Team Data: Cerezo Osaka Team Name: Team Logo & Mascot: Team Flag: Home Uniform Away Uniform Home Stadium Nagai Stadium Seats 50,000 (WC2002 venue) Team Data: Management Corporation: Osaka Football Club Co., Ltd. Established: 9 December, 1993 President: Junichi Fujii Investors: Consortium of 17 local companies, including Nippon Meat Packers, Inc. and Yanmar Diesel Engine Co., Ltd., as well as Osaka City Address: 2-2-19 Nagaihigashi, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka City, Osaka 558-0004 Hometown Area: Osaka City Home Stadium: Nagai Stadium (capacity: 50,000) Joined J. League: 1995 Major Titles: JSL Champions: (as Yanmar Diesel) 1971, 1974, 1975, 1980 Emperor's Cup: (as Yanmar Diesel) 1968, 1970, 1974 Year League Emperor's Cup JSL Cup Coach 1957 Founded Furukawa 1965 7th Lost in prelim " 1966 8th Lost in prelim Onitake 1967 5th 2nd " 1968 2nd Champion " 1969 5th Lost in prelim " 1970 4th Champion " 1971 Champion 2nd " 1972 2nd 2nd " 1973 3rd Semifinal Champion " 1974 Champion Champion (Special Cup) " 1975 Champion Semifinal " 1976 4th 2nd Lost in prelim " 1977 5th 2nd 2nd " 1978 2nd Quarterfinal Quarterfinal Kamamoto 1979 4th Semifinal 2nd round " 1980 Champion 2nd round Quarterfinal " 1981 4th Quarterfinal 2nd round " 1982 2nd Quarterfinal 2nd " 1983 5th 2nd Champion " 1984 9th Quarterfinal Champion " 1985 10th 2nd round 2nd round Mita 1986 6th Quarterfinal Semifinal " 1987 6th 1st round Quarterfinal " 1988 8th 2nd round Semifinal " 1989 7th Quarterfinal 2nd round " 1990 11th 1st round 2nd round Yoshimura 1991 3rd 1st round 1st round " 1992 4th Third round " 1993 7th Lost in prelim "

Team Roster 2009 Schedule Historical Results Preseason Forecast Cerezo Osaka have long been one of the most colourful teams in the J.League, and not solely for their "flaming pink" uniforms. Although Cerezo has never won the league title, they have come within a whisker of victory on two occasions, and if the team continues to play its aggressive style of attacking football, fans are sure to overlook the relative lack of silverware. In 2000, and again in 2005, Cerezo went into the final match of the season in first place, only to stumble at the final hurdle. While this has surely disappointed their fans, it is often the teams that break their fans hearts with dramatic "near misses" that enjoy the most fanatical support. Although their cross-town rivals, Gamba, were the first Kansai-area team to win the title, in 2005, and have gone on to even greater international fame as Asian champions in 2008, Cerezo still seems to be the team that excites the greater passion among folks in Osaka Cerezo got its start in 1965, as the club team of Yanmar Diesel. In the same year that it was established, the team gained admission to the Japan Soccer League and quickly established itself as a formidable opponent, winning the league championship four times, the league cup three times and the Emperor's Cup twice during the 1970s and early 1980s. Yanmar entered a slump in the late 1980s, and was breifly demoted to the second division, but immediately prior to the formation of the J.League in 1993, the club revived, gaining admission to the JFL in the same year that the J.League was formed. It incorporated as Osaka Football Club Ltd. in 1993, and adopted its current name In 1993, when it gained its independence from Yanmar, the team adopted the name "Cerezo Osaka", taken from the spanish word for "cherry". Osaka -- and all of Japan, for that matter -- is well known for its beautiful cherry trees which blossom in a pink profusion during the early spring. The cherry blossoms of Osaka not only inspired the team to adopt the name "Cerezo", but also earned it a unique colour scheme for its team uniforms and a nickname that has gained popularity throughout the English-language press in Japan since the Rising Sun News first began using it in 1999 -- "The Flaming Pinks". A year after adopting its new identity, in 1994, Cerezo won the JFL championship and was inducted into the J.League. It takes a real tough guy to play in a pink uniform, and Cerezo quickly earned a reputation as a tough opponent, despite the fact that the team never won a championship. In the team's first decade as a J.League club, its character and team image was iconified by team captain Hiroaki Morishima, a small, speedy and clever-footed midfielder whose seemingly boundless energy earned him frequent calls to the national team. In the late 90s, Morishima joined forces with striker Akinori Nishizawa and several top Korean nationals, such as Noh Jung-Yoon, Hwang Sun-Hong and Yoon Jung-Hwan, as well as volante Kazuaki Tasaka (now a Cerezo coach), whose bald head and forceful style earned him the nickname "Robocop". The team boasted one of the most potent offenses in the league, and came within a single goal of winning its first league title in the 2000 season. Unfortunately, this marked a high-water mark for the team, and preceeded a collapse of dramatic proportions. After a weak finish in the second half of 2000, Cerezo released its Korean contingent, and striker