Japan 1998

J-League 
========

First Stage
-----------

Final Table:
                               W/OT DW/DL L/OT
 1.Jubilo Iwata            17  13/0  0/0  4/0  52-18 39
 2.Shimizu S-Pulse         17  13/0  0/0  4/0  32-14 39
 3.Nagoya Grampus Eight    17   9/3  0/1  4/0  37-21 33
 4.Yokohama Marinos        17  10/1  0/0  5/1  39-21 32
 5.Kashima Antlers         17  10/1  0/0  6/0  41-28 32
 6.Verdy Kawasaki          17  10/0  0/1  5/1  34-25 30
 7.Urawa Red Diamonds      17   8/1  2/0  5/1  30-23 28
 8.Yokohama Flugels        17   7/2  1/0  7/0  33-32 26
 9.Cerezo Osaka            17   7/1  0/0  8/1  36-47 23
10.Kashiwa Reysol          17   6/1  2/0  7/1  32-35 22
11.JEF United Ichihara     17   7/0  0/0  8/2  31-31 21
12.Bellmare Hiratsuka      17   5/2  1/0  8/1  27-34 20
13.Sanfrecce Hiroshima     17   5/2  0/1  7/2  22-33 19
14.Gamba Osaka             17   4/2  1/0  9/1  27-29 17
15.Kyoto Purple Sanga      17   4/2  0/0  8/3  20-33 16
16.Consadole Sapporo       17   3/1  0/3  8/2  28-44 11
17.Vissel Kobe             17   3/0  0/0 13/1  20-48  9
18.Avispa Fukuoka          17   2/0  1/2 10/2  22-47  7

Round 1
Nagoya Grampus Eight  2-3 Vissel Kobe                          19,181 
  [Tetsuya Asano 3, Bernard Allou 19 – Kim Do-Hoon 36, 86, 
   Takanori Nunobe 72] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    4-1 Verdy Kawasaki                       13,254 
  [Hironari Iwamoto 17, Hidetoshi Nakata 27, Daisuke Tonoike 59, 
   Claudio 86 – Takuya Takagi 22] 
Kashima Antlers       4-2 Avispa Fukuoka                       15,306 
  [Yutaka Akita 50, Yasuo Manaka 78, Atsushi Yanagisawa 87, 
   Takayuki Suzuki 89 – Chikara Fujimoto 25, 64] 
Kashiwa Reysol        0-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   8,412 
  [Graham Arnold 39] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       4-1 Consadole Sapporo                    12,436 
  [Fernando Oliva 65, Masaaki Sawanobori 73 pen, Fabinho 75, 89 – 
   Jorge Dely Valdés 19] 
Jubilo Iwata          2-0 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   15,574 
  [Adilson 15, Naohiro Takahara 74] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    3-2 JEF United Ichihara                  19,828 
  [Alfred Nijhuis 2, 25, Kenji Oshiba 57 – Yoshikazu Nonomura 29, 
   Nobuhiro Takeda 25 pen] 
Yokohama Marinos      1-2 Yokohama Flugels       [OT]          52,083 
  [Julio Salinas 51 – Hideki Nagai 19, Kazuki Sato 96] 
Gamba Osaka           1-2 Cerezo Osaka                         15,193 
  [Nebojša Krupniković 17 – Hiroaki Morishima 42, Takayuki Yokoyama 88] 

Round 2 [Mar 25]
Consadole Sapporo     1-3 Kashima Antlers                      14,682 
  [Walter 57 – Atsushi Yanagisawa 25, Koji Kumagai 60, 
   Tadatoshi Masuda 66] 
JEF United Ichihara   1-2 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  6,048 
  [Satoshi Yamaguchi 84 – Tetsuya Asano 86, Kenji Fukuda 88] 
Verdy Kawasaki        1-0 Jubilo Iwata                         27,680 
  [Kazuyoshi Miura 57] 
Yokohama Flugels      0-2 Urawa Red Diamonds                   24,310 
  [Kenji Oshiba 17, Shinji Ono 84] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-0 Shimizu S-Pulse                       9,719 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 90] 
Cerezo Osaka          4-3 Yokohama Marinos                     10,534 
  [Kazuo Shimizu 4, Hiroaki Morishima 5, 16, 72 – 
   Julio César Baldivieso 20 pen, Masahiro Fukazawa 47, 
   Shunsuke Nakamura 51] 
Vissel Kobe           1-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   12,070 
  [Yuta Abe 45 – Hironari Iwamoto 23, Claudio 34] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   0-1 Gamba Osaka            [OT]          10,457 
  [Junichi Inamoto 100] 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-0 Kashiwa Reysol         [OT, 3-4 pen] 12,470 

Round 3 [Mar 28]
Nagoya Grampus Eight  2-1 Yokohama Flugels                     12,032 
  [Kenji Fukuda 11, Go Oiwa 58 - ? (N) 28 og] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-1 Consadole Sapporo      [OT, 5-4 pen]  6,340 
  [Mitsuteru Watanabe 77 - Jorge Dely Valdés 19] 
Yokohama Marinos      4-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   8,043 
  [Julio Salinas 20, 47, 55, 61] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    0-1 JEF United Ichihara                   7,199 
  [Eisuke Nakanishi 90] 
Jubilo Iwata          4-3 Vissel Kobe                          11,599 
  [Alessandro Cambalhota 20, Hiroshi Nanami 39, Toshiya Fujita 42, 
   Masashi Nakayama 55 pen – Takanori Nunobe 2, Akihiro Nagashima 
   67 pen, 69 pen] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    0-2 Verdy Kawasaki                       10,772 
  [Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 5, Takuya Takagi 84] 
Gamba Osaka           3-2 Avispa Fukuoka                        5,121 
  [Hiromi Kojima 3, Patrick Mboma 54, Yuji Hironaga 85 – 
   Daisuke Nakaharai 25, 40] 
Kashima Antlers       3-2 Shimizu S-Pulse                      15,075 
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 40, 52, Atsushi Yanagisawa 90 – 
   Masaaki Sawanobori 70 pen, Kenta Hasegawa 83] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    1-2 Cerezo Osaka           [OT]          19,526 
  [Aitor Begiristain 31 - Radivoje Manić 49, Hiroaki Morishima 112] 

Round 4 [Apr 4]
Consadole Sapporo     1-0 Gamba Osaka                           8,169 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 69] 
Kashima Antlers       6-0 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   15,075 
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 5, 44, 47, 50, Koji Kumagai 13, 
   Akira Narahashi 75] 
JEF United Ichihara   3-1 Jubilo Iwata                          6,162 
  [Nobuhiro Takeda 54, Nozomi Hiroyama 86, Nenad Maslovar 90 – 
   Hiroshi Nanami 14] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       0-2 Kashiwa Reysol                       11,181 
  [Harutaka Ono 60, Basilio 86] 
Cerezo Osaka          2-0 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 10,188 
  [Radivoje Manić 40, Hiroaki Morishima 74] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   1-2 Urawa Red Diamonds                   10,911 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 63 – Masayuki Okano 16, Kenji Oshiba 58] 
Yokohama Flugels      1-3 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   23,427 
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 31 – Wagner Lopes 63, Hidetoshi Nakata 70, 
   Tomoaki Matsukawa 73] 
Vissel Kobe           0-2 Verdy Kawasaki                        8,329 
  [Euller 84, 90] 
Avispa Fukuoka        2-5 Yokohama Marinos                     15,402 
  [Chikara Fujimoto 3, Fernando 47 - ? (A) 5 og, 
   Shunsuke Nakamura 20, Julio Salinas 28, Shoji Jo 86, 89] 

Round 5 [Apr 11]
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-2 Avispa Fukuoka         [OT, 5-4 pen] 19,991 
  [Kenji Oshiba 35, Aitor Begiristain 47 – Chikara Fujimoto 64, 
   Daisuke Nakaharai 73] 
Verdy Kawasaki        2-1 JEF United Ichihara                   9,489 
  [Euller 71, Kazuyoshi Miura 75 – Nobuhiro Takeda 88] 
Jubilo Iwata          4-0 Yokohama Flugels                     10,564 
  [Hiroshi Nanami 6, Toshihiro Hattori 11, Alessandro Cambalhota 38, 
   Masashi Nakayama 58] 
Yokohama Marinos      4-0 Consadole Sapporo                     9,214 
  [Julio Salinas 34, Shunsuke Nakamura 39, Shoji Jo 68, 90] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    3-2 Cerezo Osaka                          8,266 
  [Wagner Lopes 9, 19, 70 – Hiroaki Morishima 67, 79] 
Kashiwa Reysol        3-2 Kashima Antlers                      25,720 
  [Naoki Sakai 49, Basilio 82, Elpidio Silva 84 – Bismarck 73, 
   Yasuo Manaka 76] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  3-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima    [OT]           8,213 
  [Bernard Allou 19, 90, Takashi Hirano 95 – Kazuyoshi Matsunaga 47, 
   Yasuhiro Yoshida 59] 
Gamba Osaka           1-2 Shimizu S-Pulse                       6,601 
  [Hiromi Kojima 14 – Masaaki Sawanobori 40, Fernando Oliva 65] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    2-1 Vissel Kobe                           8,021 
  [Silas 49, Hisashi Kurosaki 52 – Kim Do-Hoon 28] 

Round 6 [Apr 15]
Consadole Sapporo     2-0 Urawa Red Diamonds                   12,171 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 56 pen, Kota Yoshihara 67] 
Kashima Antlers       1-0 Gamba Osaka                          13,824 
  [Akira Narahashi 34] 
JEF United Ichihara   1-2 Vissel Kobe                           3,012 
  [Nenad Maslovar 41 pen – Akihiro Nagashima 10, 86] 
Kashiwa Reysol        3-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga     [OT]           4,551 
  [Basilio 13, Elpidio Silva 48, Hideaki Kitajima 109 – 
   Teruo Iwamoto 30, Hisashi Kurosaki 38] 
Yokohama Flugels      0-3 Verdy Kawasaki                        6,540 
  [Takuya Takagi 40, Masakiyo Maezono 50, Euller 68] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       1-0 Yokohama Marinos                     10,115 
  [Teruyoshi Ito 57] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-9 Jubilo Iwata                         12,832 
  [Hiroaki Morishima 76 – Daisuke Oku 20, Masashi Nakayama 40, 54, 
   59 pen, 71, 74, Toshiya Fujita 66, 80, Hiroshi Nanami 83] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   0-1 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   10,688 
  [Wagner Lopes 76] 
Avispa Fukuoka        1-2 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  5,611 
  [Michael Obiku 89 – Tetsuya Okayama 54, 71] 

Round 7 [Apr 18]
Nagoya Grampus Eight  2-1 Consadole Sapporo      [OT]           8,173 
  [Takashi Hirano 10, Dragan Stojković 105 - Jorge Dely Valdés 73] 
Verdy Kawasaki        2-1 Cerezo Osaka                          7,657 
  [Takuya Takagi 37, Euller 40 pen – Hiroaki Morishima 36] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-3 JEF United Ichihara                   5,840 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 77 – Nobuhiro Takeda 54, 61, Shinichi Muto 56] 
Gamba Osaka           3-1 Kashiwa Reysol                        3,282 
  [Patrick Mboma 45, 77, 85 – Mitsuteru Watanabe 48] 
Yokohama Marinos      1-0 Kashima Antlers                      34,199 
  [Julio César Baldivieso 28] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    3-2 Avispa Fukuoka         [OT]          24,300 
  [Teppei Nishiyama 13, Wagner Lopes 57, Ricardinho 101 – 
   Fernando 16, Michael Obiku 87] 
Jubilo Iwata          5-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   8,124 
  [Masashi Nakayama 12, 65, 89, 90, Alessandro Cambalhota 70] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    0-2 Shimizu S-Pulse                      19,208 
  [Masaaki Sawanobori 47, Fabinho 79] 
Vissel Kobe           1-4 Yokohama Flugels                      3,096 
  [Akihiro Nagashima 27 pen – Hideki Nagai 52, Hiroki Hattori 55, 
   Anderson 67, Motohiro Yamaguchi 89] 

Round 8 [Apr 25]
Yokohama Flugels      2-0 JEF United Ichihara                   5,232 
  [Hideki Nagai 20, Igor Ledyakhov 53] 
Consadole Sapporo     3-3 Bellmare Hiratsuka     [OT, 4-5 pen] 11,518 
  [Kota Yoshihara 52, 62, Hugo Maradona 90 - ? (C) 10 og, 
   Hidetoshi Nakata 41, Ricardinho 76] 
Gamba Osaka           0-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga                    4,880 
  [Teruo Iwamoto 15] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-2 Vissel Kobe                           7,738 
  [Satoru Suzuki 89 – Kim Do-Hoon 54, Matthew Bingley 65] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   2-1 Verdy Kawasaki         [OT]           9,584 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 5, Iwao Yamane 97 – Kazuyoshi Miura 87] 
Avispa Fukuoka        1-7 Jubilo Iwata                         11,032 
  [Yoshiteru Yamashita 81 – Daisuke Oku 20, Hiroshi Nanami 52, 
   Masashi Nakayama 54, 65, 74, 90, Dunga 80] 
Kashiwa Reysol        0-4 Yokohama Marinos                      9,486 
  [Fumitake Miura 4, 55, Yoshiharu Ueno 44, Julio César Baldivieso 54] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       3-1 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  9,314 
  [Carlos Alberto Santos 22, 77, Kenta Hasegawa 90 – Tetsuya Okayama 40] 
Kashima Antlers       1-4 Urawa Red Diamonds                   15,641 
  [Bismarck 4 – Yasushi Fukunaga 36, Shinji Ono 48, Kenji Oshiba 50, 
   Aitor Begiristain 62 pen] 

Round 9 [Apr 29]
Jubilo Iwata          4-0 Consadole Sapporo                    13,846 
  [Masashi Nakayama 42, 73 pen, 82, Toshiya Fujita 70] 
Verdy Kawasaki        6-1 Avispa Fukuoka                       10,797 
  [Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 57, Takuya Takagi 65, 67, 78, Kazuyoshi Miura 80, 
   Tetsuji Hashiratani 89 – Fernando 43] 
Yokohama Marinos      2-1 Gamba Osaka                          18,087 
  [Norio Omura 25, Julio Salinas 79 – Yuji Hironaga 88] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    1-2 Shimizu S-Pulse                      13,483 
  [Ricardinho 45 - ? (B) 15 og, Kenta Hasegawa 82] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  3-0 Kashima Antlers                      23,932 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 1, 35, Kenji Fukuda 78] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-2 Yokohama Flugels       [OT]           8,334 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 43 – Atsuhiro Miura 62 pen, 113 pen] 
JEF United Ichihara   4-1 Cerezo Osaka                          5,403 
  [Nobuhiro Takeda 3, Atsuhiko Ejiri 25, Nozomi Hiroyama 33, 87 – 
   Akinori Nishizawa 45 pen] 
Vissel Kobe           0-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                  12,592 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 21, 75] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    3-1 Kashiwa Reysol                       46,547 
  [Kenji Oshiba 30, 54, 76 – Mitsuteru Watanabe 79] 

Round 10 [May 2]
Consadole Sapporo     1-3 Verdy Kawasaki                        6,079 
  [Satoshi Kajino 84 – Takuya Takagi 46, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 52, 
   Euller 58] 
Kashima Antlers       1-0 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   15,742 
  [Yasuo Manaka 90] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       2-1 Jubilo Iwata                         19,544 
  [Fabinho 13, Alessandro Santos 64 – Masashi Nakayama 24] 
Gamba Osaka           0-2 Urawa Red Diamonds                   10,485 
  [Kenji Oshiba 56, Masayuki Okano 83] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-4 Yokohama Flugels                     10,563 
  [Akinori Nishizawa 18 – Kazuki Sato 9, 61, Atsuhiro Miura 38, 
   Motohiro Yamaguchi 86] 
Kashiwa Reysol        2-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight   [OT]           7,223 
  [Takeshi Watanabe 10, Nozomu Kato 51 – Tetsuya Okayama 7, 114, 
   Valdo 49] 
Yokohama Marinos      2-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   16,380 
  [Shoji Jo 3, Yoshiharu Ueno 64 – Teruo Iwamoto 28] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   3-1 JEF United Ichihara                   4,132 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 9, Tony Popovic 37, Ian Crook 69 – 
   Nobuhiro Takeda 81] 
Avispa Fukuoka        3-1 Vissel Kobe                           5,591 
  [Yuji Yokoyama 54, Yoshiteru Yamashita 86, 88 – Akihiro Nagashima 18] 

