Team Data: Yokohama Marinos
Team Name:
Team Logo & Mascot:  
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Home Uniform Away Uniform
 
Home StadiumYokohama Int'l (Nissan) Stadium
Seats 72,600 (World Cup Venue)
Team Data:
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Management Corporation: | Yokohama Marinos Ltd. | |
Established: | 1 April 1992
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President: | Shigeo Hidaritomo
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Investors: | Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. | |
Address: | 1-18-1 Shinkoyasu,
Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama,
Kanagawa 221-8523 | |
Hometown Area: | Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture | |
Home Stadium: | YokohamaInt'l (Nissan) Stadium (capacity: 72,600) | |
Joined J. League: | 1992 | |
Major Titles: | J.League Champions: 1995, 2003, 2004
Emperor's Cup: 1992
Asian Cup Winners' Cup:1992/93
Nabisco Cup Champions: 2001
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 | Marino-kun
To symbolize the port city of Yokohama, what better animal to choose as a mascot than a seagull? Marino-kun is decked out in a sailor's outfit to emphasize this connection to the city's history as a major seaport.
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The Yokohama Marinos rank as one of the traditional powerhouses of Japanese football, and have a long tradition of winning championships that dates back to their formation in the 1960s as the club team of Nissan Motor. The Nissan club team battled with Yomiuri Club (Verdy Tokyo) and Mitsubishi Motors (Urawa Reds) for dominance of the JSL right up until the formation of the J.League. Although Kashima Antlers' near-upset of Verdy in the 1993 season came as quite a surprise, no one batted an eyelash when the Marinos knocked Verdy off their perch in 1995, becoming the first team other than Verdy to win a league championship, after the mighty green had won the title in the league's first two seasons.
When the J.League kicked off, most of the top teams established a character that resembled that of some other leading football nation -- usually Brazil, Italy, or Germany -- based on where they turned to purchase foreign talent. In the Marinos' case, the original bonds were with Argentina, and the Argentine streak persists today in the team's name -- Spanish for "mariners" -- reflecting Yokohama's long history as one of the nation's top ports.
Back in 1993, the team had a number of talented defenders, anchored by "Mr. Marino" Masami Iihara, who still holds the record for most national team caps, at 123. However, the front line was less impressive, so the Marinos brought in an entire strike force from River Plate, featuring Ramon Diaz, Ramon Medinabello and David Bisconti. These three high-flying strikers propelled the team to its first league championship in 1995. Unfortunately, the team was not able to repeat this success. Ramon Diaz retired, and returned to River Plate as a coach, Medinabello followed close behind, and Bisconti was unable to carry the team's scoring on his own. From the mid-90s, the team entered a "rebuilding phase", though in truth, the team never fell very far out of contention.
At the end of the 1998 season, the Marinos' cross-town rivals the Yokohama Flugels were disbanded. As we describe elsewhere on this site, the fallout in terms of fan reaction and turmoil was tremendous. Officially, the Marinos absorbed their local rivals, with ten Flugels players moving across town. In reality, though, the rivalry was too fierce for more than a handful of fans to cross the divide, and although the Marinos picked up a wealth of talent, at least on paper, the divisions in the team seemed to show through on the field. Despite being tapped by nearly all of the pundits to breeze to victory in 1998, the Marinos instead sank into a slump. At first, the team tried to return to its Argentine roots and called in Oswaldo Ardilles as the coach, in 2000. Ardilles, who had already spent one stint in Japan at Shimizu S-Pulse, and many though that he would be just the sort of guiding hand that the team needed to put the divisions and distractions to rest. Yokohama did perform well that season, capturing the first stage title in 2000. However, in the championship series they fell under the hooves of the Kashima Antlers, in that team's charge to a championship treble.
Perhaps the disappointment of falling just short of victory in 2000 shattered the team's morale. Or perhaps the divisions in the team that had been papered over by Ardilles came back into the open after the loss. Whatever the case, the Marinos offseason in 2000-01 was nothing short of a disaster. Flugels veterans Nagai and Miura jumped ship to join Tokyo Verdy, signing new contracts for less money than they had been receiving in Yokohama. Management suddenly became stingy, and released all of the team's high-budget foreigners. Worst of all, the team seemed to be overly preoccupied with their own personal careers, continuously stoking rumours of a move overseas even when there was only the faintest hint of interest from a foreign club. Ardilles was fired at midseason, and the Marinos looked to be completely at sea. In the end, the team came within a hair's breadth of being relegated in 2001. The next two years were a gloomy time in the city by the bay.
Nevertheless, the Seafaring Seagulls had always possessed a solid core of talent, and with continued backing of Nissan Motor, as their main financial sponsor, the team's monetary resources are among the best in the league. Once management finally overcome the stinginess that it displayed in 2000 and 2001, the team was able to return to the ranks of top contenders. Perhaps the smartest move the team made was to hire former Japan National Team coach Takeshi Okada, and put him in charge of the task of building a true contender. Okada agreed, but only if the team would give him complete freedom to rebuild in his own image. The first thing Okada did was to abandon former ties to Argentina. With the addition of players like Tatsuhiko Kubo, Yoo Sang-chul and Yukihiko Sato, Okada had all the tools he needed to create a champion, and his brilliant coaching skills did the rest. Yokohama had to fight off strong challenges from a host of contenders, but managed to win both stages of the 2003 league competition and emerge as uncontested champions. They followed up this success with a narrow win over the Urawa Reds in the League's last championship series, in 2004.
When the J.League adopted a single-stage format, in 2005, many thought that the Marinos would be the top contender to claim a third straight title. But the "magic" that Okada worked in 2003 and 04 seemed to wear off. The divisions that had always existed in the team began to resurface, and though the iron discipline of Okada and the team's underlying talent kept them competitive, the loss of key players like Ahn Jung-Hwan (to France) and Tatsuhiko Kubo (to injury) kept Yokohama out of the champiopnship picture.
As fans in the City by the Bay turn their sights to next season, they will have a lot of question marks to consider. For one thing, the team's top players are beginning to get along in years, and though Yokohama is beginning to make the change of generations, they still rely heavily on players who are on the wrong side of 30. Yokohama's talented defence, in particular, is supported by key players like Yuji Nakazawa and Naoki Matsuda, who may still be quite effective but who are sure to start showing the signs of age eventually. We think that the team needs to either acquire some high-level talent from the transfer market, or content itself with mid-table performances until some of the younger players mature.
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