  Seino Transports               1,115 
  [Jun Wada, Kiyonobu Okajima] 
Tosu Futures            1-2  Brummell Sendai                8,635 
  [Yoshinori Abe 82 – Takeshi Mizuuchi 19, Pierre Littbarski 64] 
Vortis Tokushima        1-0  NTT Kanto                      1,281 
  [Juninho 56 pen] 
Vissel Kobe             3-0  FC Fukushima                   8,307 
  [Ziad Tlemçani 29, Thomas Bickel 76, Akihiro Nagashima 88] 
Honda FC                3-0  Fujitsu Kawasaki               1,374 
  [Wagner Lopes (3)] 
Consadole Sapporo       1-2  Cosmo Yokkaichi     [aet]        966 
  [Kota Yoshihara 22 – Tsunehisa Inde 10, Kazuya Nambu 97] 
Oita Trinity            2-0  Denso                          3,259 
  [Koichi Sugiyama, Hwangbo Kwan] 

Round 4 
[May 10] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        0-2  Vissel Kobe                    2,066 
  [Ziad Tlemçani 65, ? (F) 70 og] 
[May 11] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         0-2  Honda FC                         418 
  [Walter, Wagner Lopes] 
[May 12] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Vortis Tokushima               1,145 
  [Masahiro Sukigara 18 – Juninho 23 pen, Takao Sekiguchi 85] 
Ventforet Kofu          0-3  Oita Trinity                   1,832 
  [Koichi Sugiyama 1h, 74, Hwangbo Kwan 44] 
Montedio Yamagata       2-2  Consadole Sapporo   [pen 5-3]  1,387 
  [? (C) 4 og, Kenji Hirosawa 78 – Tatsuya Murata 90, 
   Luiz Pereira 90+] 
Brummell Sendai         0-1  Tokyo Gas                      6,146 
  [Amaral 78] 
Seino Transports        2-1  Denso                            610 
  [Tsutomu Sato, Hiromichi Miura – Takaaki Tokushige] 
NTT Kanto               0-1  Tosu Futures                   4,019 
  [Fumiaki Aoshima 9] 

Round 5 [May 16] 
Vortis Tokushima        2-4  Fujitsu Kawasaki                 586 
  [Juninho, Keiji Takao – Momodu Mutairu (2), Wilson, 
   Takahisa Gempei] 
Tokyo Gas               2-0  NTT Kanto                        829 
  [Edwin Ifeanyi 72, Jun Wada 81] 
Vissel Kobe             3-0  Cosmo Yokkaichi                3,388 
  [Takuya Jinno 66, 78, Akihiro Nagashima 2h] 
Denso                   2-2  Brummell Sendai     [pen 4-5]  2,100 
  [Shogo Hayashi 1h, 86 – Frank Ordenewitz 30 pen, 
   Yasunobu Chiba 56] 
Tosu Furures            3-0  FC Fukushima                   4,375 
  [? (F) 47 og, Hitoshi Morishita 51, Jorge Dely Valdés 54] 
Honda FC                3-1  Montedio Yamagata                918 
  [Wagner Lopes (3) – Taketo Shiokawa] 
Consadole Sapporo       2-1  Ventforet Kofu      [aet]        615 
  [Koji Kawai 58, Susumu Watanabe 112 – Baron 86] 
Oita Trinity            1-0  Seino Transports               2,032 
  [Hwangbo Kwan] 

Round 6 
[May 19] 
Consadole Sapporo       2-1  Oita Trinity        [aet]      6,079 
  [Kim Jong-Song 80, Koji Kawai 104 – Hwangbo Kwan 2h] 
Ventforet Kofu          2-3  Honda FC                       1,651 
  [Yoshimune Endo 25, Kazuto Saiki 38 - Vágner Mancini 7, 
   ? (V) 53 og, Hiromasa Suguri 78] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         0-2  Vortis Tokushima                 493 
  [Yasunari Hiraoka 17, Juninho 22 pen] 
Brummell Sendai         5-1  Seino Transports               5,241 
  [Frank Ordenewitz 9 pen, 90, Takeshi Mizuuchi 42, 84, 
   Kazuo Echigo 61 – Kazunori Kuroda 49 pen] 
Montedio Yamagata       0-1  Vissel Kobe                    1,335 
  [Jun Naito 18] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Tokyo Gas                      1,061 
  [Delfin 62 – Jun Wada 2h, Hayato Okamoto 83] 
NTT Kanto               3-2  Denso                            713 
  [Yoshinori Oe, Ryugo Okamoto, Keiji Nakamura – 
   Yukinobu Yanagisawa, Takaaki Tokushige] 
[May 21] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        1-4  Tosu Futures                   1,763 
  [Takahisa Gempei 82 - Jorge Dely Valdés 39, 89, Fernando 45, 
   Yoshinori Abe 76] 

