1994 J.League

J.League
Season	1994
Champions	Verdy Kawasaki; 2nd J.League title; 7th Japanese title
Asian Club Championship	Verdy Kawasaki
Matches played	264
Goals scored	841 (3.19 per match)
Top goalscorer	Frank Ordenewitz (30 goals)
Highest attendance	55,125 - Urawa Reds vs. Verdy Kawasaki (September 17)
Lowest attendance	7,854 - Urawa Reds vs. Sanfrecce Hiroshima (March 23)
Total attendance	5,152,117
Average attendance	19,516
	← 1993 1995 →

The J.League 1994 season was the second season of the J.League. The league commenced on March 12, 1994, and completed on November 19, 1994. The Suntory Championship 1994 took place on November 26 and December 2, 1994.

Clubs

The following 12 clubs participated in J.League during 1994 season. Of these clubs, Bellmare Hiratsuka and Júblio Iwata were newly promoted from Japan Football League.

Club name	Hometown	Stadium (majority games)	Capacity	Notes
Bellmare Hiratsuka	Hiratsuka, Kanagawa	Hiratsuka Stadium	15,380	Promoted
Gamba Osaka	Osaka, Osaka	Osaka Expo '70 Stadium	21,000
JEF United Ichihara	Chiba, Chiba	Ichihara Seaside Stadium	14,051
Júbilo Iwata	Iwata, Shizuoka	Júbilo Iwata Stadium	15,165	Promoted
Kashima Antlers	Kashima, Ibaraki	Kashima Soccer Stadium	37,638
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Nagoya, Aichi	Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium	11,900
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshima, Hiroshima	Hiroshima General Ground Main Stadium	13,800
Shimizu S-Pulse	Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture	Nihondaira Sports Stadium	20,248
Urawa Red Diamonds	Saitama, Greater Tokyo Area	Urawa Komaba Stadium	21,500
Verdy Kawasaki	Kawasaki, Kanagawa	Todoroki Athletics Stadium	26,232
Yokohama Flügels	Yokohama	Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454
Yokohama Marinos	Yokohama	Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Player 7	Former players
Bellmare Hiratsuka	Almir	Betinho	Edson	Mirandinha
Gamba Osaka	Sergei Aleinikov	Flávio	Kiril Metkov	Akhrik Tsveiba	Oleh Protasov
JEF United Ichihara	Sandro	František Mysliveček	Pavel Řehák	Nenad Maslovar	Frank Ordenewitz	Pierre Littbarski	Shin Che-bon
Júbilo Iwata	Walter	Salvatore Schillaci	André Paus	Gerald Vanenburg
Kashima Antlers	Alcindo	Edinho	Leonardo	Santos				Zico
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Elivélton	Garça	Jorginho	Dragan Stojković	Dragiša Binić	Dido Havenaar		Gary Lineker
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Andrey	Ivan Hašek	Pavel Černý	Tore Pedersen	Lee Baxter	Noh Jung-yoon
Shimizu S-Pulse	Djalminha	Ronaldão	Toninho					Sidmar
Urawa Red Diamonds	Guido Buchwald	Michael Rummenigge	Uwe Bein	Edwin Uehara	Cho Kwi-jae			Uwe Rahn Ľubomír Luhový Miroslav Mentel
Verdy Kawasaki	Bentinho	Bismarck	Capitão	Paulo	Pereira
Yokohama Flügels	Fernando Moner	Aldro	Edu	Válber				Raúl Amarilla
Yokohama Marinos	David Bisconti	Gustavo Zapata	Ramón Díaz	Ramón Medina Bello				Everton

Format

In the 1994 season, the league followed split-season format, just like the previous season. Each halves (or stages) were known as Suntory Series and NICOS Series for sponsorship purposes. In each series, twelve clubs played in double round-robin format with a total of 22 games per club (per series). The games then went to golden-goal extra time and penalties if needed after regulation. The clubs were ranked by number of wins, and tie breakers are, in the following order:

Goal differential
Goals scored
Head-to-head results
Extra match or a coin toss

The club that finished at the top of the table is declared stage champion and qualifies for the Suntory Championship. The first stage winner hosts the first leg in the championship series. If the same club win both stages, the runners-up of each stages plays against each other and the winners challenges the stage winner at the championship game.

Changes in competition format

Number of competing clubs increased from 10 to 12
Number of games per club in a series increased from 18 to 22 games and from 36 to 44 games per season.

