Team Name: Team Logo & Mascot: Home Stadium Toyama Soccer Stadium Seats 28,500

Toyama Prefecture, on the Japan Sea coast of Honshu, is a region with excellent potential to support a J.League team, and after many years of false hopes and dithering uncertainty, it looks like Toyama might finally be on the verge of earning a spot in the J2. The area is certainly big enough and populous enough to support a professional team, and the popularity of the sport in this region can easily be seen in the trememdous support enjoyed by Albirex Niigata, just up the Japan Sea coast from Toyama. The problem that fans in the Toyama area have had until just recently -- if it could be considered a problem -- was the fact that there were already several legitimate candidates, competing for the loyalties of football fans in the region. Even before the prospect of J.League admission arose, there were at least two major company-sponsored teams in the city, each with a reasonably strong financial and grassroots backing. For years, neither one of the two teams could gain the upper hand either on the football pitch or in terms of organization. With two rival candidates for the role as "Toyama's Team", the Toyama Football Association's strong desire to establish a J.League club was stymied by the very divisive question of which team -- Alo's Hokuriku or YKK AP --should receive their support. After several years of competing side by side in the JFL, Alo's and YKK were finally convinced to combine their forces and create a single club. Because of the pride that both teams and sets of fans had developed over the years, and the danger that this merger might create some friction between the two clubs, the Toyama FA took great pains to ensure that the negotiations were as friendly as possible, and that both teams would see themselves as "equal partners" in the new club -- as two parents who had come together to give birth to a new and more competitive offspring. This concerted effort to maintain equality and balance in the merger would have a number of "interesting" consequences, as we will see below. To understand Kataller Toyama properly, therefore, it is necessary to examine the history of the two clubs in detail, and consider the various factors which supported their parallel development and their eventual merger, in 2007, to create this new football power in the Hokuriku region. To begin, here is an overview of the two clubs, as they existed in 2006:

The team with the longest history, and the best results during the past decade or so, was YKK AP. YKK AP was formed in 1962, by a subsidiary of the YKK Corporation (the AP stands for Architectural Products - they make things like doors and window frames). The team registered with the prefectural FA in 1969. Three years later, YKK won the Toyama Prefectural League and in 1975 they joined the Hokushinetsu League at Regional level.

In 1988, the corporation imported two Brazilian players to boost the team's prospects, and from the early 1990s onwards, YKK AP became a dominant force in the Hokushinetsu League, along with Alo's Hokuriku and Albireo Niigata (which later changed its name to Albirex and entered the J.League in the J2's inaugural season).

The oddly named Alo's Hokuriku got a slightly later start than YKK AP, but at least initially they had more success. Formed in 1990, as the corporate club of Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Alo's became YKK AP's fiercest local rival. Under the name "Hokuriku Electric Power Football Club", they quickly established themselves in the Hokushinetsu Regional League, and in 1996 came close to winning their first title, missing out only on goal difference to Albireo Niigata -- forerunners to current J1 side, Albirex. In the same year, the team made the decision to change its moniker to the more friendly, though grammatically and etymologically mysterious "Alo's Hokuriku". The word "Alo's" is a shining example of how Japanese football teams often adopt ersatz foreign words in their team names: "Alo's" is a corrupted abbreviation of the word "antelopes", referring to a local animal (the Japanese serow -- actually a type of deer) which lives in the mountains of the Hokuriku district. In addition to inspiring the team name, the "antelope" was been adopted as the team mascot.

Team Name: Team Logo & Mascot: Alo-kun The team mascot of Alo's Hokuriku, and also the source of the team's name, was the Japanese serow, a type of deer which lives in the mountains of the Shin-etsu and Hokuriku regions. Although it is most closely related to the Japanese deer, its prong-like horns apparently caused some English-speaking locals to start referring to it with the word "antelope".

Team Name: Team Logo & Mascot: No Name The YKK team mascot was based on a common type of sea bird, similar to a duck, which is found on the shores of the Toyama coast. The mascot was never as carefully planned or designed as the Alo's mascot, and did not even have a name. Nevertheless, it did have a certain amount of wacky charm.

In 1998, Alo's pipped YKK to win their first Hokushinetsu League title, but failed to make it through the Annual Nationwide Regional League Championship Tournament to a spot in the JFL. In 1999, though, they were not to be denied. Despite finishing runners-up to YKK in the Regional League title chase, they nevertheless gained a place in the playoffs and outperformed their local rivals to make their way into the JFL. YKK AP finally achieved promotion to the JFL in 2000, a year after Alo's.