Round 7 
[May 25] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        0-2  Tokyo Gas                      1,158 
  [Amaral, Jun Wada] 
[May 26] 
Tosu Futures            2-0  Cosmo Yokkaichi                3,932 
  [Jorge Albero 73, Fernando 77] 
Vortis Tokushima        2-0  Montedio Yamagata              1,032 
  [Lê 20, 38] 
Honda FC                3-2  Consadole Sapporo   [aet]      2,886 
  [Hiromasa Suguri, Wagner Lopes, Douglas – 
   Kim Jong-Song, Luiz Pereira] 
Seino Transports        0-3  NTT Kanto                        530 
  [Tsuji Ishihara 61, Yoshinori Oe 64, Ryugo Okamoto 90] 
Denso                   2-4  FC Fukushima                     651 
  [Takaaki Tokushige 1h, Toshihiro Nishimura 2h – 
   Shinji Kobayashi 9, 73, Masaaki Ueki 71, Akira Mizushima 90] 
Oita Trinity            2-3  Brummell Sendai     [aet]      3,707 
  [Choi Dae-Shik 78, 81 – Takeshi Mizuuchi 21, 53, 
   Toru Yoshida 103] 
Vissel Kobe             2-0  Ventforet Kofu                 1,316 
  [Ziad Tlemçani 5, Akihiro Nagashima 90] 

Round 8 [Jun 2] 
Consadole Sapporo       2-1  Vissel Kobe                    5,943 
  [Alcindo 13, Luiz Pereira 42 - ? (C) og] 
Ventforet Kofu          2-3  Vortis Tokushima    [aet]      1,522 
  [Osamu Takada 47, 87 – Takao Sekiguchi 72, 77, 93] 
Oita Trinity            3-4  Honda FC                       2,347 
  [Yusuke Minoguchi (2), Hwangbo Kwan – Wagner Lopes (4)] 
Montedio Yamagata       0-0  Tosu Futures        [pen 3-1]  1,782 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         1-3  Tokyo Gas                        556 
  [Kim Byung-Soo – Amaral, Kiyonobu Okajima, Hayato Okamoto] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        6-0  Denso                            586 
  [Kozaburo Shigeno, ? (D) og, Akira Ito, Makoto Tozawa, 
   André Paus, Momodu Mutairu] 
FC Fukushima            2-0  Seino Transports               1,331 
  [Masahiro Sukigara 39, Tadakazu Nakazono 53] 
NTT Kanto               3-4  Brummell Sendai     [aet]      3,504 
  [Fumiyuki Takasu 2h, Masanari Yamashita 70, ? (B) 85 og – 
   Shuji Kusano 48, 63, Kazuo Echigo 54, Pierre Littbarski et] 

Round 9 
[Jun 8] 
Oita Trinity            3-2  NTT Kanto                      1,371 
  [Choi Dae-Shik (2), Koichi Sugiyama – Keiji Nakamura, 
   Ryugo Okamoto] 
[Jun 9] 
Tokyo Gas               2-1  Montedio Yamagata   [aet]        973 
  [Hiroki Shinjo 26, Edwin Ifeanyi 95 – Satoshi Mashimo 16] 
Tosu Futures            2-0  Ventforet Kofu                 4,794 
  [Shigeto Imaoka 66, Jorge Albero 79] 
Vortis Tokushima        1-2  Consadole Sapporo              1,874 
  [Takao Sekiguchi 12 – Yoshikazu Goto 41, Raul Otero 66] 
Brummell Sendai         2-1  FC Fukushima                   6,430 
  [Yasunobu Chiba 12, Frank Ordenewitz 15 – Makoto Segawa 19] 
Seino Transports        0-2  Fujitsu Kawasaki                 350 
  [Momodu Mutairu, Takahisa Gempei] 
Denso                   1-2  Cosmo Yokkaichi     [aet]        403 
  [Takaaki Tokushige – Kenji Ito (2)] 
Vissel Kobe             2-1  Honda FC                       1,616 
  [Ziad Tlemçani, Thomas Bickel – Douglas] 