Round 11 [May 5]
Bellmare Hiratsuka    1-3 Kashiwa Reysol                        9,201 
  [Teppei Nishiyama 67 – Duda 35, 60, 81] 
JEF United Ichihara   4-2 Avispa Fukuoka                        6,857 
  [Yoshikazu Nonomura 45, 63, Nenad Maslovar 86 pen, 
   Nozomi Hiroyama 88 - ? (J) 17 og, Kiyotaka Ishimaru 82] 
Jubilo Iwata          0-3 Kashima Antlers                      17,269 
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 8, 69, 79] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-2 Cerezo Osaka                          8,851 
  [Edmilson 41 – Akinori Nishizawa 33, Masaya Nishitani 87] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  0-0 Gamba Osaka            [OT, 1-3 pen] 12,109 
Urawa Red Diamonds    0-1 Yokohama Marinos                     20,048 
  [Shoji Jo 12] 
Verdy Kawasaki        2-0 Shimizu S-Pulse                      19,649 
  [Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 55, Euller 75] 
Vissel Kobe           2-3 Consadole Sapporo                     6,004 
  [Kim Do-Hoon 14, 88 – Kota Yoshihara 9, Jorge Dely Valdés 13, 78] 
Yokohama Flugels      5-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                  20,266 
  [Hideki Nagai 21, Paulo Futre 25, Cézar Sampaio 50, 
   Igor Ledyakhov 64, Atsuhiro Miura 71 – Tony Popovic 23] 

Round 12 [May 9]
Consadole Sapporo     3-2 JEF United Ichihara    [OT]           5,118 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 17, 47, 104 pen – Nobuhiro Takeda 34, 43] 
Kashima Antlers       3-1 Verdy Kawasaki                       15,660 
  [Yasuo Manaka 68, Naoki Soma 78, Mazinho 90 - ? (K) 50 og] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga     [OT]          33,773 
  [Kenji Oshiba 65, Tsutomu Nishino 120 – Hisashi Kurosaki 30] 
Yokohama Marinos      1-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 20,274 
  [Julio César Baldivieso 21 – Kenji Fukuda 5, Tetsuya Okayama 53, 
   Valdo 81] 
Gamba Osaka           1-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka     [OT]          19,526 
  [Junichi Inamoto 19 – Claudio 34, Wagner Lopes 99] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   0-2 Cerezo Osaka                          5,994 
  [Makoto Yonekura 58, Hiroaki Morishima 90] 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-1 Yokohama Flugels                      7,519 
  [Paulo Futre 52] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       4-0 Vissel Kobe                          10,460 
  [Masaaki Sawanobori 16, 22, 90, Alessandro Santos 65] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-3 Jubilo Iwata                         12,033 
  [Takeshi Watanabe 3 – Toshiya Fujita 31, 88, Hideto Suzuki 39] 

Round 13 [Jul 25]
JEF United Ichihara   0-1 Shimizu S-Pulse                       4,086 
  [Fernando Oliva 72] 
Verdy Kawasaki        1-3 Kashiwa Reysol                       10,468 
  [Euller 48 – Nozomu Kato 3, 87, Basilio 79] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   5,231 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 68 – Don Goodman 25, Hiroshi Miyazawa 56] 
Cerezo Osaka          3-1 Avispa Fukuoka                        9,711 
  [Hiroaki Morishima 60, Pintado 66, 81 – Yoshiteru Yamashita 83] 
Vissel Kobe           2-3 Kashima Antlers                      12,501 
  [Kim Do-Hoon 67, Mitsutoshi Watada 83 – Atsushi Yanagisawa 6, 8, 
   Mazinho 82] 
Yokohama Flugels      2-2 Consadole Sapporo      [OT, 5-3 pen]  5,104 
  [Motohiro Yamaguchi 51, Paulo Futre 62 - Jorge Dely Valdés 12, 
   Hugo Maradona 89] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    1-4 Yokohama Marinos                     14,119 
  [Tomoaki Matsukawa 86 – Yoshiharu Ueno 5, Shoji Jo 26, 80, 
   Julio Salinas 77] 
Jubilo Iwata          4-1 Gamba Osaka                          10,283 
  [? (G) 27 og, Adilson 38, Daisuke Oku 55, Makoto Tanaka 75 – 
   Hiromi Kojima 47] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  3-1 Urawa Red Diamonds                   19,370 
  [Suguru Ito 16, Koji Noguchi 54, Kenji Fukuda 72 – Kenji Oshiba 90] 

Round 14 [Jul 29]
Yokohama Marinos      0-1 Jubilo Iwata                         15,165 
  [Adilson 74] 
Kashima Antlers       4-1 JEF United Ichihara                  15,213 
  [Akira Narahashi 12, 38, Atsushi Yanagisawa 14, 
   Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 44 – Nenad Maslovar 90] 
Gamba Osaka           2-4 Verdy Kawasaki                       15,037 
  [Claude Dambury 52, Anto Drobnjak 55 - ? (G) 42 og, 
   Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 66, Euller 70, Takuya Takagi 72] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       2-0 Yokohama Flugels                     10,873 
  [Alessandro Santos 44, Fernando Oliva 77] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  3-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga                    7,075 
  [Koji Noguchi 26, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 53, Tetsuya Okayama 90 – 
   Hisashi Kurosaki 80] 
Kashiwa Reysol        4-0 Vissel Kobe                           6,985 
  [Bentinho 9, 67, Hristo Stoichkov 17, Naoki Sakai 83] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-1 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   18,330 
  [Kenji Oshiba 10, Giuseppe Zappella 20 – Tomoaki Matsukawa 45] 
Consadole Sapporo     3-4 Cerezo Osaka                         17,689 
  [Jorge Dely Valdés 5, 31, Taku Watanabe 65 - Radivoje Manić 12, 45, 
   Akinori Nishizawa 55, Satoru Suzuki 78] 
Avispa Fukuoka        1-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima    [OT, 5-3 pen] 10,025 
  [Fernando 54 – Susumu Oki 50] 

Round 15 [Aug 1]
JEF United Ichihara   3-0 Kashiwa Reysol                        4,993 
  [Nenad Maslovar 30, 66, ? (K) 78 og] 
Verdy Kawasaki        2-4 Yokohama Marinos                     20,486 
  [Euller 5, 58 - Julio César Baldivieso 14, Fumitake Miura 69, 
   Norio Omura 76, Shoji Jo 86] 
Yokohama Flugels      3-2 Kashima Antlers                      28,054 
  [Hideki Nagai 53, 90, Yasuhito Endo 88 – Atsushi Yanagisawa 32, 
   Tadatoshi Masuda 62] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    0-5 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  6,834 
  [Koji Noguchi 26, 49, Dragan Stojković 45, Tarik Oulida 84, 89] 
Jubilo Iwata          2-0 Urawa Red Diamonds                   15,845 
  [Adilson 31, Naohiro Takahara 57] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-0 Avispa Fukuoka         [OT]           4,328 
  [Edmilson 104] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-3 Shimizu S-Pulse                       9,646 
  [Ha Seok-Ju 8 – Alessandro Santos 23, Fernando Oliva 60, 63] 
Vissel Kobe           0-4 Gamba Osaka                           6,360 
  [Nebojša Krupniković 61, Hiromi Kojima 77, Anto Drobnjak 87, 
   Ryuji Bando 90] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   4-3 Consadole Sapporo      [OT]           5,411 
  [Susumu Oki 19, 45, Toshihiro Yamaguchi 36, Makoto Okubo 93 – 
   Jorge Dely Valdés 24, Kota Yoshihara 42, 48] 

Round 16 [Aug 5]
Nagoya Grampus Eight  1-2 Jubilo Iwata                         23,077 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 67 - ? (N) 21 og, Adilson 40] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       1-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                  12,445 
  [Teruyoshi Ito 63] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    1-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga     [OT]           5,038 
  [Wagner Lopes 31 – Edmilson 15, Shinya Mitsuoka 115] 
Consadole Sapporo     1-2 Avispa Fukuoka                       11,103 
  [Hugo Maradona 34 – Yoshiteru Yamashita 66, 90] 
Yokohama Marinos      2-1 Vissel Kobe            [OT]          11,830 
  [Julio César Baldivieso 56, Julio Salinas 97 – Mitsutoshi Watada 88] 
Gamba Osaka           3-2 JEF United Ichihara    [OT]           5,000 
  [Hiromi Kojima 4, Junichi Inamoto 77, Ryuji Bando 100 – 
   Nobuhiro Takeda 45, Terumasa Kim 65] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-3 Yokohama Flugels                      7,231 
  [Bentinho 84 – Igor Ledyakhov 71, 87, Atsuhiro Miura 79] 
Kashima Antlers       3-2 Cerezo Osaka           [OT]          15,360 
  [Tadatoshi Masuda 10, Koji Nakata 67, Yasuo Manaka 99 – 
   Pintado 57, Radivoje Manić 76] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    1-1 Verdy Kawasaki         [OT, 4-2 pen] 16,971 
  [Shinji Ono 78 – Euller 70] 

Round 17 [Aug 8]
JEF United Ichihara   2-1 Yokohama Marinos                      8,099 
  [Arnold Scholten 4, Nobuhiro Takeda 50 – Julio Salinas 27] 
Verdy Kawasaki        0-2 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 11,267 
  [Kenji Fukuda 53, Tarik Oulida 90] 
Yokohama Flugels      3-6 Gamba Osaka                           5,801 
  [Atsuhiro Miura 32, 67, Motohiro Yamaguchi 83 – Junichi Inamoto 21, 
   62, Anto Drobnjak 26, 40, 63, Hiromi Kojima 48] 
Jubilo Iwata          3-1 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   17,337 
  [Toshiya Fujita 58, Dunga 73, Nobuo Kawaguchi 90 – Masato Harasaki 82] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    4-2 Consadole Sapporo                     4,130 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 50, 56, 90, Teruo Iwamoto 72 – Hugo Maradona 16, 
   Takamitsu Ota 24] 
Cerezo Osaka          5-7 Kashiwa Reysol                        8,836 
  [Hiroaki Morishima 40, 47, 67, Ha Seok-Ju 56, Akinori Nishizawa 79 – 
   Nozomu Kato 16, 37, 51, Bentinho 35, 48, Hristo Stoichkov 70, 85] 
Vissel Kobe           1-5 Urawa Red Diamonds                    9,644 
  [Kim Do-Hoon 76 – Tsutomu Nishino 4, Masayuki Okano 40, 45, 63, 
   Yasushi Fukunaga 43] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   3-2 Kashima Antlers                      17,020 
  [Susumu Oki 22, Tatsuhiko Kubo 69, Yasuhiro Yoshida 84 – 
   Tadatoshi Masuda 15, Atsushi Yanagisawa 33] 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-3 Shimizu S-Pulse                      13,779 
  [Kenta Hasegawa 57, 90, Masahiro Ando 77] 

Final Table:
                               W/OT DW/DL L/OT
 1.Jubilo Iwata            17  13/0  0/0  4/0  52-18 39
 2.Shimizu S-Pulse         17  13/0  0/0  4/0  32-14 39
 3.Nagoya Grampus Eight    17   9/3  0/1  4/0  37-21 33
 4.Yokohama Marinos        17  10/1  0/0  5/1  39-21 32
 5.Kashima Antlers         17  10/1  0/0  6/0  41-28 32
 6.Verdy Kawasaki          17  10/0  0/1  5/1  34-25 30
 7.Urawa Red Diamonds      17   8/1  2/0  5/1  30-23 28
 8.Yokohama Flugels        17   7/2  1/0  7/0  33-32 26
 9.Cerezo Osaka            17   7/1  0/0  8/1  36-47 23
10.Kashiwa Reysol          17   6/1  2/0  7/1  32-35 22
11.JEF United Ichihara     17   7/0  0/0  8/2  31-31 21
12.Bellmare Hiratsuka      17   5/2  1/0  8/1  27-34 20
13.Sanfrecce Hiroshima     17   5/2  0/1  7/2  22-33 19
14.Gamba Osaka             17   4/2  1/0  9/1  27-29 17
15.Kyoto Purple Sanga      17   4/2  0/0  8/3  20-33 16
16.Consadole Sapporo       17   3/1  0/3  8/2  28-44 11
17.Vissel Kobe             17   3/0  0/0 13/1  20-48  9
18.Avispa Fukuoka          17   2/0  1/2 10/2  22-47  7


Second Stage
------------

Table:
                               W/OT DW/DL L/OT
 1.Kashima Antlers         17  12/3  0/0  2/0  38-15 42
 2.Jubilo Iwata            17  13/0  0/0  3/1  55-21 39
 3.Urawa Red Diamonds      17  11/0  0/0  4/2  32-17 33
 4.Yokohama Marinos        17  10/1  0/0  3/3  40-27 32
 5.Shimizu S-Pulse         17   8/3  1/1  4/0  39-21 31
 6.Nagoya Grampus Eight    17   9/1  1/0  5/1  34-26 30
 7.Yokohama Flugels        17   8/0  1/0  8/0  37-32 25
 8.Kashiwa Reysol          17   8/0  1/1  6/1  24-26 25
 9.Sanfrecce Hiroshima     17   7/1  1/1  6/1  23-19 24
10.Consadole Sapporo       17   8/0  0/1  7/1  29-30 24
11.Kyoto Purple Sanga      17   6/2  1/0  8/0  27-30 23
12.Bellmare Hiratsuka      17   7/0  1/0  9/0  26-32 22
13.Cerezo Osaka            17   7/0  0/1  9/0  20-32 21
14.Vissel Kobe             17   5/0  1/0 10/1  25-41 16
15.Avispa Fukuoka          17   4/1  0/0 12/0  11-38 14
16.Gamba Osaka             17   3/2  0/1 11/0  20-32 13
17.Verdy Kawasaki          17   3/0  0/1 12/1  13-28  9
18.JEF United Ichihara     17   1/0  1/1 12/2  18-44  4

Round 1 [Aug 22]
Bellmare Hiratsuka    0-4 Urawa Red Diamonds                   13,088 
  [Željko Petrović 18, 76, Aitor Begiristain 30, 70] 
Jubilo Iwata          2-3 Yokohama Marinos       [OT]          15,797 
  [Hiroshi Nanami 21, Toshiya Fujita 25 - ? (J) 69 og, 
   Julio César Baldivieso 81, Sotaro Yasunaga 112] 
Verdy Kawasaki        1-2 Gamba Osaka                           7,958 
  [Masakiyo Maezono 35 – Junichi Inamoto 42, Anto Drobnjak 84] 
Vissel Kobe           0-2 Kashiwa Reysol                        3,928 
  [Naoki Sakai 1, 39] 
JEF United Ichihara   1-3 Kashima Antlers                       7,539 
  [Nobuhiro Takeda 25 – Atsushi Yanagisawa 17, 65, Bismarck 51] 
Yokohama Flugels      2-4 Shimizu S-Pulse                      16,398 
  [Igor Ledyakhov 14, Motohiro Yamaguchi 47 – Masaaki Sawanobori 7, 
   Fernando Oliva 30, Junji Nishizawa 60, Kenta Hasegawa 73] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-3 Consadole Sapporo                     7,239 
  [Radivoje Manić 33 pen – Tomotaka Fukagawa 5, Jorge Dely Valdés 12, 
   Tatsuya Murata 43] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   4-0 Avispa Fukuoka                        6,209 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 13, Aurelio Vidmar 28, Toshihiro Yamaguchi 54, 
   Kota Hattori 63] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    2-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  7,141 
  [Teruo Iwamoto 21, Hisashi Kurosaki 61 – Kenji Fukuda 12, 
   ? (K) 45 og, Go Oiwa 80] 

Round 2 [Aug 29]
Nagoya Grampus Eight  2-0 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   19,521 
  [Kenji Fukuda 9, Takafumi Ogura 81] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-0 Jubilo Iwata                         17,325 
  [Masahiro Fukuda 11, Shinji Ono 42] 
Yokohama Marinos      2-0 Verdy Kawasaki                       31,660 
  [Julio Salinas 20, Shoji Jo 55] 
Gamba Osaka           1-0 Vissel Kobe            [OT]           6,299 
  [Yuji Hironaga 103 pen] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-0 JEF United Ichihara                   8,040 
  [Hristo Stoichkov 85] 
Kashima Antlers       1-3 Yokohama Flugels                     15,282 
  [Mazinho 85 – Hideki Nagai 28, Igor Ledyakhov 62, Anderson 77] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       1-2 Cerezo Osaka                         12,144 
  [Fernando Oliva 73 – Hiroaki Morishima 45, Takayuki Yokoyama 83] 
Consadole Sapporo     2-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   8,517 
  [? (S) 3 og, Hiromasa Suguri 22] 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga                    8,892 
  [Hiroyasu Kawakatsu 22] 

