2006 J.League Division 1

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

J.League Division 1

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

General

Promotion/relegation

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

Changes in competition format

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

Changes in clubs

none

Honours

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

Clubs

Albirex Niigata

Kashima Antlers

Omiya Ardija

Urawa Red
Diamonds

FC Tokyo

Kawasaki Frontale

Ventforet Kofu

JEF United
Chiba

Yokohama F. Marinos

Shimizu S-Pulse

Júbilo Iwata

Nagoya
Grampus
Eight

Kyoto
Purple
Sanga

Gamba Osaka

Cerezo Osaka

Sanfrecce
Hiroshima

Oita Trinita

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Location of the clubs in Japan

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

• Albirex Niigata
• Avispa Fukuoka
• Cerezo Osaka
• FC Tokyo
• Gamba Osaka
• JEF United Chiba
• Júbilo Iwata
• Kashima Antlers
• Kawasaki Frontale
• Kyoto Purple Sanga
• Nagoya Grampus Eight
• Oita Trinita
• Omiya Ardija
• Sanfrecce Hiroshima
• Shimizu S-Pulse
• Urawa Red Diamonds
• Ventforet Kofu
• Yokohama F. Marinos

Foreign players

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

Format

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

• Goal differential
• Goals scored
• Head-to-head results

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

Changes from previous year

none

Table

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

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

Results

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

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

Top scorers

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

Attendance

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

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

Awards

Individual

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

Best Eleven

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

* The number in brackets denotes the number of times that the footballer has appeared in the Best 11.

External links

• J. League Official Stats
• rsssf.com