Round 10 [Jun 13] 
Ventforet Kofu          0-1  Tokyo Gas                        618 
  [Tomohiro Harada 69] 
FC Fukushima            1-0  NTT Kanto                        418 
  [Tadaaki Kawahara 10] 
Consadole Sapporo       3-2  Tosu Futures        [aet]      7,119 
  [Raul Otero 44, 96, Luiz Pereira 90 - Jorge Dely Valdés 89, 
   Fumiaki Aoshima 90] 
Vissel Kobe             3-0  Oita Trinity                   5,243 
  [Takuya Jinno, Akihiro Nagashima, Ziad Tlemçani] 
Montedio Yamagata       3-2  Denso                          1,010 
  [Taketo Shiokawa, Kenji Hirosawa pen, Satoshi Mashimo – 
   Yoshihisa Takaoka (2)] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         0-1  Seino Transports                 320 
  [Koichi Tanaka] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        3-2  Brummell Sendai     [aet]      2,976 
  [Takahisa Gempei 1h, 114, Momodu Mutairu 1h – 
   Shuji Kusano 55, 77] 
Honda FC                0-1  Vortis Tokushima                 815 
  [Juninho] 

Round 11 [Jun 16] 
Tokyo Gas               1-1  Consadole Sapporo   [pen 5-4]  1,393 
  [Takashi Okuhara 2h - ? (T) 11 og] 
Vortis Tokushima        2-4  Vissel Kobe                    1,252 
  [Juninho, Takao Sekiguchi – Takuya Jinno, Ziad Tlemçani, 
   Jan Jönsson, Naoki Mori] 
NTT Kanto               1-0  Fujitsu Kawasaki    [aet]      1,824 
  [Jiro Matsuzaki 108] 
Brummell Sendai         1-2  Cosmo Yokkaichi     [aet]      5,135 
  [Shuji Kusano 21 – Kazuhiko Nishibayashi 43, Kenji Ito 95] 
Seino Transports        2-3  Montedio Yamagata                450 
  [Hiromichi Miura 1h, Kazunori Kuroda 1h – Angelo 33 pen, 39, 
   Takashi Shoji 63] 
Denso                   0-5  Ventforet Kofu                   489 
  [Junichi Tsuruta 11, Tsuneki Sumiya 36, Kazuto Saiki 52, 74, 
   Baron 80] 
Oita Trinity            2-2  FC Fukushima        [pen 5-3]  1,550 
  [Yusuke Minoguchi 1h, ? (F) 85 og – Masahiro Sukigara 70 pen, 76] 
Tosu Futures            2-3  Honda FC                      20,686 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 31, 89 – Douglas 14, 88, Takayoshi Onaka 51] 

Round 12 [Jun 23] 
Consadole Sapporo       3-2  Denso               [aet]      6,774 
  [Raul Otero 8, Luiz Pereira 15, Koji Kawai 103 – 
   Tatsuya Kobayashi 1h, Morita 2h] 
Vortis Tokushima        3-0  Oita Trinity                     642 
  [Juninho, Almir, Tsuyoshi Furukawa] 
Honda FC                1-0  Tokyo Gas                      1,350 
  [Wagner Lopes pen] 
Ventforet Kofu          2-1  Seino Transports               1,633 
  [Pepe 10, Baron 90 – Yasuo Misome 65] 
Montedio Yamagata       0-1  Brummell Sendai                3,308 
  [Kazuo Echigo 33] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         1-0  NTT Kanto                        373 
  [Kim Byung-Soo 74] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        1-0  FC Fukushima        [aet]      2,323 
  [Momodu Mutairu 97] 
Vissel Kobe             1-1  Tosu Futures        [pen 5-4]  7,454 
  [Thomas Bickel 57 – Yoshinori Abe 13] 

Round 13 
[Jun 29] 
Brummell Sendai         1-0  Ventforet Kofu                 4,070 
  [Frank Ordenewitz 52] 
Oita Trinity            1-0  Fujitsu Kawasaki               2,776 
  [Hwangbo Kwan] 
[Jun 30] 
Tokyo Gas               2-3  Vissel Kobe         [aet]      2,227 
  [Edwin Ifeanyi 9, Amaral 68 – Akihiro Nagashima 48, 
   Thomas Bickel 83, Ziad Tlemçani 119] 
NTT Kanto               1-2  Montedio Yamagata   [aet]        632 
  [Takaaki Inoue 27 – Satoshi Mashimo 34, 92] 
Seino Transports        1-2  Consadole Sapporo   [aet]        544 
  [Kazunori Kuroda 2h – Koji Kawai 84, Tsuyoshi Kato 107] 
Denso                   0-3  Honda FC                         653 
  [Tsuyoshi Ikawa, Douglas, Kenichiro Miyahara] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Cosmo Yokkaichi     [aet]      1,929 
  [Gwak Kyung-Keun 29 – Kim Byung-Soo 7, Nobuhito Toriizuka 120] 
Tosu Futures            2-1  Vortis Tokushima               8,831 
  [? (V) 15 og, Jorge Dely Valdés 88 – Tsuyoshi Furukawa 55] 

