2013 J.League Division 1

The 2013 J.League Division 1 season was the 48th season of Japanese top-flight football and the 21st since the establishment of the J.League in 1992. The season began on 2 March and finished on 7 December.^[1]

J.League Division 1

Season	2013
Champions	Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2nd J.League title 7th Japanese title
Relegated	Oita Trinita Júbilo Iwata Shonan Bellmare
Champions League	Sanfrecce Hiroshima Yokohama F. Marinos Kawasaki Frontale Cerezo Osaka
Matches played	306
Goals scored	879 (2.87 per match)
Top goalscorer	Yoshito Ōkubo (26 goals)
Highest attendance	62,632 Marinos vs Albirex
Lowest attendance	5,698 Júbilo vs Albirex
Average attendance	17,226
← 2012 2014 →

Sanfrecce Hiroshima were the defending champions.

Clubs

Vissel Kobe, Gamba Osaka and Consadole Sapporo were relegated at the end of the 2012 season after finishing in the bottom three places of the table. Consadole Sapporo returned to J2 after only one season in the top flight, while Vissel Kobe was relegated after six seasons in the top flight. Gamba Osaka, instead, was relegated for the first time since the creation of J.League in 1993 and the first time since their forerunners, Matsushita Electric Soccer Club, were relegated to the second Division of the Japan Soccer League after the 1986–87 season.

The three relegated teams were replaced by 2012 J.League Division 2 champions Ventforet Kofu, runners-up Shonan Bellmare and sixth-placed and play-off winner team Oita Trinita. Kofu made an immediate return to the top division, while Shonan returned after a two-year absence. In the end, Oita beat JEF United Chiba in the playoff final and returned in J1 after three seasons in the second division. Due to Oita's promotion, it will be the first time to have 2 clubs in the top-flight league competitions from Kyushu since 2006, and Kansai region will have only one club competing in the top flight first time since 1994 season due to Kobe and Gamba's relegations.

Albirex Niigata

Cerezo Osaka

FC Tokyo

Kashima Antlers

Kashiwa Reysol

Kawasaki Frontale

Omiya Ardija

Shonan Bellmare

Urawa Red Diamonds

Ventforet Kofu

Yokohama F. Marinos

Júbilo Iwata

Nagoya Grampus

Oita Trinita

Sagan Tosu

Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Shimizu S-Pulse

Vegalta Sendai

Locations of the 2013 J.League 1 teams

Club name	Hometown(s)	Stadium	Capacity	Note(s)
Albirex Niigata	Niigata & Seirō, Niigata	Denka Big Swan Stadium	42,300
Cerezo Osaka	Osaka	Nagai Stadium	47,816
FC Tokyo	Tokyo	Ajinomoto Stadium	49,970
Júbilo Iwata	Iwata, Shizuoka	Yamaha Stadium	15,165
Kashima Antlers	Kashima, Ibaraki	Kashima Soccer Stadium	40,728
Kashiwa Reysol	Kashiwa	Kashiwa Soccer Stadium	15,900	2013 ACL Participant (2012 Emperor's Cup Winners)
Kawasaki Frontale	Kawasaki, Kanagawa	Todoroki Athletics Stadium	26,232
Nagoya Grampus	Nagoya	Paloma Mizuho Stadium	27,000
Oita Trinita	Ōita	Ōita Stadium	40,000	Promoted from J2 League (6th place/play-off winner in J2 2012)
Omiya Ardija	Ōmiya, Saitama	NACK5 Stadium	15,500
Sagan Tosu	Tosu, Saga	Tosu Stadium	24,490
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshima	Hiroshima Big Arch	50,000	2013 ACL participant (Champions in J1 2012)
Shimizu S-Pulse	Shizuoka	IAI Stadium Nihondaira	20,339
Shonan Bellmare	Hiratsuka, Kanagawa	Shonan BMW Stadium	18,500	Promoted from J2 League (Runners-up in J2 2012)
Urawa Red Diamonds	Urawa, Saitama	Saitama Stadium	63,700	2013 ACL participant (3rd place in J1 2012)
Vegalta Sendai	Sendai, Miyagi	Yurtec Stadium	19,694	2013 ACL participant (Runners-up in J1 2012)
Ventforet Kofu	Kōfu, Yamanashi	Yamanashi Chuo Bank Stadium	17,000	Promoted from J2 League (Champions in J2 2012)
Yokohama F. Marinos	Yokohama & Yokosuka	Nissan Stadium	72,327

