2011 J.League Division 1

The 2011 J.League Division 1 season was the 46th season of professional football in Japan, and the 19th since the establishment of the J.League. The season began on March 5 and concluded on December 3. The season was put on hold from March 12 to April 23 due to the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami,^[1] therefore canceling a planned five-week summer break between June 27–July 29 in order to allow preparation of the Japan national team for the 2011 Copa América.^[2]

J.League Division 1

Season	2011
Champions	Kashiwa Reysol 1st J.League title 2nd Japanese title
Relegated	Ventforet Kofu Avispa Fukuoka Montedio Yamagata
Champions League	Kashiwa Reysol Nagoya Grampus Gamba Osaka FC Tokyo
Matches played	306
Goals scored	869 (2.84 per match)
Top goalscorer	Joshua Kennedy (19 goals)
Highest attendance	54,441 Reds vs Reysol
Lowest attendance	4,028 Avispa vs Ardija
Average attendance	15,797
← 2010 2012 →

The 2011 J.League Division 1 champion also qualified to the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup as the host team, entering the qualifying play-off round.

Kashiwa Reysol won a second league title, their first in 39 years and first in the professional J.League era. They also became the first champions to win the title the season after being promoted as second division champions.

Clubs

FC Tokyo, Kyoto Sanga and Shonan Bellmare were relegated at the end of the 2010 season after finishing in the bottom three places of the table. Shonan had only played one season in Division 1 while Kyoto had enjoyed a three-year stay. FC Tokyo had been in the top flight for eleven seasons.

The three relegated teams were replaced by 2010 J.League Division 2 champions Kashiwa Reysol, runners-up Ventforet Kofu and third-placed team Avispa Fukuoka. Kashiwa had made an immediate return to the top division, while Kofu and Fukuoka ended three- and four-year absences respectively.

Albirex Niigata

Avispa Fukuoka

Cerezo Osaka

Gamba Osaka

Júbilo Iwata

Kashima Antlers

Kashiwa Reysol

Kawasaki Frontale

Montedio Yamagata

Nagoya Grampus

Omiya Ardija

Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Shimizu S-Pulse

Urawa Red Diamonds

Vegalta Sendai

Ventforet Kofu

Vissel Kobe

Yokohama F. Marinos

Locations of the 2011 J.League 1 teams

Club name	Home town(s)	Notes
Albirex Niigata	Niigata & Seirō, Niigata
Avispa Fukuoka	Fukuoka	Promoted from J2 League in 2010
Cerezo Osaka	Osaka	2011 ACL participant
Gamba Osaka	Suita, Osaka	2011 ACL participant
Júbilo Iwata	Iwata, Shizuoka
Kashima Antlers	Southwestern cities/towns of Ibaraki	2011 ACL participant
Kashiwa Reysol	Kashiwa, Chiba	Promoted from J2 League in 2010
Kawasaki Frontale	Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Montedio Yamagata	All cities/towns in Yamagata
Nagoya Grampus	Nagoya, Aichi	2011 ACL participant 2010 Defending champions
Omiya Ardija	Omiya, Saitama
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshima
Shimizu S-Pulse	Shizuoka
Urawa Red Diamonds	Urawa, Saitama
Vegalta Sendai	Sendai, Miyagi
Ventforet Kofu	All cities/towns in Yamanashi	Promoted from J2 League in 2010
Vissel Kobe	Kobe, Hyōgo
Yokohama F. Marinos	Yokohama & Yokosuka