Round 14 
[Jul 6] 
Vortis Tokushima        1-1  Tokyo Gas           [pen 1-4]    679 
  [? (T) og – Jun Wada] 
[Jul 7] 
Consadole Sapporo       3-0  Brummell Sendai               10,024 
  [Tatsuya Asanuma 20, Tsuyoshi Kato 25, Atsushi Kijima 70] 
Ventforet Kofu          4-3  NTT Kanto                      1,215 
  [Baron 12, 83, Noboru Hiraoka 57, Tsuneki Sumiya 82 – 
   Takaaki Inoue 43, Jiro Matsuzaki 50, 55] 
Honda FC                6-0  Seino Transports                 689 
  [Douglas (3), Wagner Lopes, Hideo Yoshizawa, ? (S) og] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         0-1  Fujitsu Kawasaki                 303 
  [Momodu Mutairu] 
Tosu Futures            4-1  Oita Trinity                  12,320 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 27, Yoshinori Matsuda 55, Shun Suzuki 70, 
   Fernando 88 – Masaaki Okamoto 9] 
Vissel Kobe             3-0  Denso                          7,472 
  [Ziad Tlemçani (2), Thomas Bickel] 
Montedio Yamagata       1-1  FC Fukushima        [pen 2-4]  1,110 
  [Takashi Shoji 50 – Hiroyuki Kawaguchi 30] 

Round 15 
[Jul 12] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        1-2  Montedio Yamagata   [aet]      1,788 
  [? (M) 1h og – Hiroshi Teguramori 73, Angelo 113] 
Oita Trinity            1-2  Cosmo Yokkaichi                2,567 
  [Choi Dae-Shik – Kenji Ito, Akihiro Funada] 
[Jul 14] 
Tokyo Gas               1-2  Tosu Futures                   2,461 
  [Amaral 21 – Yutaka Ishii 61, Jorge Dely Valdés 78] 
Brummell Sendai         3-4  Honda FC            [aet]      7,718 
  [Masanaga Kageyama 13, Kazuo Echigo 40, Frank Ordenewitz 78 – 
   Wagner Lopes 57, Kenichiro Miyahara 65, Douglas 67, 
   Hideo Yoshizawa 103] 
Denso                   1-3  Vortis Tokushima                 682 
  [Takaaki Tokushige – Takeshi Motoyoshi (2), Juninho] 
FC Fukushima            0-4  Ventforet Kofu                   915 
  [Osamu Takada 14, 31, Baron 50, Pepe 59] 
NTT Kanto               1-2  Consadole Sapporo   [aet]      2,791 
  [Kazunori Hanawa 62 – Koji Kawai 71, 113] 
Seino Transports        1-4  Vissel Kobe                      978 
  [Shigehito Tsuchiya - Ziad Tlemçani (2), Masaki Tsukano, 
   Takuya Jinno] 

Round 16 [Aug 18] 
NTT Kanto               1-0  Honda FC                       1,124 
  [Tsuji Ishihara 56 pen] 
Oita Trinity            0-1  Tokyo Gas           [aet]      1,401 
  [Hiroki Shinjo] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         1-3  Montedio Yamagata                469 
  [Kim Byung-Soo 2h – Aldro 60, 71, Angelo 83] 
Vissel Kobe             4-2  Brummell Sendai               12,150 
  [Ziad Tlemçani 23, Michael Laudrup 36, 59, Takuya Jinno 84 – 
   Hideyuki Sudo 37, Takeshi Mizuuchi 76] 
Consadole Sapporo       3-1  FC Fukushima                   6,559 
  [Luiz Pereira 43, ? (F) 72 og, Tatsuya Asanuma 82 – 
   Hiroyuki Kawaguchi 22] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        3-2  Ventforet Kofu      [aet]      3,255 
  [Momodu Mutairu 27, Wilson 73, Akira Ito 99 pen – 
   Tsuneki Sumiya 8, Osamu Takada 50 pen] 
Seino Transports        0-2  Vortis Tokushima                 244 
  [Almir, Alexandre] 
Denso                   0-3  Tosu Futures                   1,510 
  [Junichi Mori 6, 39, Yutaka Ishii 31] 

