J League History: 1994

At the start of the 1994 season, two new teams were added to the league -- Jubilo Iwata and Bellmare Hiratsuka. Jubilo was an long-time member of the old JFA, where it had been known as Yamaha FC. The team had only just missed inclusion in its initial year. Bellmare, on the other hand, was a newer club that was only formed a few years before the launch of the J.League. The teams played each other twice over the course of a stage (four times over the course of the year), for a total of 22 matches per stage. This was the last year that such an arrangement would be possible, as it turned out that even the attempt to play a 44-match season would prove unwieldy. This experience is pertinent in watching the development of the J2, since it seems that the number of matches in that division are getting to be excessive as well. Most likely, the J2 will follow the example that the J.League (J1) set in 1995, and adopt a double round-robin format.

J.League 1994, First Stage
Rank Team W L GF GA G.Dif.
1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 17 5 44 26 18
2 Shimizu S-Pulse 16 6 41 25 16
3 Kashima Antlers 16 6 45 32 13
4 Verdy Kawasaki 14 8 43 21 22
5 Yokohama Flugels 13 9 36 27 9
6 JEF United Ichihara 10 12 34 43 -9
7 Jubilo Iwata 9 13 27 32 -5
8 Nagoya Grampus 9 13 23 28 -5
9 Yokohama Marinos 8 14 29 35 -6
10 Gamba Osaka 7 15 37 46 -9
11 Bellmare Hiratsuka 7 15 27 54 -27
12 Urawa Reds 6 16 26 43 -17

J.League 1994, Second Stage
Rank Team W L GF GA G.Dif.
1 Verdy Kawasaki 17 5 48 26 22
2 Bellmare Hiratsuka 16 6 48 26 22
3 Yokohama Marinos 14 8 44 26 18
4 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 12 10 27 31 -4
5 Kashima Antlers 11 11 44 36 8
6 Shimizu S-Pulse 11 11 28 31 -3
7 Jubilo Iwata 11 11 29 37 -8
8 Yokohama Flugels 9 13 31 33 -2
9 JEF United Ichihara 9 13 35 42 -7
10 Gamba Osaka 8 14 29 36 -7
11 Urawa Reds 8 14 33 51 -18
12 Nagoya Grampus 6 16 33 54 -21

Championship Series
26 Nov 1994 Verdy Kawasaki 1-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Tsuyoshi Kitazawa . .
2 Dec, 1994 Verdy Kawasaki 1-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Ruy Ramos . .

Scoring Leaders

30 Frank Ordenewitz JEF United

28 Alcindo Sartori Kashima Antlers

24 Betinho Bellmare Hiratsuka

23 Nobuhiro Takeda Verdy Kawasaki

23 Ramon Diaz Yokohama Marinos

22 Toninho Shimizu S-Pulse

21 Yoshiyuki Hasegawa Kashima Antlers

21 Koji Noguchi Bellmare Hiratsuka

19 Ivan Hasek Sanfrecce Hiroshima

16 Kazu Miura Verdy Kawasaki

16 Tomohiro Yamaguchi Gamba Osaka

15 Pavel Cerny Sanfrecce Hiroshima

15 Ramon Medina Bello Yokohama Marinos

14 Bismarck Verdy Kawasaki

14 Takuya Takagi Sanfrecce Hiroshima

1994 J.League Awards
MVP Ruy Ramos Verdy Kawasaki
Rookie of the Year Kazuaki Tasaka Bellmare Hiratsuka
Golden Boot Alcindo Kashima Antlers

Coach of the Year Yasutaro Matsuki Verdy Kawasaki

Best Eleven

GK Shinkichi Kikuchi Verdy Kawasaki
DF Masami Iihara Yokohama Marinos
Zenryo Inazuka Bellmare Hiratsuka
Carlos Perreira Verdy Kawasaki
MF Tsuyoshi Kitazawa Verdy Kawasaki
Tetsuji Hashiratani Verdy Kawasaki
Bismarck Verdy Kawasaki
Betinho Bellmare Hiratsuka
Ruy Ramos Verdy Kawasaki
FW Takuya Takagi Sanfrecce Hiiroshima
Nobuhiro Takeda Verdy Kawasaki

Both of the new additions proved to be solid contenders. In fact, Bellmare would finish a close second in the second stage (the highest finish in team history). In the first half of the year, unfancied Sanfrecce Hiroshima, under the guidance of Stewart Baxter, captured the first stage title by a hair, fending off a strong challenge from Shimizu S-Pulse. Hiroshima had not been one of the leading teams in the JFA, and their performance came as a big surprise to powerhouses like Verdy Kawasaki and Yokohama Marinos.
However, the team self-destructed in the second half of the year and have never since regained their form of 1994. Traditional powerhouse Verdy Kawasaki took the second stage and went on to win the championship series with two comfortable 1-0 victories in the Suntory Championship Series. The ease of victory belied the score line because Sanfrecce played a totally conservative, defensive style of football that never had a chance of producing a goal against the slick, Brazilian-style play of Verdy.
Although foreign star players had been a big attraction in the first season of J.League play, in 1994 clubs started to lay out large sums of money to attract veterans from Europe and South America that would help out fans in the seats. At this point in time, teams still were focused on the "pro baseball" model, and were trying to establish a nationwide fan base rather than to build up their grassroots support among people in the local area. Naturally, if you are competing for attention on a nationwide basis, you need to have much more high-profile players on the roster in order to win the loyalty of fans who had no other reason to support your team over any of the other "nationwide" clubs. As a result, teams spent more money than they could afford on players, hoping that there would be a "payoff" several years down the road. This "business model" would prove to be disastrous, as our discussion of the 1998 and 1999 season will describe in detail.
A few teams, however, seemed to recognise the importance of a local base, and they began appealing to fans in the nearby community, building up supporters clubs with special discounts and "giveaways" at the stadium. The Marinos, Reds, Antlers, and Jubilo seemed to be particularly adept at appealing to "local pride", and these early efforts would bear fruit several seasons later, as these teams emerged as some of the strongest franchises during the late 1990s.