Round 3 [Sep 5]
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   15,454 
  [Teruo Iwamoto 71 pen – Claudio 90, 90+] 
Jubilo Iwata          4-2 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 12,536 
  [Daisuke Oku 3, Toshiya Fujita 37, Masashi Nakayama 74 pen, 90 – 
   Koji Noguchi 36, Kenji Fukuda 44] 
Verdy Kawasaki        0-3 Urawa Red Diamonds                   33,780 
  [Aitor Begiristain 44, Yasushi Fukunaga 53, Giuseppe Zappella 64] 
Vissel Kobe           2-3 Yokohama Marinos                     11,002 
  [Takuya Jinno 37, Keiji Kaimoto 73 - Julio César Baldivieso 30, 
   Shoji Jo 43, Julio Salinas 52] 
JEF United Ichihara   0-1 Gamba Osaka            [OT]           3,494 
  [Masanobu Matsunami 96] 
Yokohama Flugels      1-2 Kashiwa Reysol                       11,477 
  [Igor Ledyakhov 26 – Bentinho 17, 34] 
Cerezo Osaka          0-2 Kashima Antlers                      15,501 
  [Bismarck 73, Mazinho 77] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   2-2 Shimizu S-Pulse        [OT, 8-7 pen]  6,531 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 23, 44 – Fernando Oliva 53, 72] 
Avispa Fukuoka        1-0 Consadole Sapporo                     8,567 
  [Kiyotaka Ishimaru 87] 

Round 4 [Sep 12]
Bellmare Hiratsuka    1-2 Jubilo Iwata                         11,604 
  [Wagner Lopes 90 – Masashi Nakayama 58 pen, 65] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  1-0 Verdy Kawasaki                       15,086 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 69] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-1 Vissel Kobe                          18,957 
  [Shinji Ono 74, Masahiro Fukuda 81 – Koji Yoshimura 35] 
Yokohama Marinos      3-2 JEF United Ichihara                  10,214 
  [Shoji Jo 60, 69, Sotaro Yasunaga 83 – Nenad Maslovar 14, 
   Atsuhiko Ejiri 43] 
Gamba Osaka           1-1 Yokohama Flugels       [OT, 1-4 pen]  7,847 
  [Hiromi Kojima 5 – Anderson 23] 
Kashiwa Reysol        3-1 Cerezo Osaka                          7,380 
  [Hristo Stoichkov 49, Bentinho 87, Harutaka Ono 90 – 
   Satoru Suzuki 79] 
Kashima Antlers       0-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                  15,737 
  [? (K) 2 og, Hayden Foxe 14] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       6-0 Avispa Fukuoka                       10,354 
  [Carlos Alberto Santos 11, 86, Teruyoshi Ito 42, Fabinho 45, 
   Fernando Oliva 48, Katsumi Oenoki 59] 
Consadole Sapporo     2-0 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   10,192 
  [Yoshikazu Goto 16, Jorge Dely Valdés 89] 

Round 5 [Sep 15]
Kyoto Purple Sanga    2-3 Jubilo Iwata                         12,371 
  [Hajime Moriyasu 14, Edmilson 47 – Masashi Nakayama 9, 
   Toshiya Fujita 40, Takashi Fukunishi 70] 
Verdy Kawasaki        3-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   12,279 
  [Keiji Ishizuka 9, Takayuki Yamaguchi 27, Masakiyo Maezono 78 – 
   Wagner Lopes 17, 30] 
Vissel Kobe           1-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  5,705 
  [Kim Do-Hoon 70 - Dragan Stojković 69, Tetsuya Okayama 74, 
   Takashi Hirano 86] 
JEF United Ichihara   0-2 Urawa Red Diamonds                    8,367 
  [Yasushi Fukunaga 8, Shinji Ono 47] 
Yokohama Flugels      0-2 Yokohama Marinos                     53,598 
  [Shunsuke Nakamura 29, Sotaro Yasunaga 75] 
Cerezo Osaka          2-1 Gamba Osaka                          12,230 
  [Masaya Nishitani 43, Hiroaki Morishima 48 – Hiromi Kojima 81] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   0-0 Kashiwa Reysol         [OT, 8-9 pen]  6,920 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-3 Kashima Antlers                      17,722 
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 5, 69, Mazinho 20] 
Consadole Sapporo     1-2 Shimizu S-Pulse        [OT]          10,406 
  [Takamitsu Ota 33 – Kenta Hasegawa 90, Fernando Oliva 92] 

Round 6 [Sep 19]
Jubilo Iwata          1-0 Verdy Kawasaki                       12,056 
  [Toshiya Fujita 64] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    1-0 Vissel Kobe                           5,151 
  [Ricardinho 41] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  3-0 JEF United Ichihara                  11,386 
  [Takashi Hirano 45, Tarik Oulida 51, Kenji Fukuda 73] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    3-0 Yokohama Flugels                     19,742 
  [Kenji Oshiba 24, ? (Y) 60 og, Masahiro Fukuda 74] 
Yokohama Marinos      2-3 Cerezo Osaka                          8,749 
  [Julio César Baldivieso 15, Shunsuke Nakamura 37 – 
   Akinori Nishizawa 32, Hwang Sun-Hong 36, Pintado 82] 
Gamba Osaka           0-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   4,183 
  [Tetsuya Ito 79, Tatsuhiko Kubo 89] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-2 Avispa Fukuoka         [OT]           6,392 
  [Hristo Stoichkov 37 – Fernando 39, Yoshiteru Yamashita 116] 
Kashima Antlers       3-2 Consadole Sapporo                    15,184 
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 38, 78, Yasuo Manaka 60 - Jorge Dely Valdés 37, 85] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       3-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   12,083 
  [Masaaki Sawanobori 8, Teruyoshi Ito 29, ? (K) 61 og – 
   Edmilson 13, 86] 

Round 7 [Sep 23]
Verdy Kawasaki        0-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   12,099 
  [Silas 13, Edmilson 41] 
Vissel Kobe           0-7 Jubilo Iwata                         13,589 
  [Nobuo Kawaguchi 15, Hiroshi Nanami 30, Takashi Fukunishi 52, 
   Daisuke Oku 55, 79, Dunga 68, Dedimar 89] 
JEF United Ichihara   4-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka                    3,514 
  [Shinichi Muto 17, 54, Atsuhiko Ejiri 29, Nobuhiro Takeda 60 – 
   Wagner Lopes 33, 55] 
Yokohama Flugels      2-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 16,226 
  [Hideyuki Ujiie 30, Atsuhiro Miura 84 pen – Kenji Fukuda 39, 
   Koji Noguchi 81, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 85] 
Cerezo Osaka          2-1 Urawa Red Diamonds                   16,145 
  [Hwang Sun-Hong 34, Masaya Nishitani 42 – Masahiro Fukuda 80 pen] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   1-2 Yokohama Marinos                     12,969 
  [Tetsuya Ito 86 – Shoji Jo 9, 90] 
Avispa Fukuoka        1-0 Gamba Osaka                           8,902 
  [Chikara Fujimoto 31] 
Consadole Sapporo     3-2 Kashiwa Reysol                       11,183 
  [Hugo Maradona 21, Kota Yoshihara 41, 60 – Naoki Sakai 54, 
   Basilio 76] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       1-2 Kashima Antlers                      13,830 
  [Fernando Oliva 50 – Naruyuki Naito 17, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 28] 

Round 8 [Sep 26]
Verdy Kawasaki        1-2 Vissel Kobe                           5,244 
  [Tomo Sugawara 9 – Akihiro Nagashima 50 pen, 65] 
Jubilo Iwata          6-2 JEF United Ichihara                  10,840 
  [Daisuke Oku 2, 66, 71, Naohiro Takahara 81, 86, 90 – 
   Nozomi Hiroyama 57, 69] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    3-1 Yokohama Flugels                     17,164 
  [Claudio 1, Wagner Lopes 8, 28 - Cézar Sampaio 25] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  1-1 Cerezo Osaka           [OT, 5-3 pen]  9,288 
  [Kenji Fukuda 52 – Hwang Sun-Hong 63] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    1-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                  17,876 
  [Masahiro Fukuda 69 – Tatsuhiko Kubo 8, Don Goodman 37] 
Yokohama Marinos      3-0 Avispa Fukuoka                        7,265 
  [Shunsuke Nakamura 38, Shoji Jo 46, Julio César Baldivieso 72] 
Gamba Osaka           1-0 Consadole Sapporo                     3,688 
  [Hiromi Kojima 90] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-2 Shimizu S-Pulse                       8,016 
  [Bentinho 34 – Masahiro Ando 47, Teruyoshi Ito 55] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    0-3 Kashima Antlers                       7,156 
  [Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 36, 86, Toshiyuki Abe 81] 

Round 9 [Oct 3]
Vissel Kobe           0-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga                    4,794 
  [Edmilson 77, 84] 
JEF United Ichihara   0-2 Verdy Kawasaki                       11,538 
  [Fernando 15, Kazuyoshi Miura 24] 
Yokohama Flugels      0-4 Jubilo Iwata                         14,473 
  [Masashi Nakayama 39, 61, 87, Takuma Koga 90] 
Cerezo Osaka          2-1 Bellmare Hiratsuka                    5,653 
  [Akinori Nishizawa 23, Takayuki Yokoyama 90 – Ricardinho 88] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   2-1 Nagoya Grampus Eight   [OT]           5,820 
  [Katsuhiro Minamoto 16, Hayden Foxe 120 – Kenji Fukuda 78] 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-2 Urawa Red Diamonds                   14,498 
  [Shinji Ono 39, Giuseppe Zappella 50] 
Consadole Sapporo     0-2 Yokohama Marinos                     19,251 
  [Norio Omura 34, Shoji Jo 70] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       4-1 Gamba Osaka                           9,902 
  [Fernando Oliva 41, 68, Masaaki Sawanobori 77 pen, 
   Kenta Hasegawa 90 – Anto Drobnjak 82] 
Kashima Antlers       3-0 Kashiwa Reysol                       14,572 
  [Mazinho 11, 40, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 78] 

Round 10 [Oct 14]
Vissel Kobe           5-5 JEF United Ichihara    [OT, 5-3 pen]  2,091 
  [Kim Do-Hoon 3, 22, Albert Tomas 28, Keiji Kaimoto 66, 90 – 
   Arnold Scholten 10, Nenad Maslovar 72, Ryohei Nishiwaki 80, 
   Kazuhiro Suzuki 88, Eisuke Nakanishi 90] 
Verdy Kawasaki        0-3 Yokohama Flugels                     10,506 
  [Hideki Nagai 19, Igor Ledyakhov 60, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 68] 
Jubilo Iwata          3-0 Cerezo Osaka                          8,768 
  [Toshiya Fujita 39, Masashi Nakayama 69, Norihisa Shimizu 88] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    3-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   4,251 
  [Wagner Lopes 73, Keisuke Kurihara 83, Ricardinho 87] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  2-0 Avispa Fukuoka                        7,531 
  [Takashi Hirano 60, Bernard Allou 68] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-1 Consadole Sapporo                    17,580 
  [Toshiya Ishii 43, Aitor Begiristain 90 – Kota Yoshihara 85] 
Yokohama Marinos      3-4 Shimizu S-Pulse        [OT]          10,665 
  [? (S) 20 og, Sotaro Yasunaga 59, 87 – Alessandro Santos 45, 48, 
   Kenta Hasegawa 81, Fernando Oliva 120] 
Gamba Osaka           1-3 Kashima Antlers                       4,839 
  [Hiromi Kojima 23 – Atsushi Yanagisawa 48, Bismarck 73, 
   Akira Narahashi 77] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    2-2 Kashiwa Reysol         [OT, 5-3 pen]  4,052 
  [Edmilson 41, 68 – Bentinho 63, Kentaro Sawada 90] 

Round 11 
[Oct 17]
JEF United Ichihara   1-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga     [OT]           2,574 
  [Nozomi Hiroyama 83 – Teruo Iwamoto 51, Silas 91] 
Yokohama Flugels      4-3 Vissel Kobe                           3,762 
  [Hideki Nagai 2, Igor Ledyakhov 44, 52, Atsuhiro Miura 54 – 
   Kim Do-Hoon 24, 49, Ha Seok-Ju 59] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-2 Verdy Kawasaki                        7,284 
  [Masaya Nishitani 89 – Takayuki Yamaguchi 17, Fernando 22] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   2-1 Jubilo Iwata                          5,431 
  [Aurelio Vidmar 7, Tatsuhiko Kubo 45 – Masashi Nakayama 51] 
Consadole Sapporo     3-2 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 10,052 
  [Kenji Arima 52, 64, Tomotaka Fukagawa 79 – Kenji Fukuda 18, 
   Dragan Stojković 69] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       1-0 Urawa Red Diamonds     [OT]          15,117 
  [Fernando Oliva 109] 
Kashima Antlers       2-1 Yokohama Marinos       [OT]          14,422 
  [Bismarck 84, Jorginho 103 – Fumitake Miura 69] 
Kashiwa Reysol        2-0 Gamba Osaka                           4,911 
  [Hristo Stoichkov 50, Nozomu Kato 61] 
[Oct 18]
Avispa Fukuoka        0-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka                    6,360 
  [Ricardinho 34, Keisuke Kurihara 82] 

Round 12 [Oct 21]
JEF United Ichihara   0-3 Yokohama Flugels                      2,513 
  [Atsuhiro Miura 56, Igor Ledyakhov 85, 90] 
Vissel Kobe           2-0 Cerezo Osaka                          2,818 
  [Ha Seok-Ju 26, Shigetoshi Hasebe 76] 
Verdy Kawasaki        0-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   3,403 
  [Aurelio Vidmar 47] 
Jubilo Iwata          6-1 Avispa Fukuoka                        8,407 
  [Daisuke Oku 23, 70, ? (A) 36 og, Masashi Nakayama 38, 57, 
   Nobuo Kawaguchi 83 - Dragan Đukanović 42] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    2-2 Consadole Sapporo      [OT, 4-3 pen]  4,381 
  [Ricardinho 34, Wagner Lopes 74 - Jorge Dely Valdés 55, 
   Yoshifumi Ono 76] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  0-2 Shimizu S-Pulse                      10,839 
  [Fernando Oliva 39, 54] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-3 Kashima Antlers        [OT]          42,258 
  [Takafumi Hori 64, Masayuki Okano 84 - ? (U) 26 og, 
   Atsushi Yanagisawa 59, 92] 
Yokohama Marinos      0-1 Kashiwa Reysol                        6,773 
  [Nozomu Kato 14] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-3 Gamba Osaka                           3,847 
  [Hiroshi Noguchi 74 – Hiromi Kojima 12, Claude Dambury 39, 
   Anto Drobnjak 55] 

Round 13 [Oct 24]
Yokohama Flugels      2-3 Kyoto Purple Sanga                    8,160 
  [Igor Ledyakhov 46, Hideki Nagai 83 – Naoto Otake 64, 
   Takahiro Yamada 65, Silas 85] 
Cerezo Osaka          2-0 JEF United Ichihara                   6,775 
  [Takayuki Yokoyama 35, Hiroaki Morishima 66] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   2-3 Vissel Kobe                           5,748 
  [Tony Popovic 54, Hayden Foxe 58 – Keiji Kaimoto 23, 
   Kim Do-Hoon 26, Yuta Abe 50] 
Avispa Fukuoka        2-1 Verdy Kawasaki                        9,540 
  [Atsuhiro Iwai 85, Chikara Fujimoto 88 – Fernando 81] 
Consadole Sapporo     1-6 Jubilo Iwata                         19,739 
  [Kenji Kikawada 84 – Masashi Nakayama 19, Toshiya Fujita 25, 57, 
   Dunga 30, Makoto Tanaka 59, Daisuke Oku 86] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       3-0 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   10,085 
  [Alessandro Santos 60, Fernando Oliva 68, 71] 
Kashima Antlers       1-0 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 15,026 
  [Yutaka Akita 65] 
Kashiwa Reysol        2-0 Urawa Red Diamonds                   26,021 
  [Bentinho 24, Basilio 67] 
Gamba Osaka           1-4 Yokohama Marinos                     10,486 
  [Hiromi Kojima 59 – Shoji Jo 20, 31, Sotaro Yasunaga 60, 
   Fumitake Miura 68] 

