J League History: 1999

J.League 1999, First Stage Rank Team GP Win D L Pts GF GA G.Dif 90 ET 1 Jubilo Iwata 15 10 2 . 3 34 29 15 14 2 Verdy Kawasaki 15 9 2 1 3 32 20 15 5 3 Shimizu S-Pulse 15 9 1 1 4 30 28 23 5 4 Kashiwa Reysol 15 9 1 . 5 29 26 18 8 5 Cerezo Osaka 15 9 1 . 5 29 25 21 4 6 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 15 9 . . 6 27 30 18 12 7 Yokohama Marinos 15 6 2 1 6 23 31 20 11 8 Nagoya Grampus 15 6 1 1 7 21 30 23 7 9 Kashima Antlers 15 5 1 1 8 18 23 19 4 10 Gamba Osaka 15 5 1 . 9 17 21 25 -4 11 Avispa Fukuoka 15 4 2 . 9 16 23 30 -7 12 Vissel Kobe 15 4 1 1 9 15 20 24 -4 13 Urawa Reds 15 3 . 4 7 13 21 33 -12 14 Kyoto Purple Sanga 15 4 . . 11 12 18 28 -10 15 JEF United Ichihara 15 2 2 2 9 12 19 34 15 16 Bellmare Hiratsuka 15 3 . . 12 9 15 33 -18 Scoring: Win in regulation time=3pts Win in extra time=2pts Draw=1pt Loss =0 J.League 1999, Second Stage Rank Team GP Win D L Pts GF GA G.Dif 90 ET 1 Shimizu S-Pulse 15 11 1 . 3 35 28 13 15 2 Nagoya Grampus 15 10 1 1 3 33 32 23 9 3 Yokohama Marinos 15 8 2 2 3 30 30 15 15 4 Kashiwa Reysol 15 8 2 1 4 29 23 18 5 5 Cerezo Osaka 15 6 3 . 6 24 39 24 15 6 Kashima Antlers 15 6 2 0 7 22 30 18 12 7 Vissel Kobe 15 5 2 3 4 22 18 21 -3 8 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 15 6 1 1 7 21 24 25 -1 9 Kyoto Purple Sanga 15 5 2 0 8 19 20 30 -10 10 Verdy Kawasaki 15 4 2 1 8 17 23 28 -5 11 JEF United Ichihara 15 4 2 0 9 16 22 22 0 12 Jubilo Iwata 15 4 1 1 9 15 23 27 -4 13 Gamba Osaka 15 4 1 1 9 15 15 21 -6 14 Urawa Reds 15 4 1 1 9 15 18 25 -7 15 Avispa Fukuoka 15 3 1 1 10 12 18 29 -11 16 Bellmare Hiratsuka 15 1 0 1 13 4 15 39 -24 Scoring: Win in regulation time=3pts Win in extra time=2pts Draw=1pt Loss =0 Championship Series 4 Dec Jubilo Iwata 2 - 1 (ET) Shimizu S-Pulse 30 min Masashi Nakayama 98 min Masashi Nakayama . 34 min Masaaki Sawanobori 11 Dec Shimizu S-Pulse 2 - 1 Jubilo Iwata 37 min Masaaki Sawanobori 90 min Fabinho . 34min Toshihiro Hattori PK shootout Jubilo Iwata 4 - 2 Shimizu S-Pulse Scoring Leaders 24 18 Hwang Sun-Hong Cerezo Osaka 18 11 Shoji Jo Yokohama Marinos 17 10 Marcelo Baron JEF United Ichihara 13 9 Masahiro Fukuda Urawa Reds 13 30 Wagner Lopes Nagoya Grampus 13 10 Tatsuhiko Kubo Sanfrecce Hiroshima 12 15 Yoshikiyo Kuboyama Shimizu S-Pulse 12 8 Hiroaki Morishima Cerezo Osaka 11 8 Alex Shimizu S-Pulse 11 10 Dragan Stojkovic Nagoya Grampus 11 9 Akinori Nishizawa Cerezo Osaka 10 7 Bentinho Kashiwa Reysol 10 23 Takashi Fukunishi Jubilo Iwata 10 18 Kenji Fukuda Nagoya Grampus 10 9 Kim Do-Hoon Vissel Kobe J.League Awards, 1999 MVP Alex (Alessandro dos Santos) Shimizu S-Pulse Rookie of the Year Yuji Nakazawa Verdy Kawasaki Golden Boot Hwang Sun-Hong Cerezo Osaka Coach of the Year Steve Perryman Shimizu S-Pulse Best Eleven GK Masanori Sanada Shimizu S-Pulse DF Yuji Nakazawa Verdy Kawasaki Ryuzo Morioka Shimizu S-Pulse Toshihide Saito Shimizu S-Pulse MF Shunsuke Nakamura Yokohama Marinos Masaaki Sawanobori Shimizu S-Pulse Teruyoshi Ito Shimizu S-Pulse Alex (Alessandro dos Santos) Shimizu S-Pulse Takashi Fukunishi Jubilo Iwata FW Dragan Stojkovic Nagoya Grampus Hwang Sun-Hong Cerezo Osaka

Several factors helped to restore the prosperity and popularity of the J.League. One was the fact that the league championship was closely contested in both the first and second stages. A second benefit came from the emergence of many young players with enough talent to shine on the international stage. Japan's under-23 team went to the finals of the youth championship in Nigeria during the summer, and the Olympic team breezed through the qualifiers in superb style. As a result, attendance figures leveled off after declining steadily since 1994, and the league began to stabilise with a solid core base of fans and teams. By the end of 1999, it seemed clear that the instability created by the Flugels Fiasco in 1998 had been laid to rest, and the league was back on solid ground, though it would be another three years before rising attendances and fan interest banished those bad memories completely. In 1999, the league championship was contested by two teams from Shizuoka prefecture. Shizuoka has long been considered the birthplace of football in Japan, and both Jubilo Iwata and Shimizu S-Pulse have long traditions of challenging for the title. However, unlike Jubilo, Shimizu S-Pulse had always been a "bridesmaid", finishing as second place team in the division or as the runner up in cup competitions. In 1999, S-Pulse finally managed to win the second stage, after Jubilo won the first stage, setting up a "Suhizuoka Derby" championship series. The struggle could not have been any closer, with both teams capturing 2-1 victories away from home. However, in the end Jubilo Iwata prevailed in a penalty kick shootout. Promotion and relegation was introduced in 1999, and the two teams relegated were Bellmare Hiratsuka and Urawa Reds -- both of which had been founding members of the J.League. Bellmare was already in serious financial difficulty, and relegation was almost a blessing for them, as it allowed the team to restructure and scale back its operations. The team took a new name, as well -- Shonan Bellmare -- and was forced to look for new sponsors when the former corporate sponsors of the team pulled out. One sponsor was former Bellmare player Hidetoshi Nakata, whose private web site -- "Nakata.net" -- became an official sponsor of his old team. For Urawa Reds, the demotion was more of a shock. Urawa had always been one of the best-supported and richest teams in the league, but a combination of bad luck, injuries to key personnel and a management crisis at the former corporate sponsor, Mitsubishi Motors, caused them to fall just one goal shy of remaining in the J1. They were relegated on a one-goal goal difference! RELEGATED:

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