J.League 2003, First Stage | | . | Team | Pts | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GDif |
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1 | Yokohama Marinos | 32 | 15 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 29 | 16 | +13 | | 2 | Jubilo Iwata | 31 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 34 | 17 | +17 | | 3 | JEF United Ichihara | 27 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 33 | 20 | +13 | | 4 | FC Tokyo | 25 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 11 | +3 | | 5 | Cerezo Osaka | 25 | 15 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 29 | 29 | +0 | | 6 | Urawa Reds | 24 | 15 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 25 | 23 | +2 | | 7 | Nagoya Grampus | 23 | 15 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 19 | 16 | +3 | | 8 | Kashima Antlers | 23 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 23 | 21 | +2 | | 9 | Kashiwa Reysol | 21 | 15 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 19 | 19 | +0 | | 10 | Tokyo Verdy | 19 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 28 | 32 | -4 | | 11 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 18 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 18 | +2 | | 12 | Gamba Osaka | 16 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 26 | 29 | -3 | | 13 | Vissel Kobe | 16 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 18 | 34 | -16 | | 14 | Oita Trinita | 15 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 20 | 21 | -1 | | 15 | Vegalta Sendai | 12 | 15 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 28 | -11 | | 16 | Kyoto Purple Sanga | 10 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 34 | -20 |
J.League 2003, Second Stage | | . | Team | Pts | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GDif |
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1 | Yokohama Marinos | 26 | 15 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 27 | 17 | +10 | | 2 | JEF United Ichihara | 26 | 15 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 24 | 18 | +6 | | 3 | Jubilo Iwata | 26 | 15 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 22 | 17 | +5 | | 4 | Kashima Antlers | 25 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 21 | 19 | +2 | | 5 | F.C.Tokyo | 24 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 32 | 20 | +12 | | 6 | Urawa Reds | 23 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 29 | 19 | +10 | | 7 | Gamba Osaka | 23 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 24 | 17 | +7 | | 8 | Nagoya Grampus | 22 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 30 | 26 | +4 | | 9 | Tokyo Verdy | 21 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 28 | 25 | +3 | | 10 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 21 | 15 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 19 | 26 | -7 | | 11 | Kashiwa Reysol | 16 | 15 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 16 | 20 | -4 | | 12 | Cerezo Osaka | 15 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 26 | 27 | -1 | | 13 | Vissel Kobe | 14 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 29 | -12 | | 14 | Kyoto Purple Sanga | 13 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 26 | -12 | | 15 | Vegalta Sendai | 12 | 15 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 28 | -14 | | 16 | Oita Trinita | 11 | 15 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 16 | -9 |
Scoring Leaders |
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals (PKs) | Shots |
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1 | Ueslei | Nagoya Grampus | 22 (1) | 136 | | 2 | Rodrigo Gral | Jubilo Iwata | 21 (8) | 85 | | 3 | Emerson | Urawa Reds | 18 (1) | 116 | | 4 | Choi Yong Soo | JEF United | 17 (4) | 100 | | 5 | Tatsuhiko Kubo | Yokohama Marinos | 16 (0) | 62 | | 5 | Yoshito Okubo | Cerezo Osaka | 16 (0) | 54 | | 7 | Magrao | Gamba Osaka | 15 (1) | 64 | | 8 | Patrick Mboma | Tokyo Verdy | 13 (1) | 63 | | 8 | Oseas | Vissel Kobe | 13 (0) | 71 | | 10 | Tatsuya Tanaka | Urawa Reds | 11 (0) | 59 | | 10 | Keiji Tamada | Kashiwa Reysol | 11 (0) | 68 | | 10 | Ahn Jung-Hwan | Shimizu S-Pulse | 11 (0) | 91 | | 13 | Takuya Yamada | Tokyo Verdy | 10 (0) | 31 | | 13 | Teruaki Kurobe | Kyoto Purple Sanga | 10 (1) | 46 | | 13 | Masashi Oguro | Gamba Osaka | 10 (0) | 70 |
J.League Awards, 2003 |
| MVP | Emerson | Urawa Reds |
| Rookie of the Year | Daisuke Nasu | Yokohama Marinos |
| Golden Boot | Ueslei | Nagoya Grampus |
| Coach of the Year | Takeshi Okada | Yokohama Marinos |
| Fair Play Award | Yuichi Nemoto | Vegalta Sendai |
| Referee of the Year | Toru Kamikawa | -- |
Best Eleven |
| GK | Seigo Narazaki | Nagoya Grampus |
| DF | Naoki Matsuda | Yokohama Marinos |
| Keisuke Tsuboi | Urawa Reds |
| Dutra | Yokohama Marinos |
| MF | Mitsuo Ogasawara | Kashima Antlers |
| Takashi Fukunishi | Jubilo Iwata |
| Daisuke Oku | Yokohama Marinos |
| Tomoya Fujita | Jubilo Iwata |
| FW | Emerson | Urawa Reds |
| Tatsuhiko Kubo | Yokohama Marinos |
| Ueslei | Nagoya Grampus |
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As the J.League continued to gain popularity from fans in every part of the country, the top-drawing clubs started using their gate revenues to attract quality foreign players, once again. Although some of the biggest blockbuster deals of the year (such as a bid by Yokohama Marinos to sign Cafu) fell through, the influx of talent to the league -- both from overseas and from the burgeoning numbers of soccer-playing younsters in Japan -- contributed to a higher level of quality at all teams, as well as an increased parity among the various teams. Though Yokohama Marinos eventually won both stages, the races were close, all season long, and in the second stage particularly, as many as ten teams had a legitimate shot at the title with just two weeks left in the season. Never before has the league been so closely balanced, and this not only made for an exciting championship race; it also encouraged even the smaller teams to begin developing longer-range plans to build a title contender.