Round 14 [Oct 31]
Yokohama Flugels      7-0 Cerezo Osaka                         14,234 
  [Takayuki Yoshida 9, 19, 41, Motohiro Yamaguchi 25, 
   Hideki Nagai 31, 71, ? (C) 68 og] 
JEF United Ichihara   0-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima    [OT, 6-5 pen]  3,713 
Vissel Kobe           2-1 Avispa Fukuoka                        7,763 
  [Kim Do-Hoon 72, 84 pen – Kiyokazu Kudo 59] 
Verdy Kawasaki        1-2 Consadole Sapporo                     6,263 
  [Fernando 45 pen - Jorge Dely Valdés 51 pen, 83] 
Jubilo Iwata          1-0 Shimizu S-Pulse                      17,337 
  [Masashi Nakayama 47 pen] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    0-2 Kashima Antlers                       9,475 
  [Mazinho 16, Yutaka Akita 41] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  4-2 Kashiwa Reysol                        8,543 
  [Kenji Fukuda 6, Dragan Stojković 53, Tetsuya Okayama 62, 74 – 
   Hristo Stoichkov 8, Shigenori Hagimura 21] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    1-0 Gamba Osaka                          17,927 
  [Masayuki Okano 75] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    2-1 Yokohama Marinos                     10,219 
  [Silas 3, Hisashi Kurosaki 77 – Shoji Jo 9]  

Round 15 [Nov 3]
Consadole Sapporo     3-0 Vissel Kobe                          12,154 
  [Kota Yoshihara 21, Jorge Dely Valdés 42, Shin Tanada 90] 
Kashima Antlers       1-0 Jubilo Iwata                         16,803 
  [Mazinho 44] 
Kashiwa Reysol        1-3 Bellmare Hiratsuka                    7,748 
  [Bentinho 44 – Keisuke Kurihara 12, Ricardinho 46, 90] 
Yokohama Marinos      3-2 Urawa Red Diamonds                   41,786 
  [Shoji Jo 86, 90, Akihiro Endo 90+ - Shinji Ono 68, 
   Masahiro Fukuda 78] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       0-0 Verdy Kawasaki         [OT, 4-2 pen] 14,070 
Gamba Osaka           2-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight                  6,933 
  [Hiromi Kojima 43, 45 – Takashi Hirano 34, 65, 82] 
Cerezo Osaka          1-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga                   10,012 
  [Hwang Sun-Hong 79 – Takehito Suzuki 37, Edmilson 82] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   1-2 Yokohama Flugels                      9,015 
  [Tetsuya Ito 90 – Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 38, Igor Ledyakhov 40] 
Avispa Fukuoka        2-1 JEF United Ichihara                   5,738 
  [Yusaku Ueno 36, Fernando 68 – Shinji Murai 25] 

Round 16 [Nov 7]
Verdy Kawasaki        1-2 Kashima Antlers        [OT]          17,723 
  [Tadashi Nakamura 46 – Atsushi Yanagisawa 7, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 93] 
Jubilo Iwata          4-0 Kashiwa Reysol                       12,555 
  [Toshiya Fujita 11, Dunga 34, Takuma Koga 68, Masashi Nakayama 74] 
Vissel Kobe           3-0 Shimizu S-Pulse                       8,373 
  [Akihiro Nagashima 44, 80, Takuya Jinno 54] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga    1-3 Urawa Red Diamonds                   10,787 
  [Masaki Ogawa 86 – Masahiro Fukuda 19, Shinji Ono 29, 
   Aitor Begiristain 76] 
Yokohama Flugels      2-1 Avispa Fukuoka                       13,156 
  [Koji Maeda 29, Jin Sato 59 – Yoshihiro Nishida 45] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight  3-2 Yokohama Marinos       [OT]          22,533 
  [? (Y) 33 og, Dragan Stojković 90, 118 pen – Shoji Jo 45, 77] 
JEF United Ichihara   1-3 Consadole Sapporo                     3,287 
  [Ryohei Nishiwaki 16 - Jorge Dely Valdés 37, Kota Yoshihara 45, 
   Shin Tanada 80] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka    2-1 Gamba Osaka                           5,884 
  [Ricardinho 10, Keisuke Kurihara 49 – Hiromi Kojima 6] 
Cerezo Osaka          0-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima                   6,793 
  [Aurelio Vidmar 28] 

Round 17 [Nov 14]
Consadole Sapporo     1-4 Yokohama Flugels                     15,172 
  [Shin Tanada 41 – Takayuki Yoshida 24, 47, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 71, 
   Igor Ledyakhov 75] 
Kashima Antlers       4-1 Vissel Kobe                          16,944 
  [Jorginho 3, Atsushi Yanagisawa 7, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 12, 53 – 
   Kim Do-Hoon 66] 
Kashiwa Reysol        2-1 Verdy Kawasaki                       12,359 
  [Bentinho 39, Hideaki Kitajima 81 – Fernando 26] 
Urawa Red Diamonds    2-1 Nagoya Grampus Eight                 20,107 
  [Kenji Oshiba 17, Aitor Begiristain 73 – Kenji Fukuda 49] 
Yokohama Marinos      4-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka                   23,413 
  [Shoji Jo 15, Shunsuke Nakamura 54, 68, 85 – Wagner Lopes 30, 
   Keisuke Kurihara 58] 
Shimizu S-Pulse       4-1 JEF United Ichihara                  15,108 
  [Alessandro Santos 24, 28, 86, Daisuke Ichikawa 89 - ? (S) 50 og] 
Gamba Osaka           4-5 Jubilo Iwata                         18,890 
  [Hiromi Kojima 13, 45, Naoki Hiraoka 25, Hitoshi Morishita 41 – 
   Dunga 20, Toshiya Fujita 44, 59, Masashi Nakayama 58, 88] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima   1-2 Kyoto Purple Sanga     [OT]           8,929 
  [Tony Popovic 42 – Shinya Mitsuoka 50, Teruo Iwamoto 109] 
Avispa Fukuoka        0-2 Cerezo Osaka                          8,940 
  [Hwang Sun-Hong 57, 60] 

Table:
                               W/OT DW/DL L/OT
 1.Kashima Antlers         17  12/3  0/0  2/0  38-15 42
 2.Jubilo Iwata            17  13/0  0/0  3/1  55-21 39
 3.Urawa Red Diamonds      17  11/0  0/0  4/2  32-17 33
 4.Yokohama Marinos        17  10/1  0/0  3/3  40-27 32
 5.Shimizu S-Pulse         17   8/3  1/1  4/0  39-21 31
 6.Nagoya Grampus Eight    17   9/1  1/0  5/1  34-26 30
 7.Yokohama Flugels        17   8/0  1/0  8/0  37-32 25
 8.Kashiwa Reysol          17   8/0  1/1  6/1  24-26 25
 9.Sanfrecce Hiroshima     17   7/1  1/1  6/1  23-19 24
10.Consadole Sapporo       17   8/0  0/1  7/1  29-30 24
11.Kyoto Purple Sanga      17   6/2  1/0  8/0  27-30 23
12.Bellmare Hiratsuka      17   7/0  1/0  9/0  26-32 22
13.Cerezo Osaka            17   7/0  0/1  9/0  20-32 21
14.Vissel Kobe             17   5/0  1/0 10/1  25-41 16
15.Avispa Fukuoka          17   4/1  0/0 12/0  11-38 14
16.Gamba Osaka             17   3/2  0/1 11/0  20-32 13
17.Verdy Kawasaki          17   3/0  0/1 12/1  13-28  9
18.JEF United Ichihara     17   1/0  1/1 12/2  18-44  4

NB: at the end of the season Yokohama Marinos (former Nissan) will
    merge with Yokohama Flugels (former ANA).


Championship Playoff

First Leg [Nov 21]
Jubilo Iwata          1-2 Kashima Antlers        [OT]      40,263 
  [Masashi Nakayama 8 – Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 73, Ichiei Muroi 111] 

Second Leg [Nov 28]
Kashima Antlers       2-1 Jubilo Iwata                     16,991 
  [Yutaka Akita 40, Bismarck 42 – Toshiya Fujita 85] 

Kashima Antlers champions 1998.

Top scorers: 

 1.NAKAYAMA Masashi (Jubilo Iwata)                       36 
 2.JO Shoji (Yokohama Marinos)                           25 
 3.YANAGISAWA Atsushi (Kashima Antlers)                  22 
 4.Jorge DELY VALDÉS (Consadole Sapporo)                 21  [Panama] 
   Fernando OLIVA (Shimizu S-Pulse)                      21  [Argentina] 
 6.LOPES Wagner (Bellmare Hiratsuka)                     18 
   MORISHIMA Hiroaki (Cerezo Osaka)                      18 
 8.FUJITA Toshiya (Jubilo Iwata)                         17 
   KIM Do-Hoon (Vissel Kobe)                             17  [South Korea] 
   KOJIMA Hiromi (Gamba Osaka)                           17 
11.FUKUDA Kenji (Nagoya Grampus Eight)                   16 
12.Igor LEDYAKHOV (Yokohama Flugels)                     15  [Russia] 
13.HASEGAWA Yoshiyuki (Kashima Antlers)                  14 
   OKAYAMA Tetsuya (Nagoya Grampus Eight)                14 
   OSHIBA Kenji (Urawa Red Diamonds)                     14 
16.Antônio Bento dos Santos ‘BENTINHO’ (Kashiwa Reysol)  13  [Brazil]
   KUROSAKI Hisashi (Kyoto Purple Sanga)                 13 
   Julio SALINAS (Yokohama Marinos)                      13  [Spain] 
   TAKEDA Nobuhiro (JEF United Ichihara)                 13 



Promotion/Relegation Playoffs
=============================

Round 1 [Nov 19]
Avispa Fukuoka        3-2 Kawasaki Frontale      [OT]      12,535 
  [Kiyokazu Kudo 25, Yoshiteru Yamashita 90, Fernando 105 – 
   Akira Ito 18, Tuto 62] 

Kawasaki Frontale remain at second level (J-League 2nd division in 1999).

Round 2

First Legs [Nov 22]
Avispa Fukuoka        0-2 JEF United Ichihara              12,300 
  [Nobuhiro Takeda 66, Arnold Scholten 77] 
Vissel Kobe           2-1 Consadole Sapporo                14,613 
  [Akihiro Nagashima 35, Keiji Kaimoto 42 – Shin Tanada 51] 

Second Legs [Nov 26]
JEF United Ichihara   2-1 Avispa Fukuoka                   10,703 
  [Takayuki Suzuki 50, Tomoyuki Sakai 61 – Hideaki Mori 64] 
Consadole Sapporo     0-2 Vissel Kobe                       4,525 
  [Albert Tomas 49, Mitsutoshi Watada 90] 

JEF United Ichihara and Vissel Kobe remain at first level.

Round 3

First Leg [Dec 2]
Avispa Fukuoka        1-0 Consadole Sapporo                12,526 
  [Yusaku Ueno 62] 

Second Leg [Dec 5]
Consadole Sapporo     0-3 Avispa Fukuoka                    8,372 
  [Yusaku Ueno 54, Fernando 85, Kiyotaka Ishimaru 90] 

Consadole Sapporo relegated, Avispa Fukuoka remain at first level.

No teams were promoted (Kawasaki Frontale failed to gain promotion) and
the J-League will have 16 clubs in 1999 (after the merger of the Yokohama
teams).



Japan Cup (Emperor's Cup) 1998
==============================

First Round [Nov 29]
Omiya Ardija                1-0  TDK Akita                          2,157 
  [Taisuke Hiramoto 55] 
Mitsubishi HI Nagasaki      0-4  Chuo University                    1,003 
  [Nishikawa 27, 29, 56, Ota 90 pen] 
FC Primeiro                 1-0  Nihon Univ. Yamagata HS              453 
  [Koji Nakamura 20] 
Gifu Technical HS           1-2  Kagoshima Jitsugyo HS                887 
  [Tanaka 45 – Morita 56, Kubo 90] 
Kawasoe Club                0-6  Ventforet Kofu                       750 
  [Baron 5, 73, Makoto Kaneko 11, Katsutomo Oshiba 48, 77, 
   Susumu Watanabe 71] 
Nippon Steel Oita           1-3  Dohto University                     971 
  [Mieno 63 – Inoue 65, Naoki Mori 68, Tsutomu Kitade 87] 
Juntendo University         0-1  Vortis Tokushima                     702 
  [Kazushi Isoyama 12] 
Miwa Club                   1-4  Tokushima Mun HS                     879 
  [Maedomari 1 – Yamashita 56, Yamagawa 65, Kondo 85, Yoichi Mori 90 pen] 
Matsushita Electric Iga     0-5  Denso                              1,100 
  [Toshihiro Nishimura 16, Yukinobu Yanagisawa 23 pen, 64, 
   Masamichi Iizuka 28, Hideki Takayama 73] 
Maebashi Ikuei HS           0-7 Tsukuba University                  1,100 
  [Onoe 15, 63, Toda 35, 85, Koshiba 45, Watanabe 67, Takaku 76] 
Chukyo University           1-4  Tokyo Gas                            811 
  [Terao 42 – Tomohiro Harada 67, Amaral 68, Hayato Okamoto 87, 
   Tomohiro Hasumi 90] 
Tokai University            0-0  Teyhens FC            [pen 3-0]      525 
Kagawa Shiun Club           1-9  Kawasaki Frontale                  1,672 
  [Sasaki 58 – Valdney 14, 73, Toru Oniki 42, Akira Ito 47, 68, 
   Tuto 52, 70, 76, Naoki Urata 80] 
Niigata Shuyukai            0-2  YKK FC                               711 
  [Kanemaru 49, Tsubota 76] 
Nirasaki Astros             2-3  Brummell Sendai                      518 
  [Anamizu 47, Sakurai 82 - Slobodan Dubajić 33, 53, Satoshi Taira 83] 
Tokuyama University         2-4  Kansai University                    319 
  [Motoki 32, Tokumaru 75 – Yamazaki 53, 73, Sumino 63, Yuichi Kashiwano 89] 
Kwansei Gakuin Univ.        3-2  Shizuoka Sangyo Univ.   [OT]         368 
  [Miyazaki 19, 99, Daisuke Aono 90 pen – Suzuki 16, Aoshima 77] 
Teijin                      0-6  Kokushikan University              1,651 
  [Ishii 13, Suzuki 21, 49, Jo Kanazawa 67, Hideaki Tominaga 77 pen, 87] 
Iwami FC                    1-9  Montedio Yamagata                  1,138 
  [Ishikawa 5 – Taketo Shiokawa 4, Yukihiko Sato 12, 29, 65, ? (I) 38 og, 
   Kenji Takahashi 74, Sidiclei 79, 90, Hiroki Iizuka 80] 
Meiji University            5-0  Nippon Steel Kamaishi                726 
  [Miyazawa 44, 54, Yu Hoshide 52, Takeshi Ushibana 67, Kai 73] 
Tenri University            2-3  Honda Giken Hamamatsu                405 
  [Ota 44, Kondo 78 – Marcus 16, 83, Shigeru Suzuki 26] 
Hosho HS                    4-1  Ueda Gientian                        709 
  [Nakayama 13, Kawakami 18, 27, 82 – Narusawa 12] 
Koga Club                   0-9  Oita Trinity                         742 
  [Kazumasa Shimizu 10, 19, 41, 48, 88, Takashi Umeda 40, Norio Murata 45, 
   Iwao Yamane 73, Shizuomi Goto 83] 
Kyushu Sangyo University    1-2  Ritsumeikan University  [OT]         295 
  [Sakamoto 69 – Onishi 79, Yoshimura 104] 
Kyoiku Kenkyusha            0-4  Albirex Niigata                      542 
  [Michael Pao 12, Masatoshi Hara 53, Ignace Moleka 55, Hirokazu Ota 86] 
Hannan University           3-2  Hatsushiba Hashimoto HS [OT]         665 
  [Kanagawa 20, Ryuji Nakano 49, Kawamura 105 – Kokubu 50, Horiguchi 90] 
SC Tottori                  0-3  Sagan Tosu                           746 
  [Shin Nakamura 55, Koichiro Katafuchi 71, Kosei Kitauchi 72] 
Tochigi SC                  3-2  Otsu HS                 [OT]         978 
  [Mashiko 39, Machida 90, Hishinuma 107 – Harada 37, Yoshikita 90] 
Fukuyama University         2-2  Fukui Teachers SC       [pen 4-3]  1,712 
  [Okuhara 39, Otsubo 77 – Hattori 27, Okura 66] 
Sony Sendai                 2-1  Aster Aomori                       1,011 
  [Hidenori Tabata 52 pen, Naoki Naruo 77 – Ota 61] 
Mito Hollyhock              4-2  Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima          737 
  [Jun Mizuno 9, 83, Yuji Ozaki 28, Takayuki Tsuruhashi 87 – 
   Suzuki 5, Morishita 68] 
Himawari Milk Nangoku       2-7  Komazawa University                1,557 
  [Nakamura 20, Ogawa 56 – Kobayashi 14 pen, 78, Kurao 19, 39, 76, 
   Kohei Morita 40, Toyoda 82] 