Round 17 [Aug 25] 
Oita Trinity            2-4  Ventforet Kofu                   971 
  [Lee Young-Jin 25, 53 – Katsutomo Oshiba 33, Baron 54, 
   Kenji Nakada 76, Pepe 85] 
Tokyo Gas               3-2  Brummell Sendai                3,512 
  [? (B) 3 og, ? (B) 36 og, Edwin Ifeanyi 39 – 
   Frank Ordenewitz 23, 81] 
Vortis Tokushima        1-0  FC Fukushima                     560 
  [Takeshi Motoyoshi 76] 
Honda FC                4-1  Cosmo Yokkaichi                1,040 
  [Wagner Lopes (2), Fumiaki Aoshima (2) – Kazuya Nambu] 
Tosu Futures            3-2  NTT Kanto                      6,079 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 21, 90, 90+ - Yoshinori Oe 15, 
   Tsuji Ishihara 37] 
Vissel Kobe             0-1  Fujitsu Kawasaki               6,734 
  [Takahisa Gempei] 
Denso                   0-2  Seino Transports                 653 
  [Satoshi Sadoya, Koji Kawamoto] 
Consadole Sapporo       2-0  Montedio Yamagata              7,542 
  [Yoshikazu Goto 15, Luboš Zákostelský 74] 

Round 18 [Aug 29] 
FC Fukushima            0-1  Tosu Futures        [aet]        524 
  [Yoshinori Abe 117] 
Ventforet Kofu          1-0  Consadole Sapporo                916 
  [Yoshimune Endo 66] 
Brummell Sendai         5-1  Denso                          2,844 
  [Takeshi Mizuuchi 21, 87, Frank Ordenewitz 23, 84, 90 – 
   Tatsuya Kobayashi 57] 
Montedio Yamagata       1-2  Honda FC                         793 
  [Aldro 50 – Wagner Lopes 4, 27] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         2-3  Vissel Kobe                      880 
  [Kim Byung-Soo (2) - Ziad Tlemçani (2), Akihiro Nagashima] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        1-2  Vortis Tokushima    [aet]        659 
  [Henrique – Takao Sekiguchi (2)] 
NTT Kanto               3-3  Tokyo Gas           [pen 3-4]  1,659 
  [Ryugo Okamoto 18, Tsuji Ishihara 78, Tsutomu Iida 90 – 
   Amaral 1h, Hayato Okamoto 2h, Hiroki Shinjo 90] 
Seino Transports        1-2  Oita Trinity                     200 
  [Junji Kawabata – Lee Young-Jin, Choi Dae-Shik] 

Round 19 [Sep 1] 
Oita Trinity            1-2  Consadole Sapporo              1,313 
  [Choi Dae-Shik – Yoshikazu Goto, Tsuyoshi Kato] 
Tokyo Gas               5-0  FC Fukushima                   1,291 
  [Amaral (2), Kiyonobu Okajima, Hayato Okamoto, 
   Yoshiyuki Takemoto] 
Vortis Tokushima        2-0  Cosmo Yokkaichi                  681 
  [Takao Sekiguchi, Almir] 
Honda FC                7-1  Ventforet Kofu                   966 
  [? (V) 38 og, Yasuyuki Iwasaki 51, Vágner Mancini 59, 73, 
   Tetsu Nagasawa 67, Takayoshi Onaka 76, Fumiaki Aoshima 80 – 
   Pepe 11] 
Denso                   4-1  NTT Kanto                        452 
  [Tatsuya Kobayashi, Shingi Ono, Takaaki Tokushige, 
   Yukinobu Yanagisawa – Yoshinori Oe] 
Tosu Futures            4-2  Fujitsu Kawasaki               6,591 
  [Yoshinori Abe 10, 90, Stephen Tataw 33, Yutaka Ishii 47 – 
   Akira Ito 3, Tomohiro Hasumi 89] 
Vissel Kobe             5-0  Montedio Yamagata              4,066 
  [Akihiro Nagashima (2), Shigemitsu Egawa, Takuya Jinno (2)] 
Seino Transports        1-4  Brummell Sendai                  988 
  [Koichi Tanaka 15 – Takeshi Mizuuchi 19, Kazuo Echigo 26, 
   Pierre Littbarski 48, Frank Ordenewitz 61] 

Round 20 [Sep 12] 
Ventforet Kofu          1-2  Vissel Kobe                      850 
  [Baron 72 – Thomas Bickel 16 pen, Ziad Tlemçani 67] 
FC Fukushima            2-3  Denso                            192 
  [Koji Nakamura, Koji Takeda – Takaaki Tokushige, Tatsuya Ai, 
   Shingi Ono] 
Brummell Sendai         1-0  Oita Trinity                   2,410 
  [Takeshi Mizuuchi 90] 
Consadole Sapporo       3-2  Honda FC                       7,544 
  [Kim Jong-Song 9, 12, Pavel Řehák 35 – Wagner Lopes 1h, 
   Fumiaki Aodhima 2h] 
Tokyo Gas               2-0  Fujitsu Kawasaki                 711 
  [Amaral (2)] 
Montedio Yamagata       0-5  Vortis Tokushima                 767 
  [Alexandre (2), Takao Sekiguchi (2), Akira Oba] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         2-3  Tosu Futures                     544 
  [Kim Byung-Soo 17, Yasutaka Yoshida 25 – Yoshinori Abe 9, 
   Jorge Dely Valdés 27, 67] 
NTT Kanto               1-3  Seino Transports                 412 
  [Yoshinori Oe – Satoshi Sadoya, Kazunori Kuroda, Koji Kawamoto] 