Personnel and kits

Club	Head coach	Kit manufacturer	Front shirt sponsor
Albirex Niigata	Masaaki Yanagishita	Adidas	Kameda Seika
Cerezo Osaka	Levir Culpi	Mizuno	Yanmar
FC Tokyo	Ranko Popović	Adidas	Lifeval
Júbilo Iwata	Takashi Sekizuka	Puma	Yamaha
Kashima Antlers	Toninho Cerezo	Nike	Lixil
Kashiwa Reysol	Nelsinho Baptista	Yonex	Hitachi
Kawasaki Frontale	Yahiro Kazama	Puma	Fujitsu
Nagoya Grampus	Dragan Stojković	Le Coq Sportif	Toyota
Oita Trinita	Kazuaki Tasaka	Puma	Daihatsu Kyushu
Omiya Ardija	Tsutomu Ogura	Under Armour	NTT Docomo
Sagan Tosu	Yoon Jong-hwan	Warrior	DHC
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hajime Moriyasu	Nike	EDION
Shimizu S-Pulse	Afshin Ghotbi	Puma	Suzuyo
Shonan Bellmare	Cho Kwi-jae	Penalty	Tri Terasu
Urawa Red Diamonds	Mihailo Petrović	Nike	Polus
Vegalta Sendai	Makoto Teguramori	Asics	Iris Ohyama
Ventforet Kofu	Hiroshi Jofuku	Mizuno	Hakubaku
Yokohama F. Marinos	Yasuhiro Higuchi	Adidas	Nissan

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC player	Non-visa foreign	Type-C contract	Former player(s)
Albirex Niigata	Léo Silva	Roger Gaúcho	Kim Jin-su	Kim Kun-hoan			Bruno Lopes
Cerezo Osaka	Branquinho	Edno	Fábio Simplício	Kim Jin-hyeon		Gu Sung-yun
FC Tokyo	Lucas Severino	Nemanja Vučićević		Jang Hyun-soo
Júbilo Iwata	Carlinhos Paraíba	Baek Sung-dong	Cho Byung-kuk	Jung Woo-young
Kashima Antlers	Davi	Juninho
Kashiwa Reysol	Cléo	Jorge Wagner	Leandro Domingues	Kim Chang-soo
Kawasaki Frontale	Alan Pinheiro	Jeci	Renatinho		An Byong-jun	Róbson	Patric
Nagoya Grampus	Daniel Tijolo	Danilson Córdoba	Nikola Jakimovski	Joshua Kennedy	Tiago
Oita Trinita	Rodrigo Mancha			Choi Jung-han		Kim Jung-hyon	Kim Yeong-gi
Omiya Ardija	Lucas Neill	Milivoje Novaković	Zlatan Ljubijankić	Cho Young-cheol			Carlinhos Paraíba
Sagan Tosu	Nilson	Kim Min-woo		Yeo Sung-hae	Kim Jung-ya	Jonathan Restrepo	Roni Diego Ambuila
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Mihael Mikić	Hwang Seok-ho	Lee Dae-heon	Park Hyung-jin		Kim Jeong-seok
Shimizu S-Pulse	Dženan Radončić	Calvin Jong-a-Pin	Lee Ki-je	Lee Min-soo			Baré
Shonan Bellmare	Alex Muralha	Wellington	Stevica Ristić	Han Kook-young			Edivaldo Hermoza Thiago Quirino
Urawa Red Diamonds	Márcio Richardes						Ranko Despotović
Vegalta Sendai	Diogo	Heberty	Wilson		Ryang Yong-gi
Ventforet Kofu	Gilsinho	Marquinhos Paraná	Patric	Choi Sung-keun			Douglas Hugo Almeida Lenny William Pottker José Ortigoza
Yokohama F. Marinos	Dutra	Fábio Aguiar	Marquinhos	Jeong Dong-ho