Second Round 
[Dec 6]
Omiya Ardija                2-0  Chuo University                    1,868 
  [Jeroen Boere 72, Taisuke Hiramoto 74] 
Kagoshima Jitsugyo HS       0-7  Vissel Kobe                        1,476 
  [Takanori Nunobe 18, Takuya Jinno 66, Akihiro Nagashima 68, 70, 
   Kim Do-Hoon 74, 85, Ha Seok-Ju 84] 
Ventforet Kofu              6-1  Dohto University                     932 
  [Baron 25, 27, 48, 69, Masahiro Shimmyo 37, ? (D) 57 og – Nakai 26] 
Vortis Tokushima            4-2  Tokushima Mun HS                     807 
  [Takahiro Kawaji 7, Kazushi Isoyama 27, Yoshiyuki Yokose 58, 
   Akira Oba 75 – Kondo 5, Ichimura 89] 
Denso                       1-3  Tsukuba University                   378 
  [Toshihiro Nishimura 87 – Toda 51, 71, Kasahara 60] 
Tokyo Gas                   2-0  Tokai University                   1,632 
  [Hiroki Shinjo 34, 48] 
Kawasaki Frontale           1-0  YKK FC                             1,885 
  [Tatsuru Mukojima 79] 
Brummell Sendai             2-1  Kansai University                  3,032 
  [Koji Nakajima 37, Yoshinori Abe 88 – Nakamura 31] 
Kwansei Gakuin Univ.        3-1  Kokushikan University                362 
  [Takeshi Kajii 9, 56, Miyazaki 30 – Nobumitsu Yamane 40] 
Montedio Yamagata           1-0  Meiji University                     450 
  [Marquinho 44] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu       4-0  Hosho HS                             890 
  [Takayoshi Amma 77 pen, 90 pen, Hirohito Nakamura 86, Shigeru Suzuki 90+] 
Oita Trinity                2-1  Ritsumeikan University               483 
  [Takashi Umeda 32, Iwao Yamane 80 – Onishi 45] 
Albirex Niigata             3-1  Hannan University                  1,153 
  [Shinichi Fujita 17, Takamichi Kobayashi 56, Ignace Moleka 84 – 
   Ryuji Nakano 64] 
Sagan Tosu                  4-0  Tochigi SC                         1,757 
  [Rikiya Kawamae 35, Omi Sato 57, Kosei Kitauchi 83, Koichi Sekimoto 90] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga          9-0  Fukuyama University                1,186 
  [Edmilson 1, Hisashi Kurosaki 11, 21, 53, 62, Shinya Mitsuoka 14, 
   Silas 17, Hiroyasu Kawakatsu 87, 90] 
Mito Hollyhock              4-3  Komazawa University                  827 
  [Mitsuo Urashima 3, 20, 25, Yuji Ozaki 43 – Kurao 80, Kohei Morita 85, 
   ? (M) 90 og] 
[Dec 9]
Consadole Sapporo           1-0  FC Primeiro                          733 
  [Tomotaka Fukagawa 71] 
Sony Sendai                 0-5  Avispa Fukuoka                     1,135 
  [Yoshihiro Nishida 16, Takayuki Nishigaya 47, Yuji Okuma 66, 
   Fernando 77, Yoshiyuki Shinoda 82] 

Third Round [Dec 13]
Jubilo Iwata                2-0  Omiya Ardija                      11,638 
  [Dedimar 53, 73] 
Vissel Kobe                 1-2  Consadole Sapporo       [OT]       1,471 
  [Shigetoshi Hasebe 71 – Koji Seki 19, Kota Yoshihara 113] 
Cerezo Osaka                4-6  Ventforet Kofu                     1,812 
  [Hiroaki Morishima 10, 24, 72, Takumi Horiike 87 – Baron 26, 32 pen, 
   71, 84, Susumu Watanabe 36, Katsutomo Oshiba 80] 
Yokohama Flugels            4-2  Vortis Tokushima                   2,786 
  [Takayuki Yoshida 8, 41, 62, Hideki Nagai 57 – Almir 36, 
   Kazushi Isoyama 56] 
Tsukuba University          1-3  Kashima Antlers                   13,273 
  [Toda 51 – Masashi Motoyama 25, Mitsuo Ogasawara 34, Mazinho 84] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka          2-1  Tokyo Gas                          4,396 
  [Pavel Badea 68, Keisuke Kurihara 74 – Amaral 37] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima         2-1  Kawasaki Frontale                  2,580 
  [Aurelio Vidmar 14, ? (K) 45 og – Tuto 63] 
Yokohama Marinos            0-1  Brummell Sendai                    6,061 
  [Makoto Segawa 70] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight        3-1  Kwansei Gakuin Univ.               5,030 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 56, 73 pen, Dragan Stojković 67 – Daisuke Aono 90] 
Gamba Osaka                 1-2  Montedio Yamagata                  1,426 
  [Yuji Hironaga 84 – Takashi Shoji 13, 85] 
JEF United Ichihara         0-2  Honda Giken Hamamatsu              2,937 
  [Hirohito Nakamura 32, Marcus 90] 
Verdy Kawasaki              1-0  Oita Trinity                       1,955 
  [Fernando 27 pen] 
Urawa Red Diamonds          4-1  Albirex Niigata                   10,084 
  [Masahiro Fukuda 10, 15, Kenji Oshiba 50, 57 - Ignace Moleka 52] 
Kashiwa Reysol              3-1  Sagan Tosu                         3,213 
  [Naoki Sakai 52, 90, Nozomu Kato 88 – Takashi Uemura 65] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga          2-3  Avispa Fukuoka          [OT]       2,857 
  [Edmilson 32, Shinya Mitsuoka 36 – Kiyotaka Ishimaru 19, 
   Yoshiyuki Shinoda 66, Kiyokazu Kudo 95] 
Shimizu S-Pulse             5-0  Mito Hollyhock                     5,138 
  [Alessandro Santos 21, Carlos Alberto Santos 30, 65, Kohei Hiramatsu 85, 
   Fabinho 90] 

Fourth Round [Dec 20]
Jubilo Iwata                3-2  Consadole Sapporo                 10,100 
  [Masashi Nakayama 41, 47, 65 pen – Koji Seki 58 pen, Shin Tanada 81] 
Ventforet Kofu              0-3  Yokohama Flugels                   3,712 
  [Jin Sato 49, Takayuki Yoshida 55, 80] 
Kashima Antlers             3-0  Bellmare Hiratsuka                 5,853 
  [Bismarck 61, Yasuto Honda 79, Masashi Motoyama 84] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima         3-0  Brummell Sendai                    3,105 
  [Tatsuhiko Kubo 27, 70, Tony Popovic 69] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight        3-2  Montedio Yamagata                  4,043 
  [Tetsuya Okayama 28, Kenji Fukuda 38, 68 – Marquinho 40, Junji Sato 80] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu       1-3  Verdy Kawasaki                     1,797 
  [Hirohito Nakamura 58 – Kazuyoshi Miura 16, Masakazu Senuma 29, 
   Yukio Tsuchiya 64] 
Urawa Red Diamonds          3-1  Kashiwa Reysol                    12,632 
  [Masahiro Fukuda 12, 46, Masayuki Okano 74 – Naoki Sakai 4] 
Shimizu S-Pulse             3-2  Avispa Fukuoka                     5,789 
  [Kenta Hasegawa 1, 77, Masaaki Sawanobori 58 – Kiyokazu Kudo 55, 
   Yoshiyuki Shinoda 90] 

Quarterfinals [Dec 23]
Jubilo Iwata                1-2  Yokohama Flugels                  12,336 
  [Masashi Nakayama 72 – Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 7, Takayuki Yoshida 78] 
Kashima Antlers             2-1  Sanfrecce Hiroshima     [OT]      18,235 
  [Masashi Motoyama 78, Ichiei Muroi 99 – Yasuhiro Yoshida 65]    
Nagoya Grampus Eight        2-1  Verdy Kawasaki          [OT]       5,233 
  [? (V) 90 og, Koji Noguchi 100 – Kazuyoshi Miura 5]  
Urawa Red Diamonds          0-1  Shimizu S-Pulse                    8,033 
  [Masaaki Sawanobori 61]         

Semifinals [Dec 27]

Yokohama Flugels       - Kashima Antlers        1- 0           20,315
  [Hideki Nagai 4]  
At Osaka Nagai Stadium.

Nagoya Grampus Eight   - Shimizu S-Pulse        1- 2    (OT)   20,619
  [Takafumi Ogura 84 – Fabinho 11, Alessandro Santos 101] 
At Yokohama Int'l Stadium.


Final [Jan 1]

Yokohama Flugels       - Shimizu S-Pulse        2- 1           50,304
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  [Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 45+, Takayuki Yoshida 84 – Masaaki Sawanobori 14] 
At Tokyo National Stadium, 13:00.
Referee: Okada, Asst-Refs: Hiroshima, Kamiara.
Flugels - GK Narazaki, DF J.Satou, Harada, Maeda, MF Hato, Sampaio,
 Yamaguchi, Miura, Nagai, FW Yoshida, Kuboyama.
 Subs: Anderson (h2-38 for Yoshida).
 Bench: GK H.Satou, MF K.Satou, FW Ujiie, Ooshima.
 Cards: Yamaguchi.
S-Pulse - GK Sanada, DF Morioka, Saitou, Toda, MF Andou, Santos, Itou,
 Ichikawa, Sawanobori, FW Hasegawa, Fabinho.
 Subs: Alex (h2-15 for Hasegawa), Ooenoki (h2-31 for Santos),
 Hiramatsu (h2-44 for Ooenoki).
 Bench: GK Nakahara, DF Nishizawa.



Super Cup Final [Feb 27, 1999]
==============================

Kashima Antlers       2-1  Shimizu S-Pulse
  [Atsushi Yanagisawa 25, Akira Narahashi 69; Masaaki Sawanobori 26]

[S-Pulse replaced Flugels who were merged into Marinos at the end of the
 1998 season.]



Japan League Cup (Nabisco Cup) 1998
===================================

Group A

Round 1 [May 16] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima    1-3 Verdy Kawasaki                   6,429 
  [Tony Popovic 88 – Keisuke Kurihara 19, Yasutoshi Miura 55, 
   Mitsunori Yabuta 76] 
Jubilo Iwata           1-2 Urawa Red Diamonds              11,765 
  [Norihisa Shimizu 65 – Aitor Begiristain 75, 84] 

Round 2 [May 23] 
Urawa Red Diamonds     1-1 Verdy Kawasaki                  17,010 
  [Yasushi Fukunaga 19 – Masakiyo Maezono 51] 
Brummell Sendai        0-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima              4,394 
  [Shinya Kawashima 45] 

Round 3 [May 30] 
Urawa Red Diamonds     6-0 Brummell Sendai                 13,972 
  [Alfred Nijhuis 34, Naoto Sakurai 47, Osamu Hirose 71, 
   Kenji Oshiba 74, 76, Yasushi Fukunaga 78] 
Verdy Kawasaki         1-2 Jubilo Iwata                    14,090 
  [Kosaku Masuda 56 – Toshiya Fujita 64, 90] 

Round 4 [Jun 3] 
Brummell Sendai        2-6 Jubilo Iwata                     4,570 
  [Yoshinori Abe 13, Makoto Segawa 68 – Alessandro Cambalhota 33, 
   Takashi Fukunishi 34, Norihisa Shimizu 36, Naohiro Takahara 74, 
   90, Adilson 79] 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima    1-1 Urawa Red Diamonds               4,594 
  [Makoto Okubo 28 – Kenji Oshiba 60] 

Round 5 [Jun 6] 
Verdy Kawasaki         1-0 Brummell Sendai                  6,578 
  [Atsushi Yoneyama 39] 
Jubilo Iwata           3-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima              8,023 
  [Toshiya Fujita 9, Daisuke Oku 17, Nobuo Kawaguchi 89] 

 1.Jubilo Iwata            4     3    0    1    12-  5    7     9  Qualified
 2.Urawa Red Diamonds      4     2    2    0    10-  3    7     8
 3.Verdy Kawasaki          4     2    1    1     6-  4    2     7
 4.Sanfrecce Hiroshima     4     1    1    2     3-  7   -4     4
 5.Brummell Sendai         4     0    0    4     2- 14  -12     0

Group B

Round 1 [May 16] 
Kashima Antlers        3-0 Avispa Fukuoka                  14,665 
  [Naruyuki Naito 10, Yasuo Manaka 54, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 86] 
Cerezo Osaka           2-3 Kashiwa Reysol                   3,896 
  [Radivoje Manić 12, 31 – Nozomu Kato 13, 87, Duda 41] 

Round 2 [May 23] 
Yokohama Marinos       2-0 Cerezo Osaka                     6,381 
  [Julio César Baldivieso 13, Kazunari Okayama 88] 
Avispa Fukuoka         2-3 Kashiwa Reysol                   5,491 
  [Michael Obiku 2, 37 – Nozomu Kato 57, 72, Basilio 82] 

Round 3 [May 30] 
Kashiwa Reysol         1-1 Kashima Antlers                 10,031 
  [Nozomu Kato 56 – Jorginho 62] 
Avispa Fukuoka         4-2 Yokohama Marinos                 7,015 
  [Takayuki Nishigaya 67, Yusaku Ueno 78, Kiyotaka Ishimaru 80, 
   Fernando 90 – Julio Salinas 3, Naoki Matsuda 54] 

Round 4 [Jun 3] 
Yokohama Marinos       1-2 Kashima Antlers                  5,510 
  [? (K) 21 og – Tadatoshi Masuda 69, 75] 
Cerezo Osaka           1-1 Avispa Fukuoka                   4,546 
  [Akira Kaji 60 – Kiyotaka Ishimaru 6] 

Round 5 [Jun 6] 
Kashima Antlers        5-2 Cerezo Osaka                    14,405 
  [Yoshiro Nakamura 25, Mazinho 47, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 71, 74, 
   ? (C) 83 og – Akinori Nishizawa 26, Masaru Hashiguchi 76] 
Kashiwa Reysol         5-2 Yokohama Marinos                 5,563 
  [Tomokazu Myojin 16, Basilio 45, 83, Duda 48, Nozomu Kato 75 – 
   Kazunari Okayama 86, Shunsuke Nakamura 90] 

 1.Kashima Antlers         4     3    1    0    11-  4    7    10  Qualified
 2.Kashiwa Reysol          4     3    1    0    12-  7    5    10
 3.Avispa Fukuoka          4     1    1    2     7-  9   -2     4
 4.Yokohama Marinos        4     1    0    3     7- 11   -4     3
 5.Cerezo Osaka            4     0    1    3     5- 11   -6     1

Group C

Round 1 [May 16] 
Yokohama Flugels       0-2 Gamba Osaka                      4,637 
  [Hiromi Kojima 43, Hitoshi Morishita 77] 
Shimizu S-Pulse        2-0 Consadole Sapporo                8,781 
  [Carlos Alberto Santos 64, Yuzo Wada 90] 

Round 2 [May 23] 
Gamba Osaka            5-2 Consadole Sapporo                3,410 
  [Ryuji Bando 12, Amir Karić 50, Hiromi Kojima 60, 81, 
   Yuzo Funakoshi 90 – Kenji Arima 83, Jorge Dely Valdés 90] 
Kawasaki Frontale      0-1 Shimizu S-Pulse                  6,163 
  [Fabinho 67] 

Round 3 [May 30] 
Consadole Sapporo      3-2 Yokohama Flugels                 3,352 
  [Kota Yoshihara 38, Hugo Maradona 55, Tsuyoshi Furukawa 74 – 
   Igor Ledyakhov 32, Atsuhiro Miura 73] 
Gamba Osaka            0-2 Kawasaki Frontale                3,261 
  [Betinho 52, Valdney 57] 

Round 4 [Jun 3] 
Kawasaki Frontale      0-1 Yokohama Flugels                 3,103 
  [Atsuhiro Miura 76] 
Shimizu S-Pulse        2-0 Gamba Osaka                     11,368 
  [Masahiro Ando 75, Masaaki Sawanobori 86] 

Round 5 [Jun6] 
Consadole Sapporo      0-2 Kawasaki Frontale                4,093 
  [Naoki Urata 13, 24] 
Yokohama Flugels       2-3 Shimizu S-Pulse                  5,116 
  [Haruki Seto 20, Takayuki Yoshida 73 – Fabinho 13, 32, 
   Masaaki Sawanobori 48] 

 1.Shimizu S-Pulse         4     4    0    0     8-  2    6    12  Qualified
 2.Gamba Osaka             4     2    0    2     7-  6    1     6
 3.Kawasaki Frontale       4     2    0    2     4-  2    2     6
 4.Yokohama Flugels        4     1    0    3     5-  8   -3     3
 5.Consadole Sapporo       4     1    0    3     5- 11   -6     3
 