Round 21 [Sep 15] 
Tokyo Gas               5-1  Cosmo Yokkaichi                  883 
  [Amaral (3), Edwin Ifeanyi, Hayato Okamoto – 
   Kazuhiko Nishibayashi] 
Honda FC                3-2  Oita Trinity                   1,044 
  [Wagner Lopes 64, 73 pen, 90 – Hwangbo Kwan 7 pen, 
   Lee Young-Jin 39] 
Brummell Sendai         3-0  NTT Kanto                      3,860 
  [Frank Ordenewitz 39, 60, Tadashi Koya 49] 
Vortis Tokushima        4-2  Ventforet Kofu                   824 
  [Takao Sekiguchi 9, 58, Juninho 30, Ken Kasahara 87 – 
   Pepe 21, Baron 90] 
Denso                   2-1  Fujitsu Kawasaki                 527 
  [Yukinobu Yanagisawa, Tatsuya Kobayashi – Akira Ito] 
Tosu Futures            2-1  Montedio Yamagata              6,292 
  [Stephen Tataw 10, Jorge Dely Valdés 58 – Aldro 15] 
Vissel Kobe             5-1  Consadole Sapporo             10,069 
  [Akihiro Nagashima 5, 35, Thomas Bickel 56, Jun Naito 67, 
   Takuya Jinno 84 – Atsushi Kijima 59] 
Seino Transports        2-1  FC Fukushima        [aet]        335 
  [Junji Kawabata 1h, 119 – Akira Mizushima 73] 

Round 22 
[Sep 22] 
Consadole Sapporo       2-1  Vortis Tokushima               3,206 
  [Josef Jinoch 38, 43 – Juninho 1h] 
Ventforet Kofu          3-1  Tosu Futures                     352 
  [Pepe 33, 80, Hiroshi Yamamura 90 – Yoshinori Abe 3] 
Honda FC                4-1  Vissel Kobe                    2,566 
  [Wagner Lopes 4 pen, 47 pen, 58, Fumiaki Aoshima 82 – 
   Ziad Tlemçani 60 pen] 
Montedio Yamagata       2-3  Tokyo Gas                        617 
  [Aldro (2) - João Carlos (2), Jun Wada] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         1-3  Denso                            210 
  [Kenji Ito – Hirokazu Hori (2), Tatsuya Kobayashi] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Brummell Sendai                1,392 
  [Koji Nakamura 24 – Tatsuya Neko 10, Takeshi Mizuuchi 68] 
[Oct 24] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        5-2  Seino Transports                 308 
  [Keisuke Kosaka (2), Seiichi Makita, Akira Ito (2) – 
   Satoshi Sadoya, Hiromichi Miura] 
NTT Kanto               2-1  Oita Trinity        [aet]        408 
  [Takaaki Inoue, Fumiyuki Takasu – Hwangbo Kwan] 

Round 23 [Sep 26] 
Vortis Tokushima        0-2  Honda FC                         555 
  [Walter, Wagner Lopes] 
Brummell Sendai         2-1  Fujitsu Kawasaki               1,796 
  [Reinhard Stumpf 20, Takeshi Mizuuchi 79 – Momodu Mutairu 47] 
Oita Trinity            0-1  Vissel Kobe         [aet]        458 
  [Thomas Bickel] 
Tokyo Gas               5-2  Ventforet Kofu                   495 
  [Edwin Ifeanyi (2), João Carlos (2), Hayato Okamoto – 
   Kazuto Saiki, ? (T) og] 
NTT Kanto               1-1  FC Fukushima        [pen 1-3]    312 
  [Ryugo Okamoto 60 – Koji Takeda 74] 
Seino Transports        2-3  Cosmo Yokkaichi     [aet]        188 
  [Koichi Tanaka, Junji Kawabata – Kenji Ito (2), ? (S) og] 
Denso                   1-4  Montedio Yamagata                429 
  [Yukinobu Yanagisawa 2h – Aldro 1h, Angelo 84, 86, 89 pen] 
Tosu Futures            4-2  Consadole Sapporo              6,554 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 4, 68, Edwin Uehara 1h, Yutaka Ishii 43 – 
   ? (T) 16 og, Pavel Řehák 86] 