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sanfrecce Hiroshima (C)	34	19	6	9	51	29	+22	63	Qualification for 2014 AFC Champions League group stage[a]
2	Yokohama F. Marinos	34	18	8	8	49	31	+18	62
3	Kawasaki Frontale	34	18	6	10	65	51	+14	60
4	Cerezo Osaka	34	16	11	7	53	32	+21	59
5	Kashima Antlers	34	18	5	11	60	52	+8	59
6	Urawa Red Diamonds	34	17	7	10	66	56	+10	58
7	Albirex Niigata	34	17	4	13	48	42	+6	55
8	FC Tokyo	34	16	6	12	61	47	+14	54
9	Shimizu S-Pulse	34	15	5	14	48	57	−9	50
10	Kashiwa Reysol	34	13	9	12	56	59	−3	48
11	Nagoya Grampus	34	13	8	13	47	48	−1	47
12	Sagan Tosu	34	13	7	14	54	63	−9	46
13	Vegalta Sendai	34	11	12	11	41	38	+3	45
14	Omiya Ardija	34	14	3	17	45	48	−3	45
15	Ventforet Kofu	34	8	13	13	30	41	−11	37
16	Shonan Bellmare (R)	34	6	7	21	34	62	−28	25	Relegation to 2014 J.League Division 2
17	Júbilo Iwata (R)	34	4	11	19	40	56	−16	23
18	Oita Trinita (R)	34	2	8	24	31	67	−36	14

Updated to match(es) played on 7 December 2013. Source: J.League Division 1
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The winners of the 2013 Emperor's Cup qualify for the group stage of the 2014 AFC Champions League. As the Emperor's Cup winners were Yokohama F. Marinos, who had already qualified to ACL through the championship, the remaining spot was awarded to the fourth-placed team.

Results

Home \ Away	ALB	ANT	ARD	BEL	CER	FMA	FRO	GRA	JÚB	RED	REY	SAG	SFR	SSP	TOK	TRI	VEG	VEN
Albirex Niigata		2–3	1–0	3–2	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	4–2	0–2	3–2	3–1	1–2	3–1	0–3	2–3	1–0	1–1
Kashima Antlers	1–0		1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	4–1	3–1	1–1	1–2	3–1	1–2	0–2	3–1	3–2	3–1	3–2	0–0
Omiya Ardija	1–1	3–1		2–1	0–3	1–0	2–3	2–1	3–0	1–0	2–3	1–1	2–1	2–2	2–5	0–1	0–2	1–2
Shonan Bellmare	0–2	1–2	0–1		0–3	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–2	1–2	1–1	0–2	1–1	3–2	2–1	3–2	1–2
Cerezo Osaka	1–0	1–2	1–2	2–1		2–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–2	1–1	4–1	1–0	4–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1
Yokohama F. Marinos	0–2	1–1	2–1	4–2	1–1		2–1	1–2	2–1	3–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	1–1
Kawasaki Frontale	2–1	4–2	2–1	1–2	2–2	1–0		2–1	2–1	4–0	3–1	0–1	2–0	2–0	2–2	1–1	4–2	1–1
Nagoya Grampus	2–0	3–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–2		1–1	2–0	3–2	3–2	1–1	2–1	0–2	2–1	0–2	0–0
Júbilo Iwata	2–1	2–3	0–1	4–0	2–2	0–1	2–4	2–3		1–2	0–1	3–3	0–2	0–1	0–0	3–1	1–1	1–1
Urawa Red Diamonds	1–0	3–1	4–0	2–0	2–5	2–3	1–3	1–0	2–1		2–1	6–2	3–1	0–1	2–2	4–3	1–1	1–1
Kashiwa Reysol	1–1	2–1	0–4	5–2	1–3	2–1	3–1	3–3	1–3	2–6		2–1	1–1	2–2	4–1	3–1	0–0	2–0
Sagan Tosu	1–3	1–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	5–4	1–1	1–0	4–1	0–3		0–2	0–1	2–3	3–2	1–0	2–1
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	2–0	0–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	1–3	4–2	1–1	2–1	1–2	0–0	2–0		3–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	5–1
Shimizu S-Pulse	1–2	4–3	1–0	3–1	1–1	0–5	1–2	2–1	1–0	0–2	1–2	6–4	0–4		0–0	3–1	2–0	2–1
FC Tokyo	2–0	1–4	0–1	2–1	1–2	0–2	2–0	3–1	2–2	3–2	3–0	2–3	0–1	2–0		2–0	2–0	4–1
Oita Trinita	1–3	2–3	0–2	1–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	2–2	0–0	2–4	1–1	2–3	1–2		0–1	0–1
Vegalta Sendai	0–1	2–1	2–1	0–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	3–3	2–1	1–1	0–2	1–2	2–1	6–0		1–1
Ventforet Kofu	1–1	3–0	0–3	0–1	1–2	0–0	1–3	0–1	2–1	0–1	3–1	0–0	2–0	0–2	1–1	0–0	0–1