Group D

Round 1 [May 16] 
JEF United Ichihara    3-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka               3,003 
  [Nobuhiro Takeda 41, Shinichi Muto 53, Tomoyuki Sakai 56 – 
   Daisuke Tonoike 64, 83] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight   1-1 Vissel Kobe                      5,467 
  [Kunihiko Takizawa 36 – Koji Yoshimura 59] 

Round 2 [May 23] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga     3-3 JEF United Ichihara              5,621 
  [Hisashi Kurosaki 26, 46, ? (J) 60 og – Satoshi Yamaguchi 21, 
   Nozomi Hiroyama 34, 71] 
Vissel Kobe            0-2 Bellmare Hiratsuka               6,344 
  [Hiroshi Sakai 40, Tomoaki Matsukawa 74] 

Round 3 [May 30] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka     1-3 Nagoya Grampus Eight             4,746 
  [Claudio 45 – Tetsuya Okayama 41, Suguru Ito 65, 
   Koji Noguchi 90] 
Vissel Kobe            3-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga               3,010 
  [Mitsutoshi Watada 19, 46, Akihiro Nagashima 29 – 
   Teruo Iwamoto 56] 

Round 4 [Jun 3] 
JEF United Ichihara    4-1 Vissel Kobe                      1,745 
  [Kim Dae-Eui 32, Nenad Maslovar 36, Yoshikazu Nonomura 74, 
   Arnold Scholten 78 – Albert Tomas 37] 
Kyoto Purple Sanga     1-2 Nagoya Grampus Eight             5,043 
  [Edmilson 37 – Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 45, Valdo 48] 

Round 5 [Jun 6] 
Bellmare Hiratsuka     1-1 Kyoto Purple Sanga               4,064 
  [Tomoaki Matsukawa 51 – Hisashi Kurosaki 20] 
Nagoya Grampus Eight   1-4 JEF United Ichihara              6,317 
  [Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 18 – Nenad Maslovar 22, 86, 
   Arnold Scholten 65, Nobuhiro Takeda 80] 

 1.JEF United Ichihara     4     3    1    0    14-  7    7    10  Qualified
 2.Nagoya Grampus Eight    4     2    1    1     7-  7    0     7
 3.Bellmare Hiratsuka      4     1    1    2     6-  7   -1     4
 4.Vissel Kobe             4     1    1    2     5-  8   -3     4
 5.Kyoto Purple Sanga      4     0    2    2     6-  9   -3     2

Semi-Finals [Jul 15]
Shimizu S-Pulse       0-2 Jubilo Iwata                     14,863 
  [Toshiya Fujita 54, Naohiro Takahara 74] 
JEF United Ichihara   3-2 Kashima Antlers                  10,794 
  [Nenad Maslovar 8, 37, 43 – Tadatoshi Masuda 25, Mazinho 49] 

Final [Jul 19, Tokyo National Stadium]
Jubilo Iwata          4-0 JEF United Ichihara              41,718 
  [Nobuo Kawaguchi 52, 81, Daisuke Oku 73, Naohiro Takahara 88] 



JFL 1998
========

NB: changes before season: Consadole Sapporo promoted to J-League 1998;
                           Fukushima FC and Seinoh Transports disbanded;
                           NTT Kanto renamed to Omiya Ardija,;
                           Sony Sendai and Albirex Niigata promoted to JFL;
                           Kokushikan University admitted to JFL.

JFL 1998 Final Table:

Pos Team                  Gm Wn(OT/PK) Ls(OT/PK)  GF- GA Diff Pnt
 1.Tokyo Gas              30 24( 3/ 0)  6( 1/ 0)  67- 17   50  69
 2.Kawasaki Frontale      30 23( 1/ 0)  7( 2/ 0)  72- 24   48  68
 3.Montedio Yamagata      30 22( 2/ 0)  8( 2/ 1)  69- 38   31  64
 4.Ventforet Kofu         30 22( 5/ 1)  8( 1/ 0)  74- 40   34  59
 5.Honda Giken Hamamatsu  30 19( 3/ 0) 11( 2/ 0)  57- 45   12  54
 6.Oita Trinity           30 16( 1/ 1) 14( 3/ 1)  51- 51    0  45
 7.Brummell Sendai        30 18( 5/ 3) 12         55- 53    2  43
 8.Sagan Tosu             30 14( 3/ 0) 16( 5/ 0)  40- 55  -15  39
 9.Vortis Tokushima       30 14( 2/ 1) 16( 2/ 1)  58- 48   10  38
10.Denso                  30 14( 2/ 1) 16( 1/ 0)  48- 59  -11  38
11.Albirex Niigata        30 12( 2/ 0) 18( 2/ 0)  39- 47   -8  34
12.Omiya Ardija           30 11( 2/ 0) 19( 6/ 1)  51- 56   -5  31
13.Sony Sendai            30  8( 1/ 0) 22( 7/ 0)  42- 71  -29  23
14.Mito Hollyhock         30  8( 1/ 0) 22( 3/ 1)  37- 69  -32  23
15.Kokushikan University  30  8( 3/ 0) 22( 1/ 1)  42- 76  -34  21
16.Jatco                  30  7( 3/ 0) 23( 1/ 1)  44- 97  -53  18

Round 1 (Sunday 5 April 1998)
Tokyo Gas              - Kokushikan University   3- 0            1,772
  [Takashi Okuhara 14, Kensuke Kagami 65, Hayato Okamoto 84] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Albirex Niigata         2- 0            5,871
  [Valdney 74, 84] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Sony Sendai             3- 4   (OT)       868
  [Hiroyuki Yoshida 54, Marcus 57, Douglas 62 – 
   Tomotsuna Kobayashi 65, 117, Kenji Abe 77, Naoki Naruo 83] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Jatco                   2- 2  (4-3)     1,725
  [Tsuneki Sumiya 38, Susumu Watanabe 78 – Yasuhiko Niimura 5, 
   Shozo Morino 90] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Denso                   1- 1  (4-5)       430
  [Yoshiyuki Yokose 45 – Takaaki Tokushige 51] 
Brummell Sendai        - Oita Trinity            1- 0   (OT)     3,612
  [Kazuo Echigo 92] 
Omiya Ardija           - Sagan Tosu              0- 2            5,684
  [Yuji Hashimoto 17, Masato Koga 55] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Montedio Yamagata       0- 3            2,008
  [Yukihiko Sato 19, Kenji Takahashi 35, Takashi Shoji 76] 

Round 2 (11 and 12 April 1998)
(Saturday 11 April)
Denso                  - Ventforet Kofu          1- 2              298
  [Kunio Kitamura 58 – Baron 45, Kenji Nakada 76] 
(Sunday 12 April)
Sagan Tosu             - Brummell Sendai         5- 0            4,423
  [Takashi Uemura 45, Taro Goto 61, Masato Koga 66, 81, 
   Yasuhide Ihara 74] 
Oita Trinity           - Vortis Tokushima        0- 4            2,518
  [Koji Yoshinari 31, 80, Takao Sekiguchi 42, 49] 
Jatco                  - Montedio Yamagata       3- 6            1,238
  [Rikizo Matsuhashi 8, Yasuhiko Niimura 33, Hideki Matsuki 45 – 
   Hiroshi Morishita 10, Daiki Wakamatsu 30, 74, 83, Yukihiko Sato 72, 
   Taketo Shiokawa 79] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   0- 3            1,308
  [Hiroyasu Ibata 28, 60, Marcus 36] 
Sony Sendai            - Kawasaki Frontale       0- 5            2,024
  [Valdney 3, 13, 19, 58, 90] 
Albirex Niigata        - Tokyo Gas               1- 2   (OT)    11,136
  [Michael Obiku 18 – Hayato Okamoto 22, Takashi Okuhara 102] 
Kokushikan University  - Omiya Ardija            0- 2              366
  [Keiji Nakamura 39, Tsuji Ishihara 76] 

Round 3 (15 and 16 April 1998)
(Wednesday 15 April)
Kokushikan University  - Albirex Niigata         2- 1              436
  [Makoto Atsuta 33, 89 pen – Ignace Moleka 82] 
(Thursday 16 April)
Ventforet Kofu         - Oita Trinity            1- 3              357
  [Baron 79 – Nobuhiro Shiba 30, Tsuyoshi Kato 63, Will 86] 
Omiya Ardija           - Brummell Sendai         1- 2            1,857
  [Tsuji Ishihara 62 pen – Makoto Segawa 49, Kazuo Echigo 69 pen] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Sagan Tosu              3- 1              494
  [Yoshiyuki Yokose 22, Ken Kasahara 44, Koji Yoshinari 66 – 
   ? (V) 38 og]   
Tokyo Gas              - Sony Sendai             3- 0              915
  [Hayato Okamoto 58, Amaral 74, 90 pen] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Mito Hollyhock          3- 0            2,155
  [Betinho 68, Valdney 78, 87] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Jatco                   2- 1              574
  [Tomohiro Mori 5, Takayoshi Amma 80 – Nenê 57] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Denso                   4- 2            1,606
  [Yukihiko Sato 18, Taketo Shiokawa 58, Hiroshi Morishita 60, 81 – 
   Takaaki Tokushige 31, Yukinobu Yanagisawa 90 pen] 

Round 4 (19, 20 and 21 April 1998)
(Sunday 19 April)
Mito Hollyhock         - Tokyo Gas               0- 1              878
  [Hayato Okamoto 65] 
Albirex Niigata        - Sony Sendai             2- 1   (OT)     2,117
  [Hirokazu Ota 1h, Michael Obiku 98 – Masayuki Mita 86] 
Brummell Sendai        - Kokushikan University   2- 1            2,876
  [Yoshinori Abe 33, Yasunobu Chiba 64 – Hirokatsu Ueda 57] 
Sagan Tosu             - Ventforet Kofu          1- 0            2,980
  [Hiroshi Moriyasu 11] 
Denso                  - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   0- 1              359
  [Hiroyasu Ibata 20] 
Jatco                  - Kawasaki Frontale       3- 2            1,021
  [Hideki Matsuki (3) – Valdney (2)] 
(Monday 20 April)
Omiya Ardija           - Vortis Tokushima        4- 1            2,043
  [Ryugo Okamoto 10, Taisuke Hiramoto 11, Masato Saito 65, 
   Takayuki Sugiyama 88 – Takao Sekiguchi 53] 
(Tuesday 21 April)
Oita Trinity           - Montedio Yamagata       2- 3   (OT)     1,738
  [Motoki Kawasaki 26, Tsuyoshi Kato 34 – Daiki Wakamatsu 14, 
   Yukihiko Sato 67, 93] 

Round 5 (25 and 26 April 1998)
(Saturday 25 April)
Albirex Niigata        - Mito Hollyhock          2- 1   (OT)     2,289
  [Yuji Kakiuchi 87, Michael Obiku 117 pen – Masayuki Tabata 7] 
Tokyo Gas              - Jatco                   5- 0              738
  [Sandro, Takashi Okuhara, Amaral, Kensuke Kagami (2)] 
(Sunday 26 April)
Montedio Yamagata      - Sagan Tosu              2- 1   (OT)     2,273
  [Takashi Shoji 53, Taketo Shiokawa 96 – Pak Yong-Ho 55] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Omiya Ardija            3- 2   (OT)       783
  [Baron 70, Kazuto Saiki 87, Susumu Watanabe 93 – 
   Satoru Kobayashi 55, Naoki Takizawa 74] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Brummell Sendai         1- 0              580
  [Takahiro Kawaji 78] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Denso                   6- 0            2,421
  [Akira Ito 3, 7, Pessali 13, Valdney 38, 63, 85] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Oita Trinity            2- 1              723
  [Douglas 55, Junya Nitta 69 – Ichizo Nakata 33 pen] 
Sony Sendai            - Kokushikan University   1- 2            1,035
  [Masayuki Mita 28 – Jo Kanazawa 77, Toru Kaburagi 90] 

Round 6 (29 and 30 April 1998)
(Wednesday 29 April)
Brummell Sendai        - Ventforet Kofu          0- 1            3,273
  [Masahiro Shimmyo 66] 
Sagan Tosu             - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   1- 2            5,241
  [Omi Sato 81 – Junya Nitta 22, Douglas 29] 
(Thursday 30 April)
Denso                  - Tokyo Gas               1- 5              248
  [? (T) og – Masamitsu Kobayashi, Amaral (2), Takashi Okuhara, 
   Jun Wada] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Sony Sendai             2- 1   (OT)       528
  [Satoshi Yashiro 38, Yuji Ozaki 101 – Hidenori Tabata 60] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Kokushikan University   5- 3            1,195
  [Ken Kasahara, Takao Sekiguchi (2), Toshiyuki Akimoto (2) – 
   Makoto Atsuta (3; 1 pen)] 
Omiya Ardija           - Montedio Yamagata       0- 2            2,620
  [Masayuki Ota 24, Kenji Takahashi 28] 
Jatco                  - Albirex Niigata         1- 2              643
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 78 – Michael Obiku 43, Masatoshi Hara 74] 
Oita Trinity           - Kawasaki Frontale       0- 1            1,986
  [Momodu Mutairu] 

Round 7 (3 and 4 May 1998)
(Sunday 3 May)
Ventforet Kofu         - Vortis Tokushima        4- 1            1,275
  [Baron 15, Masahiro Shimmyo 24, 28, Mitsunori Yamao 42 – 
   Ryoichi Fukushige 21] 
Albirex Niigata        - Denso                   0- 2            1,634
  [Kunio Kitamura 44, Tatsuya Kobayashi 87] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Omiya Ardija            2- 1              447
  [Junya Nitta 78, Hideo Yoshizawa 90 – Tsuji Ishihara 57] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Brummell Sendai         1- 1  (4-5)     3,509
  [Daiki Wakamatsu 71 - Slobodan Dubajić 51] 
Sony Sendai            - Jatco                   3- 4   (OT)       712
  [Tomotsuna Kobayashi 8, Hidenori Tabata 38, 81 pen – 
   Makoto Iguchi 56, Rikizo Matsuhashi 77, Shozo Morino 83, 100] 
Kokushikan University  - Mito Hollyhock          1- 4              394
  [Toru Kaburagi 90 – Masayuki Tabata 6, 37, Nobuhisa Isono 51, 
   Yuji Ozaki 81] 
(Monday 4 May)
Tokyo Gas              - Oita Trinity            5- 0            1,749
  [Kensuke Kagami, Masamitsu Kobayashi, Tomohiro Hasumi, ? (O) og, 
   Takashi Okuhara] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Sagan Tosu              7- 0            3,561
  [Tomoaki Kuno, Akira Ito, Valdney (4), Momodu Mutairu] 

Round 8 (Thursday 7 May 1998)
Ventforet Kofu         - Kokushikan University   2- 0              486
  [Baron 80, 85] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Montedio Yamagata       0- 1              212
  [Taketo Shiokawa] 
Denso                  - Sony Sendai             3- 0              144
  [Hideki Takayama 73, Tatsuya Kobayashi 74, Hirokazu Hori 78] 
Omiya Ardija           - Kawasaki Frontale       0- 2            2,684
  [Pessali, Momodu Mutairu] 
Jatco                  - Mito Hollyhock          1- 5              349
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 50 – Masashi Miyamura 21, ? (J) 22 og, 
   Mamoru Ohira 55, Masayuki Tabata 60, Akira Fukuda 77] 
Brummell Sendai        - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   0- 1            3,877
  [Hiroyasu Ibata 90] 
Sagan Tosu             - Tokyo Gas               0- 3            2,093
  [Amaral (2), Masamitsu Kobayashi] 
Oita Trinity           - Albirex Niigata         2- 1            1,874
  [Nobuhiro Shiba 28, Takashi Umeda 65 – Kenji Komata 27] 

Round 9 (10, 11 and 12 May 1998)
(Sunday 10 May)
Albirex Niigata        - Sagan Tosu              1- 2            4,821
  [Manabu Sugiyama – Yoshinori Matsuda, Omi Sato] 
Tokyo Gas              - Omiya Ardija            2- 1            1,670
  [Ryuji Fujiyama 41, Angelo 90 – Naoki Takizawa 90] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Brummell Sendai         2- 0            3,413
  [Akira Ito 29, Valdney 81] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Vortis Tokushima        2- 1              625
  [Takayoshi Amma 11, Yusuke Kita 87 – Yoshiyuki Yokose 80] 
Sony Sendai            - Oita Trinity            2- 1            1,026
  [Naoki Naruo 21, 25 – Choi Dae-Shik 71] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Denso                   1- 2              966
  [Masayuki Tabata 72 – Yoshihisa Takaoka 82, Tatsuya Kobayashi 86] 
(Monday 11 May)
Kokushikan University  - Jatco                   3- 2              227
  [Toru Kaburagi 15, 48, 71 – Nenê 61, Ryo Suzuki 90] 
(Tuesday 12 May)
Montedio Yamagata      - Ventforet Kofu          3- 2            1,221
  [Yukihiko Sato 15, Taketo Shiokawa 30, Sidiclei 88 – 
   Baron 39 pen, Masahiro Shimmyo 84] 