Round 24 [Sep 29] 
Consadole Sapporo       0-1  Tokyo Gas                      4,190 
  [Takayuki Tateishi] 
Ventforet Kofu          3-1  Denso                            731 
  [Baron (2), ? (D) og – Tatsuya Kobayashi] 
Vissel Kobe             3-2  Vortis Tokushima               3,626 
  [Ziad Tlemçani, Thomas Bickel (2) – Juninho, Satoru Yoshida] 
Honda FC                2-3  Tosu Futures                   2,559 
  [Fumiaki Aoshima 3, 47 – Yoshinori Abe 5, Jorge Dely Valdés 28, 32] 
Montedio Yamagata       2-0  Seino Transports               1,182 
  [Aldro 37, Angelo 43] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         3-3  Brummell Sendai     [pen 5-4]  1,225 
  [Kazuhiko Nishibayashi, Nobuhito Toriizuka, Kenji Ito – 
   Takeshi Mizuuchi, Frank Ordenewitz, Pierre Littbarski] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        2-1  NTT Kanto           [aet]        497 
  [Takahisa Gempei, Kozaburo Shigeno – Tsuji Ishihara] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Oita Trinity                   1,012 
  [Gwak Kyung-Keun 35 – Yasushi Hara 1h, Ushio Yamamoto 68] 

Round 25 [Oct 3] 
Oita Trinity            1-0  Vortis Tokushima                 302 
  [Ryuji Nagata] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Fujitsu Kawasaki    [aet]        213 
  [Akira Mizushima 84 – Akira Ito 52, André Paus 100] 
Brummell Sendai         2-3  Montedio Yamagata   [aet]      1,448 
  [Pierre Littbarski 15, Masanaga Kageyama 69 – 
   Jung Myung-Cheom 41, Angelo 79, Kenji Hirosawa 93] 
Tokyo Gas               2-3  Honda FC                       1,145 
  [Amaral (2) – Fumiaki Aoshima, Hiromasa Suguri, Wagner Lopes] 
NTT Kanto               0-2  Cosmo Yokkaichi                  155 
  [Kazuya Nambu, Kenji Ito] 
Seino Transports        1-4  Ventforet Kofu                   115 
  [Junji Kawabata – Pepe (2), Tsuneki Sumiya, Baron] 
Denso                   2-4  Consadole Sapporo                360 
  [Tatsuya Kobayashi 1h, Yoshihisa Takaoka 2h – 
   Tatsuya Asanuma 18, 86, Pavel Řehák 41, Kota Yoshihara 66] 
Tosu Futures            3-0  Vissel Kobe                   10,371 
  [Edwin Uehara 5, Jorge Dely Valdés 71, 80] 

Round 26 
[Oct 6] 
Ventforet Kofu          0-2  Brummell Sendai                2,014 
  [Tatsuya Neko 8, Frank Ordenewitz 75] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         0-3  FC Fukushima                     402 
  [Gwak Kyung-Keun, Shinji Kobayashi, Koji Nakamura pen] 
Vortis Tokushima        3-0  Tosu Futures                   2,155 
  [Satoru Yoshida 23, 78, Akira Oba 87] 
Vissel Kobe             1-0  Tokyo Gas                      9,123 
  [Thomas Bickel 60] 
Honda FC                2-1  Denso                          1,050 
  [Wagner Lopes 42 pen, Armindo 51 – Tetsumasa Kimura 52] 
Montedio Yamagata       0-3  NTT Kanto                      1,054 
  [Tsuji Ishihara 10, Fumiyuki Takasu 21, Kazunori Hanawa 89] 
Consadole Sapporo       1-0  Seino Transports               4,112 
  [Koji Kawai 78] 
[Oct 8] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        3-1  Oita Trinity                     469 
  [Kozaburo Shigeno, Akira Ito, Momodu Mutairu – Choi Dae-Shik] 

Round 27 
[Oct 11] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        2-1  Cosmo Yokkaichi                1,096 
  [Seiichi Makita (2) – Kim Byung-Soo] 
[Oct 12] 
Tokyo Gas               2-0  Vortis Tokushima               1,303 
  [Jun Wada, Amaral] 
[Oct 13] 
FC Fukushima            0-5  Montedio Yamagata              1,047 
  [Taketo Shiokawa (2), Angelo (2), Takashi Shoji] 
Brummell Sendai         2-4  Consadole Sapporo              3,845 
  [Takeshi Mizuuchi 31, 61 - Pavel Řehák 65, Luiz Pereira 68, 
   Kota Yoshihara 69, Tsuyoshi Kato 88] 
Seino Transports        0-5  Honda FC                         748 
  [Fumiaki Aoshima (3), Wagner Lopes (2; 1 pen)] 
Oita Trinity            3-2  Tosu Futures                   1,511 
  [Choi Dae-Shik 28, Lee Young-Jin 41, Hwangbo Kwan 80 – 
   Edwin Uehara 45, Hitoshi Morishita 56] 
NTT Kanto               2-0  Ventforet Kofu                 1,072 
  [Keiji Nakamura, Yoshinori Oe] 
Denso                   1-5  Vissel Kobe                    1,730 
  [Yoshihisa Takaoka 90 - Ziad Tlemçani 3, 78, 
   Akihiro Nagashima 70, 74, 88] 