Personnel and kits

Club	Head coach1	Captain1	Kit manufacturer1	Shirt sponsor1
Albirex Niigata	Hisashi Kurosaki	Isao Homma	Adidas	Kameda Seika
Avispa Fukuoka	Tetsuya Asano	Kosuke Nakamachi	svolme	EVERLIFE
Cerezo Osaka	Levir Culpi	Teruyuki Moniwa	Mizuno	Yanmar
Gamba Osaka	Akira Nishino	Tomokazu Myojin	Umbro	Panasonic
Júbilo Iwata	Masaaki Yanagishita	Daisuke Nasu	Puma	Yamaha
Kashima Antlers	Oswaldo de Oliveira	Mitsuo Ogasawara	Nike	LIXIL
Kashiwa Reysol	Nelsinho Baptista	Hidekazu Otani	Yonex	Hitachi
Kawasaki Frontale	Naoki Soma	Yusuke Igawa	Puma	Fujitsu
Montedio Yamagata	Shinji Kobayashi	Katsuyuki Miyazawa	Puma	Tsuyahime
Nagoya Grampus	Dragan Stojković	Seigo Narazaki	Le Coq Sportif	Toyota
Omiya Ardija	Jun Suzuki	Chikara Fujimoto	Under Armour	NTT Docomo
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Mihailo Petrović	Hisato Satō	Nike	Deodeo
Shimizu S-Pulse	Afshin Ghotbi	Shinji Ono	Puma	Suzuyo
Urawa Red Diamonds	Takafumi Hori	Keita Suzuki	Nike	Meiji Seika
Vegalta Sendai	Makoto Teguramori	Atsushi Yanagisawa	ASICS	IRIS OHYAMA
Ventforet Kofu	Satoru Sakuma	Hideomi Yamamoto	Mizuno	Hakubaku
Vissel Kobe	Masahiro Wada	Takayuki Yoshida	ASICS	Rakuten
Yokohama F. Marinos	Kazushi Kimura	Shunsuke Nakamura	Nike	Nissan

¹ Subject to change during the season.

Foreign players

club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC player	Type-C contract	Non-visa foreign	Former player(s)
Albirex Niigata	Anderson Gonzaga	Bruno Lopes	Michael	Cho Young-cheol
Avispa Fukuoka	Rafael Ramazotti				Kim Min-je
Cerezo Osaka	Fábio Lopes	Martinez		Kim Jin-hyeon	Kim Bo-kyung		Rodrigo Pimpão
Gamba Osaka	Rafinha	Kim Seung-yong		Lee Keun-ho	Afonso	Kim Jung-ya	Adriano
Júbilo Iwata	Gilsinho	Rodrigo Souto					Lee Woo-jin Park Joo-ho
Kashima Antlers	Alex	Fellype Gabriel	Tartá		Igor Sartori		Carlão
Kashiwa Reysol	Jorge Wagner	Leandro Domingues		Park Dong-hyuk	Kweon Han-jin	An Yong-hak	Roger
Kawasaki Frontale	Juninho
Montedio Yamagata	Maicon Souza						Hugo Alcântara
Nagoya Grampus	Danilson Córdoba	Igor Burzanović		Joshua Kennedy
Omiya Ardija	Rafael Marques	Rodrigo Pimpão	Kim Young-gwon	Lee Chun-soo
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Ante Tomić	Mihael Mikić	Davit Mujiri
Shimizu S-Pulse	Alex Brosque	Calvin Jong-a-Pin	Freddie Ljungberg	Eddy Bosnar
Urawa Red Diamonds	Márcio Richardes	Mazola	Ranko Despotović	Matthew Spiranovic
Vegalta Sendai	Diego Souza	Max Carrasco	Cho Byung-kuk	Park Ju-sung		Ryang Yong-gi	Marquinhos
Ventforet Kofu	Daniel Tijolo	Davi	Paulinho	Kim Jin-kyu			Rudnei
Vissel Kobe	Popó	Raphael Botti	Rogerinho	Bae Chun-suk		Park Kang-jo	Lee Jae-min
Yokohama F. Marinos				Kim Kun-hoan			Pablo Bastianini

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Kashiwa Reysol (C)	34	23	3	8	65	42	+23	72	Qualification to 2011 Club World Cup and 2012 Champions League
2	Nagoya Grampus	34	21	8	5	67	36	+31	71	Qualification to 2012 Champions League
3	Gamba Osaka	34	21	7	6	78	51	+27	70
4	Vegalta Sendai	34	14	14	6	39	25	+14	56
5	Yokohama F. Marinos	34	16	8	10	46	40	+6	56
6	Kashima Antlers	34	13	11	10	53	40	+13	50
7	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	34	14	8	12	52	49	+3	50
8	Júbilo Iwata	34	13	8	13	53	45	+8	47
9	Vissel Kobe	34	13	7	14	44	45	−1	46
10	Shimizu S-Pulse	34	11	12	11	42	51	−9	45
11	Kawasaki Frontale	34	13	5	16	52	53	−1	44
12	Cerezo Osaka	34	11	10	13	67	53	+14	43
13	Omiya Ardija	34	10	12	12	38	48	−10	42
14	Albirex Niigata	34	10	9	15	38	46	−8	39
15	Urawa Red Diamonds	34	8	12	14	36	43	−7	36
16	Ventforet Kofu (R)	34	9	6	19	42	63	−21	33	Relegation to 2012 J.League Division 2
17	Avispa Fukuoka (R)	34	6	4	24	34	75	−41	22
18	Montedio Yamagata (R)	34	5	6	23	23	64	−41	21

