Yokohama F.C.
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| Yokohama F.C. 横浜FC |
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| Full name | Yokohama F.C. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Flie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Founded | 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Mitsuzawa Stadium Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama |
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| Capacity | 15,046 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Yasuhiko Okudera | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Takuya Takagi (2006 - ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | J. League Division 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Champions (J2) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yokohama FC (横浜FC Yokohama Efushī?) are a Japanese football (soccer) club based in the city of Yokohama.
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[edit] History
The club was formed in 1999, following the merger of the city's two J. League clubs, Yokohama Flügels and Yokohama Marinos the previous year. Flügels supporters, whose club was essentially dissolved, rejected the suggestion that they should start supporting Marinos, their crosstown rivals. Instead, with money raised through donations from the general public and an affiliation with IMG, the talent management company, the former Flügels supporters founded the Yokohama Fulie Sports Club. Following the socio model used by FC Barcelona, the Fulie Sports Club created Yokohama F.C., the first professional sports team in Japan owned and operated by its supporters.
For its first season in 1999, Yokohama F.C. hired former West German World Cup star Pierre Littbarski to be the manager and Yasuhiko Okudera, the first Japanese footballer to play professionally in Europe, to be the chairman. Despite attempts to win straight entry into the J. League, the Japan Football Association only permitted the team to enter the Japan Football League. After two seasons as JFL champions, the team was promotion to the J2 Division of the J. League.
The club spent the next 6 seasons in J2, finishing mid-table between 2001 and 2005. However, Yokohama F.C. won the J2 championship in 2006 and gained promotion to J1 in the process. In 2007, Yokohama F.C. will play its first season in the top flight of Japanese football in its ninth year of existence.
[edit] Fight for the promotion
Although they falled into a breakdown in 2005, ended with the 11th of 12, they runned upper level on the table throughout the 2006 season. On 26 November, they decided finishing the top spot of the league, finally promoted to division 1(formally promised).
This successful story was so dramatic as to make people somewhat excited in Japan. Yokohama FC are financially extremely poor so that they don't have even their own football ground or a club house. Players did everything by themselves including to carry goal mouths and washing jerseys.
Some of the main players are very veteran stars, such as Kazuyoshi Miura 39, Shoji Jo 31, Motohiro Yamaguchi 37, and Norio Omura 37, those who once played for the National Team and later once labeled "No longer useful".
They lost all pre-season matches even against college students, then also the first official one of the year. After this, they suddenly changed the player-manager to an utterly inexperienced freshman Takuya Takagi 38. At the beginning of the season, almost no one believed them to reach such a consequence.
[edit] Football tactics
First, Takagi put weight on the defence and coached with simple tactics. After he became manager, the team kept clean sheets in 15 consecutive games. This success turned to confidence for young players and became to have more options of attack. As a result, they didn't record any losing streak and won the title.
[edit] Current players
As of February 9, 2007
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[edit] Season by season results and managers
| Season | League | Pld | Pt | W | L | D | F | A | GD | Place | Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | JFL | 24 | 55 | 18 | 3 | 3 | 57 | 32 | +25 | Champions |  Pierre Littbarski |
| 2000 | 22 | 61 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 66 | 24 | +42 | Champions | ||
| 2001 | J2 | 44 | 43 | 15 | 28 | 1 | 58 | 81 | -23 | 9th |  Yoshikazu Nagai / Yuji Sakakura / Katsuyoshi Shindo |
| 2002 | 44 | 35 | 8 | 25 | 11 | 43 | 81 | -38 | 12th | Katsuyoshi Shindo |
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| 2003 | 44 | 42 | 10 | 22 | 12 | 49 | 88 | -39 | 11th | Pierre Littbarski |
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| 2004 | 44 | 52 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 42 | 50 | -8 | 8th | ||
| 2005 | 44 | 45 | 10 | 19 | 15 | 48 | 64 | -16 | 11th | Yusuke Adachi |
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| 2006 | 48 | 93 | 26 | 7 | 15 | 61 | 32 | +29 | Champions | Yusuke Adachi / Takuya Takagi |
[edit] Former players
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[edit] Managers
| Manager | Nat. | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Pierre Littbarski |  Germany |
1999-2000 |
| Yoshikazu Nagai |  Japan |
2001 |
| Yuji Sakakura | Japan |
2001 |
| Katsuyoshi Shinto | Japan |
2001-2002 |
| Pierre Littbarski | Germany |
2003-2004 |
| Yusuke Adachi | Japan |
2005-2006 |
| Takuya Takagi | Japan |
2006- |
[edit] Honors
- Japan Football League
- Champions:2(1999, 2000)
- J. League Division 2
- Champions (2006)