Round 28 [Oct 17] 
Ventforet Kofu          0-1  FC Fukushima                     561 
  [Akira Mizushima 89] 
Vortis Tokushima        3-2  Denso               [aet]        333 
  [Akira Oba, Juninho, Takao Sekiguchi – 
   Yoshihisa Takaoka, Shingi Ono] 
Consadole Sapporo       3-0  NTT Kanto                      4,468 
  [Yuji Nakayoshi 15, Raul Otero 45, Pavel Řehák 82] 
Vissel Kobe             7-0  Seino Transports               5,924 
  [Thomas Bickel, Akihiro Nagashima (2), Ziad Tlemçani (2), 
   Michael Laudrup, Takuya Jinno] 
Montedio Yamagata       2-1  Fujitsu Kawasaki               1,054 
  [Satoshi Mashimo 23, Takashi Shoji 90 – Momodu Mutairu 41] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         0-2  Oita Trinity                     311 
  [Shuichiro Ogushi, Choi Dae-Shik] 
Tosu Futures            1-2  Tokyo Gas                      7,353 
  [Junichi Mori 9 – Amaral 38, Takayuki Tateishi 62] 
Honda FC                2-0  Brummell Sendai                3,830 
  [Fumiaki Aoshima 5, 14] 

Round 29 [Oct 20] 
Fujitsu Kawasaki        1-2  Honda FC                         840 
  [Tomohiro Hasumi – Wagner Lopes, Hiromasa Suguri] 
FC Fukushima            1-2  Vissel Kobe                    3,225 
  [Gwak Kyung-Keun 47 – Michael Laudrup 27, 39] 
Brummell Sendai         2-2  Tosu Futures        [pen 3-4]  3,628 
  [Reinhard Stumpf 73, Jun Suzuki 80 – Junichi Mori 20, 
   Jorge Dely Valdés 78] 
Seino Transports        0-1  Tokyo Gas                        574 
  [João Carlos] 
Montedio Yamagata       1-0  Ventforet Kofu                 2,344 
  [Angelo 51] 
Cosmo Yokkaichi         1-0  Consadole Sapporo              1,040 
  [Kenji Ito] 
NTT Kanto               0-1  Vortis Tokushima               1,016 
  [Takao Sekiguchi] 
Denso                   1-3  Oita Trinity                   1,888 
  [Hirokazu Hori – Lee Young-Jin, Hwangbo Kwan, Masaaki Okamoto] 

Round 30 [Oct 27] 
Tokyo Gas               2-0  Denso                          1,106 
  [Jun Wada, Ryuji Fujiyama] 
Tosu Futures            6-2  Seino Transports               2,526 
  [Stephen Tataw 7, Mario Lopez 10, 60, Tetsuya Tanaka 15, 33, 
   Yoshinori Matsuda 39 – Satoshi Sadoya 24, Shigehito Tsuchiya 67] 
Vortis Tokushima        2-3  Brummell Sendai     [aet]      2,526 
  [Juninho 1h, Akira Oba 90 – Kazuo Echigo 15, Satoshi Taira 63, 
   Yasunobu Chiba 97] 
Vissel Kobe             3-1  NTT Kanto                     23,783 
  [Ziad Tlemçani 30, 46, 90 – Yoshinori Oe 75] 
Honda FC                4-1  FC Fukushima                   4,550 
  [Wagner Lopes 1h pen, 51 pen, Fumiaki Aoshima 47, 
   Takayoshi Onaka 62 – Hiroyuki Kawaguchi 76] 
Consadole Sapporo       1-0  Fujitsu Kawasaki               7,859 
  [Koji Kawai 65] 
Ventforet Kofu          4-0  Cosmo Yokkaichi                1,326 
  [Pepe (2), Katsutomo Oshiba, Tsuneki Sumiya] 
Oita Trinity            0-2  Montedio Yamagata              1,808 
  [Kenji Hirosawa 67, Katsumi Sato 89] 


1995.

1996 (3rd and lower levels).

1997.

list of champions.

list of final tables.

list of cup finals.

list of super cup finals.


About this document

Thanks to Eric Visser for earlier version of this file

Prepared and maintained by Andrei Balitskiy for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Author: Andrei Balitskiy
Last updated: 5 Nov 2020

(C) Copyright Andrei Balitskiy and RSSSF 1999/2020
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.