Another side-effect of the league's development was the increased interest in Japanese players by top clubs in Europe. No longer do European fans define their view of Japanese football on the basis of just one player. While Hide Nakata and Shunsuke Nakamura made a name for themselves in Italy, Shinji Ono was steadily establishing himself as the franchise player at Feyenoord, Junichi Inamoto began to make regular appearances at Fulham, and several new faces joined the crowd in Europe, including not only marquee national team players like Atsushi Yanagisawa, who moved to Sampdoria in Italy, but also journeyman veterans like Toshiya Fujita, who quickly won a starting spot at FC Utrecht. Furthermore, the up-and-coming stars in Japan quickly attracted interest from European clubs. No longer did promising players need to establish themselves for several years in the national team before overseas scouts could respond to their names with something better than "Naka-who?"
During the first stage, the dominant theme was "Oka-chan", as former national team coach Takeshi Okada took the helm of Yokohama Marinos and quickly transformed a talented group of underperforming and undisciplined brats into a sleek, efficient pack of title-hungry fighters. The Marinos had to fight off strong challenges not only from traditional powers like Jubilo Iwata and Kashima Antlers, but also up-and-coming challengers like Urawa Reds and JEF United. However, the Oka-chan magic kept his team at peak efficiency right through the summer, and Yokohama coasted home to their first victory in a league stage in almost four years.
The second stage was one of the most exciting battles in league history. Though injuries to key players on Yokohama and Kashima were largely responsible for keeping these two teams from making a stronger run, thad did not diminish the force of the challenge from new, youth-laden clubs who were starting to move into the ranks of the top challengers. JEF United, Urawa Reds, both Tokyo clubs and Gamba Osaka and Nagoya Grampus remained in the race until the final few matches, when the three traditional powers -- Marinos, Antlers and Jubilo -- finally pulled away from the pack to set up a showdown on the final week of the season. The climax was like something out of a cliffhanger novel, with 10-man Yokohama coming back in the final minute of regulation time to down Jubilo, and the Antlers staring a title directly in the face only to have Urawa Reds steal an equalizer in injury time and dash their hopes. Though the Marinos won both stages, making a playoff for the league crown unnecessary, it probably was for the best. After the drama of the final day, anything else would have been anticlimactic.
The only truly disappointing thing about the 2003 season was that, despite the excitement of the final few weeks, the league decided at the end of the year to abandon the league's two-stage format beginning in 2005. This was unforunate and somewhat surprising, considering what an exciting race there was for both the first and second stage crowns. By having two separate titles up for contention, with the slate wiped clean in midsummer, the J.League had discovered a format that kept hope alive even at bottom-of-the table clubs, until the very end of the year. Attendances in the final few weeks of the season were tremendous, and this was good for everyone concerned, both financially and in terms of team spirit. It is hard to imagine that crowds of over 50,000 would have been turning out on rainy, late October evenings if the race had been narrowed down to just one or two teams, weeks or even months before.
Though the Eurocentric grousers eventually managed to convince the league to change to a single-stage championship format, based on no more persuasive argument than "thats the way they do it in Europe", nobody bothered to consider the impact that this would have, especially for weaker clubs, if fans know as early as August or September that their club doesnt have a snowball's chance in the Sahara of winning a title. By breaking the season into two stages, even the bottom-of-the-table clubs had a chance to start anew, and perhaps make a brief bid for glory. Hope is one of the main factors that puts buttocks on the bleachers, and the J.League format seemed to be doing that quite well. While the switch to a single-stage format has not been a "disaster", there are signs that the league is beginning to lose some of its past parity, and the day may come when a few strong, rich teams are permanently ensconced as "league leaders", while and the others simply "make up the numbers", year after year. Unfortunately, it may be years before we know if this is the case. We can only wait and see what the future will bring.
RELEGATED:
 Kyoto Purple Sanga
 Vegalta Sendai
PROMOTED:
 Sanfrecce Hiroshima
 Albirex Niigata
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