Nishizawa moved overseas, first to Espanyol in Spain, and then to Bolton Wanderers, in England. Injuries to other key personnel made matters worse, and the team quickly went into a talspin from which it was unable to recover. As a result, Cerezo tumbled into the cellar and was relegated to the J2 division at the end of the 2001 season. But Cerezo regrouped following their relegation. The team managed to convince most of its top players to stay on, and fight for promotion in the very next year. The spell in a less competitive division allowed several youngsters, particularly striker Yoshito Okubo, to come into their own and attract enough attention to earn calls to the U-23 national team, and eventually the full NT. Okubo and a collection of other young, attack-minded players, supported by the remaining core of veterans like Morishima, carried Cerezo to a successful J2 campaign and an immediate return to the J1 division in 2003. Cerezo has always employed a ferocious attacking strategy, demonstrating a style of play that is as flashy as their flaming pink uniforms. However, until recently the team has struggled due to inconsistent defending and some rather questionable management performance. The best illustration of this problem came in 2004, when the team set a rather dubious "record", by going through five separate coaches over the course of a single season. In fact, following the close of the 2003 season, the team replaced its coach twice before the 2004 season even began! In 2005, however, the team seemed to have regained its old offensive fire and competitiveness. The addition of some effective Brazilians like Ze Carlos, Fabinho and Bruno Cuadros, plus contributions from youngsters like Kenjiro Ezoe, Noriyuki Sakemoto and Kota Fujimoto, turned the Flaming Pinks very suddenly from a recently promoted, midtable struggler to a title contender. Though later events would make this surge of success looke like a flash in the pan, for a few weeks in late 2005 it looked like the Flaming Pinks would finally claim their first league title. But it was not to be. On the final day of the season, Cerezo conceded a goal in injury time to tumble out of first place and miss their chance of glory. The hqaertbreak of falling just short of success in 2005 seemed to take its toll, both physically and emotionally. For the next 12 months the team went through the worst slump in its history, culminating in relegation at the end of the 2006 season. To make matters worse, the veteran players who stuck with the team during its first stint in the J2 were unwilling to spend another year in the shadows. Nearly all of the big names, with the exception of the now-fading Morishima, decided to move elsewhere. The result was a deterioration in underlying team solidity which would make this stint in the second division a much longer one. The team struggled through the 2007 season, focusing mainly on the development of some promising teenagers like Shinji Kagawa and Yoichiro Kakitani, and the gradual development of a new core of players to carry the team through the next decade. Their fifth-place finish in 2007 was not unexpected, but disappointing all the same. The rebuilding process continued for most of the 2008 season, but while the Flaming Pinks fell short of a promotion spot once again, finishing in fourth place, there were strong indications in the latter half of the season that Cerezo's careful rebuilding job was nearing completion. The dynamic teenagers who spearhead the offence had gained enough skill, confidence and personal maturity that captain Morishima -- now 36 years old and rarely able to make his presence felt on the pitch -- was able to hand over the emotional leadership of the club to a new generation and announce his retirement. Perhaps the symbolism of his retirement is appropriate in its timing, because there are clear signs that Cerezo is ready to enter a new era and hopefully rejoin the J1 at the end of the 2009 season. Of course, there will be plenty of competition. But looking at the main Japanese players who form the core of each J2 club, it is difficult to argue that any other J2 team is more competitive than Cerezo. It would help if the team can sign some foreign players who make more meaningful contributions; indeed, Cerezo has not had any real "star" foreigners since the Korean triad era, back at the turn of the century. Nevertheless, even without any additions from overseas, the Flaming Pinks proved themselves a formidable competitor in 2008 . . . and that was when several of the team's main contributors were teenagers. As players like Kagawa, Kakitani and the like add another year of experience, we can only assume that the team will become an even more dangerous opponent. Cherry Blossom fans in Osaka will certainly be hoping that is the case. Roby Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Nobody seems to know why Cerezo chose a wolf as a mascot, though the team claims that Roby symbolizes "intelligence, teamwork and aggressive play". Go figure.

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