Round 10 (Sunday 17 May 1998)
Montedio Yamagata      - Kokushikan University   3- 2            1,686
  [Taketo Shiokawa, Takashi Shoji, Toshihiko Uchiyama – 
   Takashi Takahashi, Makoto Atsuta] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   1- 0              966
  [Baron 40 pen] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Kawasaki Frontale       1- 3              736
  [Takao Sekiguchi 64 – Valdney 69, 87, Yuzuki Ito 78] 
Oita Trinity           - Mito Hollyhock          2- 2  (5-3)     1,843
  [Will 14, Eder 63 – Yuji Ozaki 62, Mamoru Ohira 90] 
Brummell Sendai        - Tokyo Gas               0- 3            5,550
  [Kensuke Kagami 3, 43, Masamitsu Kobayashi 25] 
Omiya Ardija           - Albirex Niigata         2- 0            1,889
  [Taisuke Hiramoto 35, Ryugo Okamoto 2h] 
Sagan Tosu             - Sony Sendai             2- 1   (OT)     3,219
  [Takashi Uemura 42, 109 – Hidenori Tabata 43] 
Denso                  - Jatco                   2- 1              374
  [Toshihiro Nishimura 87, Yukinobu Yanagisawa 90 – Masakazu Saegusa 17] 

Round 11 (18 and 19 July 1998)
(Saturday 18 July)
Mito Hollyhock         - Sagan Tosu              0- 1              836
  [Shinichi Sato 32] 
Tokyo Gas              - Vortis Tokushima        0- 1   (OT)     1,302
  [Kazushi Isoyama 119] 
Brummell Sendai        - Albirex Niigata         0- 2            3,241
  [Ignace Moleka 21, Masatoshi Hara 45] 
Jatco                  - Oita Trinity            1- 2              397
  [Nenê 38 – Motoki Kawasaki 78, Koji Kawai 79] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Montedio Yamagata       1- 3              780
  [Fumiaki Aoshima 74 – Kenji Takahashi 29, Takashi Shoji 52, 
   Yukihiko Sato 66] 
Kokushikan University  - Denso                   0- 2              178
  [Hideki Takayama 36, Tatsuya Kobayashi 40] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Ventforet Kofu          1- 0   (OT)     3,353
  [Tuto 115] 
(Sunday 19 July)
Sony Sendai            - Omiya Ardija            3- 4              819
  [Hidenori Tabata 41, 82, Toru Hanasaka 57 – Akinori Kosaka 35, 49, 
   Masahiro Miyashita 90, 90+] 

Round 12 (Thursday 23 July 1998)
Ventforet Kofu         - Tokyo Gas               2- 1              745
  [Tsuneki Sumiya 42, Baron 55 – Takeshi Motoyoshi 53] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Albirex Niigata         1- 2            1,819
  [Toshiyuki Akimoto – Ignace Moleka, Masatoshi Hara] 
Omiya Ardija           - Mito Hollyhock          3- 0            1,741
  [Naoki Mori 39, Akinori Kosaka 66, Naoki Takizawa 86] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Kokushikan University   5- 1              425
  [Hiroaki Tajima 13, Fumiaki Aoshima 64, 66, 68, Marcus 82 – 
   Makoto Atsuta 80] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Kawasaki Frontale       1- 0            3,874
  [Kenji Takahashi] 
Brummell Sendai        - Sony Sendai             2- 1   (OT)     9,653
  [Yoshinori Abe 45, 102 – Hidenori Tabata 2h] 
Sagan Tosu             - Jatco                   2- 1            5,430
  [Shin Nakamura 46, Omi Sato 78 – Nenê 86] 
Oita Trinity           - Denso                   3- 1            1,983
  [Norio Murata 40, Koji Kawai 88, Motoki Kawasaki 90 – 
   Hideki Takayama 89] 

Round 13 (26 and 28 July 1998)
(Sunday 26 July 1998)
Mito Hollyhock         - Brummell Sendai         2- 1            1,049
  [Yoshiya Takemura 15, Yoshiyuki Takemoto 79 - Slobodan Dubajić 49] 
Sony Sendai            - Vortis Tokushima        1- 3              665
  [Masayoshi Akema 34 – Yoshiyuki Yokose 43, Almir 77, 90] 
Tokyo Gas              - Montedio Yamagata       0- 1            2,068
  [Taketo Shiokawa 77] 
Denso                  - Sagan Tosu              0- 1              589
  [Takashi Uemura] 
Albirex Niigata        - Ventforet Kofu          3- 1            2,379
  [Ignace Moleka 16, Masatoshi Hara 55, Jun Mizukoshi 65 – 
   Tsuneki Sumiya 90] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   0- 1   (OT)     2,794
  [Mitsuru Mukojima 92] 
Jatco                  - Omiya Ardija            3- 2   (OT)       586
  [Nenê 83, 98, Makoto Iguchi 84 – Taisuke Hiramoto 72, 79] 
(Tuesday 28 July)
Kokushikan University  - Oita Trinity            2- 3              163
  [Toru Kaburagi (2) – Will 19, Tsuyoshi Kato 42, Norio Murata 66] 

Round 14 (1 and 2 August 1998)
(Saturday 1 August)
Oita Trinity           - Omiya Ardija            3- 1            1,957
  [Choi Dae-Shik 10, 25, Motoki Kawasaki 90 – Taisuke Hiramoto 67] 
(Sunday 2 August)
Jatco                  - Vortis Tokushima        2- 1              742
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 47, Kazuaki Inoue 68 – Almir 52] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Ventforet Kofu          1- 6              847
  [Masayuki Tabata 42 – Baron 12 pen, 36, 46, Tetsumasa Kimura 31, 
   Susumu Watanabe 70, Tatsuya Ai 90] 
Sony Sendai            - Montedio Yamagata       0- 2            1,209
  [Kenji Takahashi 3, Taketo Shiokawa 86] 
Kokushikan University  - Sagan Tosu              4- 1              352
  [Jo Kanazawa, Naoya Saeki, Toru Kaburagi (2) – Shinichi Sato] 
Tokyo Gas              - Kawasaki Frontale       0- 1            2,171
  [Valdney 54] 
Denso                  - Brummell Sendai         2- 4              494
  [Takaaki Tokushige 62, Tomohiro Ito 84 – Kazuo Echigo 6, 13, 
   Yoshinori Abe 45, Satoshi Taira 66] 
Albirex Niigata        - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   5- 1            1,469
  [? (H) 38 og, Ignace Moleka 44, 60, Michael Obiku 79, 
   Masatoshi Hara 84 – Fumiaki Aoshima 2h] 

Round 15 (7, 8 and 9 August 1998)
(Friday 7 August)
Kawasaki Frontale      - Kokushikan University   1- 0            2,380
  [Valdney 47] 
(Saturday 8 August)
Sony Sendai            - Ventforet Kofu          3- 1              656
  [Hidenori Tabata 3, 20, Tomotsuna Kobayashi 2h – Baron 26] 
(Sunday 9 August)
Vortis Tokushima       - Mito Hollyhock          1- 0              302
  [Kazushi Isoyama 19] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Tokyo Gas               0- 2            1,000
  [Kensuke Kagami 52, Takayuki Nakamaru 69] 
Brummell Sendai        - Jatco                   6- 1            4,206
  [Yoshinori Abe 21, 26, 30, Satoshi Taira 58, Dan Ito 70, 
   Makoto Segawa 86 – Hideki Matsuki 64] 
Sagan Tosu             - Oita Trinity            1- 0            2,298
  [Shin Nakamura] 
Omiya Ardija           - Denso                   3- 4   (OT)     1,456
  [Taisuke Hiramoto 41, Jeroen Boere 2h, Masanari Yamashita 2h – 
   Takaaki Tokushige 83, Tomohiro Ito 85, Hirokazu Iguchi 90, 
   Keisuke Koike 116] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Albirex Niigata         1- 0            4,825
  [Yukihiko Sato] 

Round 16 (Sunday 16 August 1998)
Sony Sendai            - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   2- 1              715
  [Naoki Naruo 47, Kenji Abe 76 – Marcus 45] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Mito Hollyhock          3- 2            2,639
  [Sidiclei 56, Junji Sato 73, Masayuki Ota 81 – 
   Yoshiya Takemura 27, 40] 
Sagan Tosu             - Omiya Ardija            2- 1   (OT)     2,881
  [Masato Koga 83, 93 – Akinori Kosaka 42] 
Oita Trinity           - Brummell Sendai         3- 1            1,881
  [Koji Kawai 74, 77, Choi Dae-Shik 76 – Jun Takata 88] 
Denso                  - Vortis Tokushima        1- 3              421
  [Tomohiro Ito – Kazushi Isoyama (2), Toshiyuki Akimoto] 
Jatco                  - Ventforet Kofu          2- 7              587
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 20, Masakazu Saegusa 80 – Kenji Nakada 44, 
   Mitsunori Yamao 49, Gakuya Horii 51, Tetsumasa Kimura 65, 
   Tatsuya Ai 68, Kazuto Saiki 82, Tsuneki Sumiya 90] 
Albirex Niigata        - Kawasaki Frontale       0- 2            1,335
  [Valdney 53, Akira Ito 71] 
Kokushikan University  - Tokyo Gas               1- 6              569
  [Hideaki Tominaga – Hayato Okamoto (2), Angelo (3), Amaral] 

Round 17 (Thursday 20 August 1998)
Ventforet Kofu         - Brummell Sendai         6- 2              717
  [Susumu Watanabe 7, 32, Masahiro Shimmyo 26, Baron 27, 72, 73 – 
   Slobodan Dubajić 6, Makoto Segawa 90] 
Kokushikan University  - Vortis Tokushima        4- 3              172
  [Makoto Atsuta, ? (V) og, Hideaki Tominaga, Makoto Takeya – 
   Yoshiyuki Yokose, Takao Sekiguchi (2)] 
Tokyo Gas              - Denso                   0- 1            1,850
  [Toshihiro Nishimura 76] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Oita Trinity            1- 2            2,367
  [Hiroki Hattori 6 – Will 21, Choi Dae-Shik 29] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Sagan Tosu              1- 0              477
  [Marcus 19] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Omiya Ardija            3- 1            2,360
  [Taketo Shiokawa 2h, 90, Satoshi Mashimo 90+ - Taisuke Hiramoto 85] 
Sony Sendai            - Mito Hollyhock          1- 0              820
  [Kenji Abe 39] 
Albirex Niigata        - Jatco                   2- 1            1,180
  [Shinichi Fujita 29, Yuji Kakiuchi 90 – Yasuhiko Niimura 3] 

Round 18 (Sunday 23 August 1998)
Vortis Tokushima       - Ventforet Kofu          1- 2              323
  [Yoshiyuki Yokose 17 – Baron 55, Katsutomo Oshiba 78] 
Jatco                  - Sony Sendai             0- 5              577
  [Naoki Naruo 7, 82, Masayuki Mita 22, Yuji Abe 51, 
   Kazutaka Takano 71] 
Brummell Sendai        - Montedio Yamagata       2- 1   (OT)     6,285
  [Yasunobu Chiba 80, Slobodan Dubajić 94 – Yukihiko Sato 51] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Kokushikan University   3- 2              718
  [Nobuhisa Isono 14, Masayuki Tabata 16, Masashi Miyamura 68 – 
   Toru Kaburagi 87, Nobumitsu Yamane 90] 
Sagan Tosu             - Kawasaki Frontale       2- 5            4,059
  [Takashi Uemura, Rikiya Kawamae – Valdney (2), Akira Ito, Tuto (2)] 
Denso                  - Albirex Niigata         3- 0              505
  [Tatsuya Kobayashi 31, 51, 79] 
Omiya Ardija           - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   1- 2   (OT)     1,363
  [Akinori Kosaka 14 – Fumiaki Aoshima 53, Hiroyasu Ibata 96] 
Oita Trinity           - Tokyo Gas               3- 2            1,868
  [Choi Dae-Shik 38, Will 49, Koji Kawai 84 – Hayato Okamoto, Amaral] 

Round 19 (Thursday 27 August 1998)
Mito Hollyhock         - Jatco                   0- 1              279
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 6] 
Tokyo Gas              - Sagan Tosu              2- 0            1,339
  [Hayato Okamoto, Ryuji Fujiyama] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Omiya Ardija            3- 2            6,453
  [Tuto 1h, Akira Ito 47, Valdney 72 – 
   Akinori Kosaka 31, Jeroen Boere 2h] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Brummell Sendai         1- 3              588
  [Douglas 84 – Yoshinori Abe 45, Manabu Nakamura 48, Dan Ito 53] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Vortis Tokushima        1- 0            2,141
  [Daiki Wakamatsu] 
Sony Sendai            - Denso                   0- 1              727
  [Tatsuya Kobayashi] 
Albirex Niigata        - Oita Trinity            0- 1   (OT)     1,165
  [Choi Dae-Shik 99] 
Kokushikan University  - Ventforet Kofu          1- 3              305
  [Kazuyuki Matsuda 84 – Masahiro Shimmyo 39, 56, Tatsuya Ai 42] 

Round 20 (30 August and 1 September 1998)
(Sunday 30 August)
Ventforet Kofu         - Montedio Yamagata       3- 1            1,514
  [Susumu Watanabe 45, 87, Baron 60 – Satoshi Mashimo 16] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   4- 0              355
  [Yoshiyuki Yokose 19, 33, Almir 45, Noriaki Tsutsui 90] 
Brummell Sendai        - Kawasaki Frontale       2- 3            3,777
  [Satoshi Taira 2, 19 – Tuto 7, 43, Valdney 23] 
Denso                  - Mito Hollyhock          3- 4              451
  [Toshihiro Nishimura 20, Takaaki Tokushige 74, Kenji Hirayama 90 – 
   Yoshiya Takemura 13, Yoshifumi Kabakubo 63, Mamoru Ohira 85, 
   Masayuki Tabata 86] 
Sagan Tosu             - Albirex Niigata         1- 0            2,894
  [Yasuhide Ihara] 
Jatco                  - Kokushikan University   1- 2   (OT)       497
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 39 – Hideaki Tominaga 87, Makoto Atsuta 118] 
Omiya Ardija           - Tokyo Gas               0- 3              896
  [Hayato Okamoto 3, Satoru Asari 26, Angelo 35] 
(Tuesday 1 September)
Oita Trinity           - Sony Sendai             1- 3            2,107
  [Will 67 – Naoki Naruo 22, 85, Yuji Abe 30] 

Round 21 (Thursday 17 September 1998)
Mito Hollyhock         - Oita Trinity            1- 3              307
  [Ippei Watanabe 70 – Choi Dae-Shik 28, 37, Koji Kawai 75] 
Kokushikan University  - Montedio Yamagata       1- 4              210
  [Hideaki Tominaga – Yukihiko Sato, Kenji Takahashi, 
   Satoshi Mashimo, Taketo Shiokawa] 
Jatco                  - Denso                   3- 1              429
  [Yasuhiko Niimura (3) – Keisuke Koike] 
Tokyo Gas              - Brummell Sendai         3- 0            1,876
  [Hayato Okamoto 37, Masamitsu Kobayashi 43, Amaral 79] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Vortis Tokushima        1- 0              877
  [Tuto] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Ventforet Kofu          1- 2    (OT)      422
  [Marcus 3 pen – Susumu Watanabe 49, Baron 107] 
Sony Sendai            - Sagan Tosu              2- 3              753
  [Naoki Naruo 55, 58 – Takashi Uemura 10, 74, Omi Sato 85] 
Albirex Niigata        - Omiya Ardija            1- 2            1,280
  [Michael Obiku 14 – Jeroen Boere 9, 76] 

Round 22 (20 and 22 September 1998)
(Sunday 20 September)
Vortis Tokushima       - Tokyo Gas               1- 2    (OT)      508
  [Kazushi Isoyama – Amaral, Masamitsu Kobayashi] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Kawasaki Frontale       2- 3            1,521
  [Baron 47, Masahiro Shimmyo 72 – Akiro Ito 50, Tuto 64, 
   Shinji Otsuka 90] 
Sagan Tosu             - Mito Hollyhock          2- 1            2,486
  [Takashi Uemura 56, 61 – Masayuki Tabata 3] 
Denso                  - Kokushikan University   2- 1              385
  [Yukinobu Yanagisawa 45, Shinya Gempei 54 – Takuro Nishimura] 
Albirex Niigata        - Brummell Sendai         2- 3            1,893
  [Jun Mizukoshi 52, Ignace Moleka 56 – Satoshi Taira 62, 82, 
   Makoto Segawa 66] 
Omiya Ardija           - Sony Sendai             2- 1    (OT)    1,650
  [Taisuke Hiramoto 72, Ken Iwase 120 - ? (O) 56 og] 
Oita Trinity           - Jatco                   5- 1            1,916
  [Toshihiro Yoshimura, Choi Dae-Shik (2), Norio Murata, 
   Takashi Umeda – Yasuhiko Niimura] 
(Tuesday 22 September)
Montedio Yamagata      - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   3- 2            2,052
  [Yukihiko Sato 15, Takashi Shoji 47, Kenji Takahashi 55 – 
   Marcus 32, 90] 