Updated to match(es) played on December 3, 2011. Source: J. League Division 1
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal differential; 3rd goals scored; 4th head-to-head results; 5th disciplinary points; 6th draw. The winners of the 2011 Emperor's Cup, FC Tokyo, which played in the 2011 J.League Division 2, also qualified for the group stage of the 2012 AFC Champions League. If two clubs are tied for first place, both clubs will be declared champions.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	ALB	ANT	ARD	AVI	CER	FRO	GAM	GRA	JÚB	MON	REY	SFR	SSP	RED	VEG	VEN	VIS	FMA
Albirex Niigata		2–2	0–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–0	0–3	0–1	4–0	2–3	1–1	1–2	1–0	4–2
Kashima Antlers	1–2		3–3	6–0	2–1	2–2	1–4	1–1	2–0	3–1	0–1	2–0	3–0	0–0	3–0	0–1	1–1	0–3
Omiya Ardija	0–0	1–1		0–2	0–0	0–5	2–3	2–3	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–4	2–2	2–2	3–1	1–1	1–1
Avispa Fukuoka	0–3	1–2	1–0		0–3	2–1	2–3	0–3	1–2	0–2	0–2	2–1	2–2	1–2	0–3	1–0	2–2	0–1
Cerezo Osaka	1–1	1–3	0–1	7–1		3–3	1–1	2–3	2–3	6–0	5–0	5–4	4–0	3–1	1–1	0–4	0–3	0–1
Kawasaki Frontale	1–2	3–2	0–1	3–2	1–2		2–1	1–2	1–0	2–0	3–2	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–2	0–3	3–0
Gamba Osaka	2–1	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–1	6–3		2–2	2–2	3–2	2–0	5–3	2–2	1–0	1–0	0–2	3–2	2–1
Nagoya Grampus	4–0	2–1	2–2	5–2	3–1	2–0	4–1		2–1	3–0	0–0	3–2	1–1	1–1	0–1	4–1	3–1	1–1
Júbilo Iwata	1–0	1–2	1–2	4–1	0–4	2–1	1–2	0–1		4–0	6–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	3–0	1–2
Montedio Yamagata	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–5	0–0	0–1	0–5	0–2	1–1		2–1	1–3	1–1	0–0	0–1	3–1	2–0	0–2
Kashiwa Reysol	4–0	2–1	1–3	3–2	1–1	3–2	2–4	2–1	0–3	1–0		3–1	3–0	3–1	1–0	2–1	3–0	2–0
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	1–0	2–1	4–2	0–0	1–3	2–3	4–1	0–3	3–1	3–2	1–3		4–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	3–2
Shimizu S-Pulse	2–1	0–0	3–0	1–0	3–3	2–3	1–3	2–0	0–0	2–1	1–2	0–1		1–0	1–0	3–0	1–5	0–0
Urawa Red Diamonds	1–1	2–2	0–1	3–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	3–0	0–3	0–1	1–3	1–1	1–3		0–0	2–0	2–3	0–2
Vegalta Sendai	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	1–1	3–3	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0		4–0	2–0	1–1
Ventforet Kofu	3–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	0–2	0–1	4–3	3–1	0–1	1–1	1–4	0–2	1–2	3–2	1–2		1–1	1–2
Vissel Kobe	2–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	4–1	1–0	0–4	0–1	3–1	2–0	0–4	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	4–2		2–0
Yokohama F. Marinos	1–0	1–1	1–0	3–2	2–1	2–1	1–1	1–2	1–0	2–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–3	4–0	1–0

