Omiya Ardija

Omiya Ardija
大宮アルディージャ

Full name	Omiya Ardija
Nickname(s)	The Squirrels
Founded	1964 (1964)
Ground	NACK5 Stadium Ōmiya Omiya-ku, Saitama, Saitama
Ground Capacity	15,500
Owner	NTT Group
Chairman	Seigo Watanabe
Manager	Kiyoshi Okuma
League	J. League Division 1
2014	16th (Relegated)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Omiya Ardija (大宮アルディージャ, Ōmiya Arudīja) is a professional association football club which play in the J. League Division 1, and are based in Ōmiya-ku in Saitama, Japan. Its "hometown" as designated by the league is the whole of Saitama city, which is shared with neighbours Urawa Red Diamonds. Omiya currently compete in the J1 and have done since 2005, after promotion from J2 in 2004 as the second placed team.

Their home field is Nack5 Stadium Ōmiya (Nack5スタジアム大宮, Nakku-faibu Sutajiamu Ōmiya): Ōmiya Park Soccer Stadium by the naming rights.

History

The team were founded in 1964 as NTT Saitama Soccer Selection in Urawa, Saitama and later known as the NTT Kantō Soccer Club in 1969. They were first promoted to the Japan Soccer League Second Division in 1987, and when the JSL folded, joined the former Japan Football League.

In 1998 it was separately incorporated as NTT Sport Community K.K. based in Ōmiya to participate in the J. League. The name "Ardija" is a transcription of the Spanish language ardilla (squirrel)^[1] which is the mascot of Ōmiya and the park in which their home stadium is located.

Their matches against Urawa Red Diamonds have been called the "Saitama Derby".

In 2005-2007 most of Omiya's home matches were held at Saitama Stadium 2002 and Urawa Komaba Stadium due to expansion works at their home ground. In October 2007 the expansion was complete. On November 11, the re-opening match was held as a J. League season match between the Ardija and Ōita Trinita (1-2).

Record as J. League member

Key

• Tms. = Number of teams
• Pos. = Position in league
• Attendance/G = Average league attendance

Current players

As of 17 January 2015. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Nobuhiro Kato 2 DF Kosuke Kikuchi (captain) 3 DF Hiroyuki Komoto 5 MF Carlinhos Paraiba 8 FW Dragan Mrđa 9 FW Takamitsu Tomiyama 10 MF Daigo Watanabe 11 MF Ryuji Bando 13 DF Daisuke Watabe 14 DF Shintaro Shimizu 15 MF Keisuke Oyama 17 DF Shigeru Yokotani 18 MF Tomonobu Yokoyama 20 DF Tsubasa Oya

No. Position Player 21 GK Hitoshi Shiota 22 MF Takuya Wada 23 MF Shin Kanazawa 24 DF Yuko Takase 25 DF Kazuma Takayama 26 MF Masato Kojima 27 DF Tomoki Imai 28 DF Shunsuke Fukuda 29 DF Yuta Fujii 31 GK Keiki Shimizu 34 DF Yosuke Kataoka 35 GK Shuhei Kawata 39 MF Jin Izumisawa 41 MF Akihiro Ienaga

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player DF Kazuhiro Murakami (at Vegalta Sendai) MF Taisuke Miyazaki (at Thespakusatsu Gunma)

No. Position Player MF Lee Keun-Ho (at Blaublitz Akita) MF Kota Ueda (at Fagiano Okayama)

Former players

International capped players

Managers

Manager	Nat.	Tenure
Takashi Shimizu	Japan	1992–96
Norio Sasaki	Japan	1997–98
Pim Verbeek	Netherlands	1998–99
Toshiya Miura	Japan	Feb 1, 2000–Dec 31, 2001
Henk Duut	Netherlands	Dec 22, 2001–Dec 22, 2002
Masaaki Kanno	Japan	2003
Eijun Kiyokumo	Japan	2003
Toshiya Miura	Japan	Feb 1, 2004–Dec 31, 2006
Robert Verbeek	Netherlands	Jan 1, 2007–June 30, 2007
Satoru Sakuma	Japan	July 1, 2007–Dec 31, 2007
Yasuhiro Higuchi	Japan	Jan 1, 2008–Dec 31, 2008
Chang Woe-Ryong	South Korea	Jan 1, 2009–April 26, 2010
Jun Suzuki	Japan	April 27, 2010 – May 29, 2012
Takeyuki Okamoto ‡	Japan	May 31, 2012 – June 10, 2012
Zdenko Verdenik	Slovenia	June 11, 2012–Aug 11, 2013
Takeyuki Okamoto ‡	Japan	Aug 11, 2013–Aug 20, 2013
Tsutomu Ogura	Japan	Aug 20, 2013–Dec 31, 2013
Kiyoshi Okuma	Japan	Jan 1, 2014–

‡ As caretaker manager

References

External links

• Omiya Ardija Homepage (Japanese)
• Omiya Ardija Homepage (English)