Round 23 (24, 26, 27 and 29 September 1998)
(Thursday 24 September)
Sony Sendai            - Brummell Sendai         1- 3            8,225
  [Naoki Naruo 47 – Yoshinori Abe 3, 9, Slobodan Dubajić 71] 
(Saturday 26 September)
Tokyo Gas              - Ventforet Kofu          2- 1            1,237
  [Angelo 7 pen, Kensuke Kagami 23 – Katsutomo Oshiba 28] 
(Sunday 27 September)
Jatco                  - Sagan Tosu              3- 2    (OT)      382
  [Yoshinori Matsuo, Yasuhiko Niimura (2) – 
   Takashi Uemura, Omi Sato] 
Albirex Niigata        - Vortis Tokushima        2- 1            2,517
  [? (V) og, Takamichi Kobayashi – Akira Oba] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Montedio Yamagata       2- 0            3,553
  [Yasuhiro Nagahashi 18, Akira Ito 64] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Omiya Ardija            3- 1              461
  [Masayuki Tabata 43, Yoshiya Takemura 62 pen, Yoshifumi Kanakubo 80 – 
   Akinori Kosaka 24] 
Denso                  - Oita Trinity            2- 3              362
  [Keisuke Koike 69, Tonohiro Ito 90 – Norio Murata 4, ? (D) 6 og, 
   Koji Kawai 19] 
(Tuesday 29 September)
Kokushikan University  - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   1- 3              117
  [Yuya Itabashi 86 – Marcus 30, 50, 74] 

Round 24 (1, 3 and 4 October 1998)
(Thursday 1 October)
Ventforet Kofu         - Albirex Niigata         4- 1              283
  [Baron 15, 21, Tatsuya Ai 27, Masahiro Shimmyo 78 – Masahiro Kuzuno]
(Saturday 3 October)
Oita Trinity           - Kokushikan University   2- 1            1,527
  [Will (2) – Masafumi Yoshimura] 
(Sunday 4 October)
Vortis Tokushima       - Sony Sendai             3- 0              488
  [Takao Sekiguchi 4 pen, Kazushi Isoyama 75, Akira Oba 90] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Kawasaki Frontale       1- 0    (OT)      791
  [Douglas 91] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Tokyo Gas               1- 3            4,286
  [Sidiclei – Angelo, Hayato Okamoto, Masamitsu Kobayashi] 
Brummell Sendai        - Mito Hollyhock          3- 0            3,921
  [Slobodan Dubajić 40, 66, Satoshi Taira 74] 
Omiya Ardija           - Jatco                   3- 0            1,364
  [Jeroen Boere 31, 72 pen, Taisuke Hiramoto 39] 
Sagan Tosu             - Denso                   1- 2            3,114
  [Takashi Uemura 1h – Keisuke Koike 51, Takaaki Tokushige 53] 

Round 25 (7 and 8 October 1998)
(Wednesday 7 October)
Omiya Ardija           - Ventforet Kofu          1- 4              442
  [Keiji Nakamura 4 – Susumu Watanabe 26, Baron 51, 90, 
   Tetsumasa Kimura 87] 
(Thursday 8 October)
Mito Hollyhock         - Albirex Niigata         2- 1              221
  [Yoshiyuki Takemoto 51, Takayuki Tsuruhashi 76 – Michael Obiku 13] 
Denso                  - Kawasaki Frontale       1- 3              465
  [Takaaki Tokushige – Valdney (2), Tomoaki Kuno] 
Jatco                  - Tokyo Gas               0- 1              349
  [Kensuke Kagami] 
Brummell Sendai        - Vortis Tokushima        3- 2    (OT)    3,058
  [Yoshinori Abe 25, Jun Takata 90, Yoshitaka Watanabe 107 – 
   Kazushi Isoyama 19, 78] 
Sagan Tosu             - Montedio Yamagata       1- 0    (OT)    1,969
  [Koichiro Katafuchi] 
Oita Trinity           - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   1- 2            1,934
  [Choi Dae-Shik 25 – Marcus 57, Hidekazu Kobayashi 66] 
Kokushikan University  - Sony Sendai             3- 2    (OT)      295
  [Masafumi Yoshimura 9, Takashi Takahashi 15, Katsuhiro Suzuki 110 – 
   Kenji Abe 21, Naoki Naruo 42] 

Round 26 (11 and 12 October 1998)
(Sunday 11 October)
Kawasaki Frontale      - Jatco                   3- 1            4,414
  [Valdney, Akira Ito, Tatsuru Mukojima – Yasuhiko Niimura] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Oita Trinity            3- 1            3,074
  [Yukihiko Sato (2), Takashi Shoji – Will] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Sagan Tosu              2- 1    (OT)    1,432
  [Susumu Watanabe 72, Masahiro Shimmyo 101 – Yasuhide Ihara 45] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Omiya Ardija            0- 3              354
  [Taisuke Hiramoto 3, 71, Naoki Takizawa 54] 
Sony Sendai            - Albirex Niigata         1- 2            1,320
  [Yuji Abe 58 – Keiichiro Nakano 2h, Yuji Kakiuchi 80] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Denso                   2- 1              486
  [Marcus 58 pen, 84 pen – Yukinobu Yanagisawa 62] 
Tokyo Gas              - Mito Hollyhock          1- 0    (OT)    1,994
  [Amaral 100] 
(Monday 12 October)
Kokushikan University  - Brummell Sendai         2- 2   (1-4)      270
  [Takuro Nishimura 28, Katsuhiro Suzuki 65 – Makoto Segawa 36, 
   Yoshihito Yamaji 70] 

Round 27 (14 and 15 October 1998)
(Wednesday 14 October)
Sony Sendai            - Tokyo Gas               0- 1            2,321
  [Hayato Okamoto 24] 
(Thursday 15 October)
Mito Hollyhock         - Kawasaki Frontale       1- 5              463
  [Yoshifumi Kanakubo 24 – Tomoaki Kuno 6, Toru Oniki 52, 
   Tatsuru Mukojima 80, Hideki Katsura 85, Valdney 90] 
Brummell Sendai        - Omiya Ardija            2- 2   (5-4)    2,845
  [Slobodan Dubajić 64, Jun Takata 75 – Taisuke Hiramoto 44, 54] 
Denso                  - Montedio Yamagata       3- 2              407
  [Keisuke Koike 65, Kenji Hirayama 72, 90 – Marquinho, Yukihiko Sato] 
Jatco                  - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   3-10              412
  [Yasuhiko Niimura 43, 71, Shozo Morino 83 – Marcus 5, 29, 58, 60, 63, 
   80, Junya Nitta 14, Shigeru Suzuki 21, Masataka Maeda 78, Douglas 90] 
Sagan Tosu             - Vortis Tokushima        2- 3    (OT)    2,572
  [Tetsuya Tanaka, Omi Sato – Takahiro Kawaji, Toshiyuki Akimoto (2)] 
Oita Trinity           - Ventforet Kofu          0- 1    (OT)    1,541
  [Baron 96] 
Albirex Niigata        - Kokushikan University   2- 0            1,407
  [Yuji Kakiuchi, Masatoshi Hara] 

Round 28 (Sunday 18 October 1998)
Montedio Yamagata      - Sony Sendai             6- 1            1,080
  [Satoshi Mashimo 7, 90, Marquinho 14, 30, ? (S) 45 og, 
   Takashi Shoji 76 – Kenji Abe 55] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Mito Hollyhock          3- 2    (OT)      768
  [Satoru Yoshida 44, Baron 89, 108 – Nobuhisa Isono 38, 
   Satoshi Sadoya 90] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Jatco                   3- 1              342
  [Toshiyuki Akimoto, Kazushi Isoyama, Takao Sekiguchi - ? (V) og] 
Brummell Sendai        - Denso                   2- 1    (OT)    4,401
  [Koji Nakajima 90, Makoto Segawa 91 – Takaaki Tokushige 76] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Tokyo Gas               0- 2            5,307
  [Angelo 39 pen, Amaral 90] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Albirex Niigata         3- 1              500
  [Marcus 20 pen, 44, Douglas 78 – Masatoshi Hara 49] 
Sagan Tosu             - Kokushikan University   1- 2    (OT)    4,716
  [Shin Nakamura – Makoto Atsuta (2)] 
Omiya Ardija           - Oita Trinity            3- 0              765
  [Jeroen Boere 27, 56, Taisuke Hiramoto 47] 

Round 29 (24 and 25 October 1998)
(Saturday 24 October)
Jatco                  - Brummell Sendai         1- 3              636
  [Hideki Matsuki 56 – Yoshihito Yamaji 19, Jun Takata 38, 
   Slobodan Dubajić 77] 
Mito Hollyhock         - Vortis Tokushima        0- 7              596
  [Ken Kasahara 1, Toshiyuki Akimoto 24, 55, Yoshiyuki Yokose 38, 
   Kazushi Isoyama 40, Takao Sekiguchi 62, 82] 
(Sunday 25 October)
Tokyo Gas              - Honda Giken Hamamatsu   2- 0            1,783
  [Hayato Okamoto 2, Amaral 68] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Sony Sendai             5- 0            1,045
  [Baron 11, 53, 60, 68, Satoru Yoshida 16] 
Albirex Niigata        - Montedio Yamagata       2- 0            3,825
  [Ignace Moleka, Hirokazu Ota] 
Kokushikan University  - Kawasaki Frontale       0- 4            1,264
  [Valdney 22, Akira Ito 33, Tuto 69, Yasuhiro Nagahashi 84] 
Oita Trinity           - Sagan Tosu              2- 0            3,913
  [Yuji Nakayoshi, Motoki Kawasaki] 
Denso                  - Omiya Ardija            3- 2    (OT)      601
  [Takaaki Tokushige 3, 97, Toshihiro Nishimura 90 – 
   Masahiro Miyashita 7, 58] 

Round 30 (Sunday 1 November 1998)
Tokyo Gas              - Albirex Niigata         2- 1            2,169
  [Amaral 18, Hayato Okamoto 35 – Makoto Ikeda 42] 
Kawasaki Frontale      - Sony Sendai             1- 2            4,586
  [Tuto 64 – Naoki Nruo 27, ? (K) 90 og] 
Honda Giken Hamamatsu  - Mito Hollyhock          2- 0            1,780
  [Marcus 8, 79] 
Montedio Yamagata      - Jatco                   5- 0            2,535
  [Satoshi Mashimo (3), Kenji Takahashi, Sidiclei] 
Ventforet Kofu         - Denso                   1- 0            2,039
  [Baron] 
Vortis Tokushima       - Oita Trinity            2- 2   (4-2)      835
  [Kazushi Isoyama (2; 1 pen) – Tsuyoshi Kato, Eder] 
Brummell Sendai        - Sagan Tosu              5- 1           12,229
  [Satoshi Taira 27, 37, 51, Slobodan Dubajić 58, Yoshinori Abe 78 – 
   Takashi Uemura 59] 
Omiya Ardija           - Kokushikan University   1- 0    (OT)    3,576
  [Akinori Kosaka 103] 

JFL 1998 Final Table:

Pos Team                  Gm Wn(OT/PK) Ls(OT/PK)  GF- GA Diff Pnt
 1.Tokyo Gas              30 24( 3/ 0)  6( 1/ 0)  67- 17   50  69
 2.Kawasaki Frontale      30 23( 1/ 0)  7( 2/ 0)  72- 24   48  68
 3.Montedio Yamagata      30 22( 2/ 0)  8( 2/ 1)  69- 38   31  64
 4.Ventforet Kofu         30 22( 5/ 1)  8( 1/ 0)  74- 40   34  59
 5.Honda Giken Hamamatsu  30 19( 3/ 0) 11( 2/ 0)  57- 45   12  54
 6.Oita Trinity           30 16( 1/ 1) 14( 3/ 1)  51- 51    0  45
 7.Brummell Sendai        30 18( 5/ 3) 12         55- 53    2  43
 8.Sagan Tosu             30 14( 3/ 0) 16( 5/ 0)  40- 55  -15  39
 9.Vortis Tokushima       30 14( 2/ 1) 16( 2/ 1)  58- 48   10  38
10.Denso                  30 14( 2/ 1) 16( 1/ 0)  48- 59  -11  38
11.Albirex Niigata        30 12( 2/ 0) 18( 2/ 0)  39- 47   -8  34
12.Omiya Ardija           30 11( 2/ 0) 19( 6/ 1)  51- 56   -5  31
13.Sony Sendai            30  8( 1/ 0) 22( 7/ 0)  42- 71  -29  23
14.Mito Hollyhock         30  8( 1/ 0) 22( 3/ 1)  37- 69  -32  23
15.Kokushikan University  30  8( 3/ 0) 22( 1/ 1)  42- 76  -34  21
16.Jatco                  30  7( 3/ 0) 23( 1/ 1)  44- 97  -53  18

NB: changes before season: Consadole Sapporo promoted to J-League 1998;
                           Fukushima FC and Seinoh Transports disbanded;
                           NTT Kanto renamed to Omiya Ardija,;
                           Sony Sendai and Albirex Niigata promoted to JFL;
                           Kokushikan University admitted to JFL.

Since only Kawasaki Frontale and Brummell Sendai had J-League
associate membership, only they were eligible for the promotion
playoffs to the J-League first division 1999, provided they'd 
finish in the top two of the JFL.  Therefore not champions
Tokyo Gas but Kawasaki Frontale participated in those playoffs.

Round 1 [Nov 19]
Avispa Fukuoka        3-2 Kawasaki Frontale      [OT]
Kawasaki Frontale remain at second level (J-League 2nd division in 1999).

J-League second division members 1999:
Consadole Sapporo (relegated from J-League 1998), Kawasaki Frontale,
FC Tokyo (new name Tokyo Gas), Montedio Yamagata, Ventforet Kofu,
Oita Trinity, Vegalta Sendai (new name Brummell Sendai), Sagan Tosu, 
Albirex Niigata and Omiya Ardija.

The other clubs (Honda Giken Hamamatsu, Vortis Tokushima, Denso,
Sony Sendai, Mito Hollyhock, Kokushikan University and Jatco)
will form the "new" JFL (possibly named Amateur League) together
with Yokogawa Electric (Kanto league champions 1998).

Top Scorers

  1. FW Valdney Freitas        Bra  Kawasaki Frontale       33
  2. FW Marcelo Baron          Bra  Ventforet Kofu          31
  3. MF Marcus                 Bra  Honda Giken Hamamatsu   24
  4. FW Yasuhiko Niimura       Jpn  Jatco                   18
  5. FW Amaral                 Bra  Tokyo Gas               15
  6. MF Yukihiko Satou         Jpn  Montedio Yamagata       14
     FW Hayato Okamoto         Jpn  Tokyo Gas               14
  8. FW Taisuke Hiramoto       Jpn  Omiya Ardija            13
     FW Naoki Naruo            Jpn  Sony Sendai             13
 10. FW Yoshinori Abe          Jpn  Brummell Sendai         12
     MF Dae-Sik Choi           SKo  Oita Trinity            12
     FW Takashi Uemura         Jpn  Sagan Tosu              12
     FW Kazushi Isoyama        Jpn  Vortis Tokushima        12
     FW Takao Sekiguchi        Jpn  Vortis Tokushima        12
 15. MF Akira Itou             Jpn  Kawasaki Frontale       11
     MF Shin Atsuta            Jpn  Kokushikan University   11
     FW Taketo Shiokawa        Jpn  Montedio Yamagata       11
 18. DF Slobodan Dubajic       Yug  Brummell Sendai         10
     FW Satoshi Taira          Jpn  Brummell Sendai         10
     FW Takaaki Tokushige      Jpn  Denso                   10
     FW Tuto                   Bra  Kawasaki Frontale       10
     FW Masayuki Tabata        Jpn  Mito Hollyhock          10
     MF Masahiro Shinmei       Jpn  Ventforet Kofu          10
     MF Susumu Watanabe        Jpn  Ventforet Kofu          10


1997.

1998 (3rd and lower levels).

1999.

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: 17 Sep 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.