After joining the JFL, however, it was YKK who surpassed Alo's on the football pitch. Between 2000 and 2004, YKK AP tended to finish around midtable or higher, while Alo's struggled and finished in the bottom three in three of the five seasons. But in 2005, Alo's picked up a few players on loan from the recently promoted Tokushima Vortis, as well as a number of players who had spent time with smaller J2 sides, such as Mito Hollyhock and Sagan Tosu. For the first time since earning promotion, Alo's managed to end the season in the top half of the table, and closed out the season with a blistering series of nine wins and two draws in the last eleven matches. Halfway through this impressive run, a crowd of over 10,000 fans at Toyama Stadium watched as Alo's put in a magnificent performance against Nagoya Grampus in the Emperor's Cup, succumbing only to an isolated goal early in the second half, which allowed Grampus to progress with a 1-0 win. Though they failed to progress any further, Alo's had already established themselves as one of the most attractive Cinderellas of 2005, with a 2-1 win against Shonan Bellmare, in the previous round.

At this point, the Toyama FA initiated discussions between Alo's and YKK AP, probing the possibility of creating a "Toyama United" team to compete for J.League admission. These discussions came to nothing, and the two teams returned to their separate camps to compete for both the loyalty of local fans and the favour of the FA. YKK AP might have gained the edge if their corporate sponsor had immediately thrown its support behind an independent club. However, YKK played coy while Alo's made no secret of its ambition to eventually pursue an existence independent of Hokuriku Electric.

By 2007, with both teams battling in the top five spots of the JFL, Toyama's football bosses stepped in once more, and put pressure on the two teams to resolve their differences and merge, or face the possibility that the FA would throw its weight behind the other club as a J.League candidate. This time both clubs saw the merits of a merger, and even as they continued to battle it out on the pitch, they began setting up the independent corporation needed to front for a newly merged club. As you might expect there were a few "compromises" that had to be made in order to ensure an equal and friendly merger. The choice of a mascot was certainly not the least of these.

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As the 2007 JFL season neared its climax, the two parent companies appeared before the press, accompanied by several JFA, Toyama FA and J.League hotshots to announce the creation of the "Toyama Prefecture Football Club Team Co., Ltd", and a new football club named "Kataller". The name is a suitable replacement for the oddly derived "Alo's Hokuriku", since it reportedly is a combination of the Japanese word "katsu" (to win) and the French "aller" (to go), thus producing the injunction "go win!" In addition, "katare" (a homonym for "Kataller") means "to speak" in standard Japanese, as well as "You can win" in the local Toyama dialect.

At the moment, the club has no mascot and apart from announcing that YKK AP and Alo's would each contribute half of the players to be included in the 2008 lineup, the club has not provided too many details. However, details can wait as far as the fans of Toyama are concerned. At last they have a single "hometown team," to rally around, and based on the performance of the two separate teams in 2007, the prospect of entering the professional ranks may be just a year or two away.