Standings

Suntory Series (1st Stage) standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Qualification
1	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	22	17	5	44	26	+18	1994 Suntory Series Champions Qualified to Suntory Championship '94
2	Shimizu S-Pulse	22	16	6	41	25	+16
3	Kashima Antlers	22	16	6	45	32	+13
4	Verdy Kawasaki	22	14	8	43	21	+22
5	Yokohama Flügels	22	13	9	36	27	+9
6	JEF United Ichihara	22	10	12	34	43	−9
7	Júbilo Iwata	22	9	13	27	32	−5
8	Nagoya Grampus Eight	22	9	13	23	28	−5
9	Yokohama Marinos	22	8	14	29	35	−6
10	Gamba Osaka	22	7	15	37	46	−9
11	Bellmare Hiratsuka	22	7	15	27	54	−27
12	Urawa Red Diamonds	22	6	16	26	43	−17

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

NICOS Series (2nd stage) standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Qualification
1	Verdy Kawasaki	22	17	5	48	26	+22	1994 NICOS Series Champions Qualifies to Suntory Championship '94
2	Bellmare Hiratsuka	22	16	6	48	26	+22
3	Yokohama Marinos	22	14	8	44	26	+18
4	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	22	12	10	27	31	−4
5	Kashima Antlers	22	11	11	44	36	+8
6	Shimizu S-Pulse	22	11	11	28	31	−3
7	Júbilo Iwata	22	11	11	29	37	−8
8	Yokohama Flügels	22	9	13	31	33	−2
9	JEF United Ichihara	22	9	13	35	42	−7
10	Gamba Osaka	22	8	14	29	36	−7
11	Urawa Red Diamonds	22	8	14	33	51	−18
12	Nagoya Grampus Eight	22	6	16	33	54	−21

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Suntory Championship '94

November 26, 1994
14:38

Sanfrecce Hiroshima	0 – 1	Verdy Kawasaki
		35' Kitazawa

Hiroshima Big Arch

Attendance: 42,316

Referee: Alberto Tejada

December 2, 1994
19:02

Verdy Kawasaki	1 – 0	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Ramos 80'

Tokyo National Stadium

Attendance: 50,512

Referee: Zoran Petrović

VERDY KAWASAKI won the series on 2-0 aggregate.

Overall standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Qualification
1	Verdy Kawasaki	44	31	13	91	47	+44	1994 J.League Champions Qualifies to 1995/96 ACC, 1995 Super Cup, and 1995 Sanwa Bank Cup
2	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	44	29	15	71	57	+14
3	Kashima Antlers	44	27	17	89	68	+21
4	Shimizu S-Pulse	44	27	17	69	56	+13
5	Bellmare Hiratsuka	44	23	21	75	80	−5
6	Yokohama Marinos	44	22	22	73	61	+12
7	Yokohama Flügels	44	22	22	67	60	+7
8	Júbilo Iwata	44	20	24	56	69	−13
9	JEF United Ichihara	44	19	25	69	85	−16
10	Gamba Osaka	44	15	29	66	82	−16
11	Nagoya Grampus Eight	44	15	29	56	82	−26
12	Urawa Red Diamonds	44	14	30	59	94	−35

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Honours

Competition	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
League Competition
J.League Suntory Series	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Shimizu S-Pulse	Kashima Antlers
J.League NICOS Series	Verdy Kawasaki	Bellmare Hiratsuka	Yokohama Marinos
Suntory Championship	Verdy Kawasaki	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Cup Tournaments
Emperor's Cup	Bellmare Hiratsuka	Cerezo Osaka	Yokohama Marinos Gamba Osaka
Nabisco Cup	Verdy Kawasaki	Júbilo Iwata	Gamba Osaka Yokohama Marinos
XEROX Super Cup	Verdy Kawasaki	Yokohama Flügels

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Frank Ordenewitz	JEF United Ichihara	30
2	Alcindo Sartori	Kashima Antlers	28
3	Betinho	Bellmare Hiratsuka	24
4	Ramón Díaz	Yokohama Marinos	23
4	Nobuhiro Takeda	Verdy Kawasaki	23
6	Toninho	Shimizu S-Pulse	22
7	Yoshiyuki Hasegawa	Kashima Antlers	21
8	Ivan Hašek	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	19
8	Koji Noguchi	Bellmare Hiratsuka	19
10	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	16
10	Toshihiro Yamaguchi	Gamba Osaka	16
12	Ramón Medina Bello	Yokohama Marinos	15
12	Pavel Černý	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	15
14	Bismarck	Verdy Kawasaki	14
14	Takuya Takagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	14

Awards

Individual awards

Award	Recipient	Club
Most Valuable Player	Pereira	Verdy Kawasaki
Rookie of the Year	Kazuaki Tasaka	Bellmare Hiratsuka
Manager of the Year	Yasutaro Matsuki	Verdy Kawasaki
Top Scorer	Frank Ordenewitz	JEF United Ichihara

Best Eleven

Position	Footballer	Club	Nationality
GK	Shinkichi Kikuchi	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
DF	Pereira	Verdy Kawasaki	Brazil
DF	Masami Ihara	Yokohama Marinos	Japan
DF	Yoshihiro Natsuka	Bellmare Hiratsuka	Japan
MF	Betinho	Bellmare Hiratsuka	Brazil
MF	Bismarck	Verdy Kawasaki	Brazil
MF	Tetsuji Hashiratani	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
MF	Tsuyoshi Kitazawa	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
MF	Ruy Ramos	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
FW	Takuya Takagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
FW	Nobuhiro Takeda	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan

References

Source: J. League 1994 (RSSSF)