Updated to match(es) played on 7 December 2013. Source: J. League Division 1
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Yoshito Ōkubo	Kawasaki Frontale	26
2	Kengo Kawamata	Albirex Niigata	23
3	Yoichiro Kakitani	Cerezo Osaka	21
4	Yohei Toyoda	Sagan Tosu	20
5	Masato Kudo	Kashiwa Reysol	19
	Yuya Osako	Kashima Antlers
7	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	17
	Kazuma Watanabe	FC Tokyo
9	Marquinhos	Yokohama F. Marinos	16
10	Wilson	Vegalta Sendai	13
	Shinzo Koroki	Urawa Red Diamonds

Updated to games played on 7 December 2013
Source: J. League

Awards

Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club
March	Shunsuke Nakamura[2]	Yokohama F. Marinos
April	Zlatan Ljubijankič[2]	Omiya Ardija
May	Yoichiro Kakitani	Cerezo Osaka
June	N/A[3]
July	Shusaku Nishikawa	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
August	Yuya Osako	Kashima Antlers
September	Ariajasuru Hasegawa	FC Tokyo
October	Tetsuya Enomoto	Yokohama F. Marinos
November	Yoshito Ōkubo	Kawasaki Frontale

Best XI

Position	Player	Club
GK	Shusaku Nishikawa	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
DF	Daisuke Nasu	Urawa Red Diamonds
DF	Masato Morishige	FC Tokyo
DF	Yuji Nakazawa	Yokohama F. Marinos
MF	Hotaru Yamaguchi	Cerezo Osaka
MF	Shunsuke Nakamura	Yokohama F. Marinos
MF	Toshihiro Aoyama	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
MF	Yoichiro Kakitani	Cerezo Osaka
FW	Kengo Kawamata	Albirex Niigata
FW	Yoshito Ōkubo	Kawasaki Frontale
FW	Yuya Osako	Kashima Antlers

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Urawa Red Diamonds	630,701	54,905	23,295	37,100	+1.3%†
2	Yokohama F. Marinos	467,425	62,632	12,537	27,496	+19.8%†
3	Albirex Niigata	443,906	33,378	18,919	26,112	+4.4%†
4	FC Tokyo	426,246	40,371	12,905	25,073	+4.7%†
5	Cerezo Osaka	319,928	36,361	9,119	18,819	+11.3%†
6	Kawasaki Frontale	282,952	21,657	12,345	16,644	−6.5%†
7	Kashima Antlers	279,115	32,305	6,681	16,419	+6.7%†
8	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	275,556	27,911	10,045	16,209	−8.5%†
9	Nagoya Grampus	274,297	30,478	9,237	16,135	−5.9%†
10	Vegalta Sendai	252,725	17,892	11,755	14,866	−10.4%†
11	Shimizu S-Pulse	240,324	21,420	9,238	14,137	−6.5%†
12	Ventforet Kofu	214,441	28,906	7,754	12,614	+21.2%†
13	Kashiwa Reysol	213,406	34,021	7,013	12,553	−8.8%†
14	Sagan Tosu	184,242	22,530	6,292	11,515	−4.0%†
15	Oita Trinita	202,557	23,814	7,067	11,915	+22.6%†
16	Omiya Ardija	189,342	13,365	7,412	11,138	+4.7%†
17	Júbilo Iwata	185,207	20,049	5,698	10,895	−17.0%†
18	Shonan Bellmare	168,481	13,786	6,080	9,911	+44.6%†
	League total	5,271,047	62,632	5,698	17,226	−1.9%†

Updated to games played on 7 December 2013
Source: J. League Division 1
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in J2.