Kataller Toyama -- Team Roster for 2007

.	Pos.	Name	Birth Date	Height	Weight	Birthplace
1	GK	Yuji Nakagawa	10/22/1978	178	73	Yamaguchi
2	DF	Keiichiro Hashimoto	5/18/1983	184	70	Mie
3	DF	Kengo Tsutsumi	3/08/1978/	181	75	Oita
4	DF	Kim Myung-Hwi	5/08/1981	186	77	Hyogo
5	MF	Kazuya Nagayama	4/01/1982	165	64	Shizuoka
6	DF	Yuki Hamano	6/23/1978	177	72	Kagoshima
7	MF	Daisuke Asahi	7/26/1980	173	62	Hiroshima
8	MF	Makoto Watanabe	9/25/1980	170	68	Shizuoka
9	FW	Kazuma Matsushita	6/25/1982	170	66	Osaka
10	MF	Kazuaki Kamizono	11/28/1981	174	66	Kanagawa
11	FW	Yuya Nagatomi	7/30/1982	185	75	Fukuoka
13	FW	Mitsuru Hasegawa	2/03/1979	181	75	Fukui
14	MF	Kentaro Kawasaki	12/18/1982	175	65	Osaka
15	FW	Hideyuki Ishida	1982/04/15	169	64	Kyoto
16	MF	Kenji Kageyama	4/02/1980	178	71	Nagano
17	MF	Keisuke Kimoto	8/23/1984	168	61	Oita
18	MF	Kang Hyon-Su	6/16/1984	172	68	Osaka
19	DF	Makoto Nishino	7/03/1984	172	65	Hyogo
20	MF	Daigo Imai	2/19/1984	164	60	Okayama
21	GK	Koji Fujikawa	10/07/1978	180	78	Tokushima
22	DF	Michiharu Otagiri	0/02/1978	179	72	Ishikawa
23	FW	Tomohisa Ishiguro	4/27/1981	177	70	Toyama
24	MF	Hirotaka Hagiwara	7/11/1986	170	64	Shizuoka
25	MF	Ryo Nojima	10/05/1979	170	65	Toyama
26	MF	Yohei Nakada	11/11/1983	174	66	Hyogo
27	MF	Hideya Tanaka	6/25/1986	174	64	Okayama
28	MF	Satoshi Yoshioka	7/06/1987	172	62	Gunma
31	GK	Satoshi Hashida	12/20/1981	183	80	Kyoto

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Match Schedule for 2008

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Mar 16	Kataller Toyama	vs	New Wave Kitakyushu	Toyama Stadium
Mar 20	Fagiano Okayama	vs	Kataller Toyama	Momotaro Stadium
Mar 23	Kataller Toyama	vs	Arte Takasaki	Toyama Stadium
Mar 30	FC Ryukyu	vs	Kataller Toyama	Kitaya Stadium
Apr 6	Kataller Toyama	vs	FC Kariya	Toyama Stadium
Apr 13	Mitsubishi Mizushima	vs	Kataller Toyama	Kasaoka Stadium
Apr 20	Kataller Toyama	vs	Gainare Tottori	Toyama Stadium
Apr 27	TDK SC	vs	Kataller Toyama	Nikaho Stadium
May 2	Kataller Toyama	vs	Sagawa Printing	Toyama Stadium
May 6	Sony Sendai	vs	Kataller Toyama	Sendai Stadium
May 11	Kataller Toyama	vs	RKU	Gofuku Stadium
May 18	JEF Club	vs	Kataller Toyama	Ichihara Seaside Stadium
May 25	Kataller Toyama	vs	Tochigi SC	Toyama Stadium
Jun 1	Yokogawa Musashino	vs	Kataller Toyama	Musashino Stadium
Jun 8	Kataller Toyama	vs	Honda FC	Toyama Stadium
Jun 15	Kataller Toyama	vs	Mio Biwako	Toyama Stadium
Jun 22	Sagawa Shiga	vs	Kataller Toyama	Sagawa Moriyama Std.
Jun 29	New Wave Kitakyushu	vs	Kataller Toyama	Honjo Stadium
Jul 5	Kataller Toyama	vs	Mitsubishi Mizushima	Toyama Stadium
Jul 12	Gainare Tottori	vs	Kataller Toyama	Tottori Bird Stadium
Jul 21	Kataller Toyama	vs	TDK SC	Toyama Stadium
Jul 25	Sagawa Printing	vs	Kataller Toyama	Nishikyogoku Stadium
Aug 3	Kataller Toyama	vs	Sony Sendai	Momoyama Stadium
Aug 10	RKU	vs	Kataller Toyama	Ryugasaki Stadium
Aug 17	Kataller Toyama	vs	JEF Club	Gofuku Stadium
Sep 7	Tochigi SC	vs	Kataller Toyama	Ashikaga Stadium
Oct 5	Kataller Toyama	vs	Yokogawa Musashino	Toyama Stadium
Oct 19	Honda FC	vs	Kataller Toyama	Miyakoda Stadium
Oct 26	FC Kariya	vs	Kataller Toyama	Kariya Stadium
Nov 2	Kataller Toyama	vs	FC Ryukyu	Toyama Stadium
Nov 8	Arte Takasaki	vs	Kataller Toyama	Hamakawa Stadium
Nov 16	Kataller Toyama	vs	Sagawa Shiga	Toyama Stadium
Nov 23	Mio Biwako	vs	Kataller Toyama	Konan Stadium
Nov 30	Kataller Toyama	vs	Fagiano Okayama	Toyama Stadium

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