Updated to match(es) played on December 3, 2011. Source: J. League Division 1
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals[3]
1	Joshua Kennedy	Nagoya Grampus	19
2	Mike Havenaar	Ventforet Kofu	17
3	Leandro Domingues	Kashiwa Reysol	15
	Tadanari Lee	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
	Lee Keun-ho	Gamba Osaka
6	Keiji Tamada	Nagoya Grampus	14
	Ryoichi Maeda	Júbilo Iwata
	Shingo Akamine	Vegalta Sendai
9	Bruno Lopes	Albirex Niigata	13
	Junya Tanaka	Kashiwa Reysol
11	Hidetaka Kanazono	Júbilo Iwata	12
	Yu Kobayashi	Kawasaki Frontale
	Yūzō Tashiro	Kashima Antlers
14	Rafinha	Gamba Osaka	11
15	Jorge Wagner	Kashiwa Reysol	10
	Paulinho	Ventforet Kofu
	Rafael Marques	Omiya Ardija
	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
	Ryūji Bando	Cerezo Osaka
20	Adriano	Gamba Osaka	9
	Genki Haraguchi	Urawa Red Diamonds
	Hideaki Kitajima	Kashiwa Reysol
	Jungo Fujimoto	Nagoya Grampus
	Masashi Oguro	Yokohama F. Marinos
	Takayuki Yoshida	Vissel Kobe
	Yoshito Ōkubo	Vissel Kobe
27	Juninho	Kawasaki Frontale	8
	Genki Omae	Shimizu S-Pulse
	Hideya Okamoto	Avispa Fukuoka
	Shu Kurata	Cerezo Osaka

Awards

MVP

• Leandro Domingues

Top scorer

• Joshua Kennedy

Best XI

Position	Player
GK	Seigo Narazaki
DF	Hiroki Sakai
DF	Marcus Tulio Tanaka
DF	Naoya Kondo
MF	Jorge Wagner
MF	Leandro Domingues
MF	Hiroshi Kiyotake
MF	Jungo Fujimoto
MF	Yasuhito Endō
FW	Joshua Kennedy
FW	Mike Havenaar

Attendance

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Urawa Red Diamonds	576,477	54,441	20,240	33,910	−15.1%†
2	Albirex Niigata	442,836	37,830	13,644	26,049	−14.7%†
3	Yokohama F. Marinos	357,647	37,725	7,104	21,038	−18.1%†
4	Kawasaki Frontale	294,776	20,973	13,111	17,340	−6.6%†
5	Nagoya Grampus	284,590	28,515	6,793	16,741	−16.2%†
6	Gamba Osaka	278,981	20,991	11,364	16,411	−1.5%†
7	Kashima Antlers	274,655 1	25,061	7,810	16,156	−22.9%†
8	Shimizu S-Pulse	268,614	21,524	10,745	15,801	−12.2%†
9	Vegalta Sendai	266,144	19,224	11,356	15,656	−9.7%†
10	Cerezo Osaka	240,465	37,172	5,351	14,145	−5.9%†
11	Vissel Kobe	224,962	19,913	6,151	13,233	+3.2%†
12	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	224,447	18,788	7,099	13,203	−9.3%†
13	Ventforet Kofu	205,808	21,589	6,893	12,106	−2.4%†
14	Kashiwa Reysol	202,593	30,807	6,855	11,917	+47.2%†
15	Júbilo Iwata	200,525	30,516	6,386	11,796	−2.8%†
16	Avispa Fukuoka	177,054	19,421	4,028	10,415	+18.1%†
17	Montedio Yamagata	158,527	18,008	5,053	9,325	−20.4%†
18	Omiya Ardija	154,681	12,221	5,627	9,099	−17.8%†
	League total	4,833,782	54,441	4,028	15,797	−14.3%†

Updated to games played on December 3, 2011
Source: J. League Division 1
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in J2.

Notes

• Note 1: Kashima Antlers played one game at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo as the Kashima Soccer Stadium in Kashima was damaged in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

In popular culture

This particular season was used as reference in the movie Detective Conan: The Eleventh Striker. Many players in real life actually provide cameo roles for the film, including Kazuyoshi Miura (Yokohama FC), Yasuhito Endō (Gamba Osaka), Yasuyuki Konno (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), and Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus). In the movie, a bomber threatens to bomb all the stadiums unless certain conditions are met. The main character, Conan Edogawa, must solve the case and find the culprit. In the movie, two additional fictional teams are added to the squad: Tokyo Spirits and Big Osaka, making the league with 20 teams.