Cerezo Osaka

Cerezo Osaka
セレッソ大阪

Full name	Cerezo Osaka
Founded	1957
Ground	Nagai Ball Gall Field (Capacity: 20,000)
Chairman	Nobuyoshi Fujita
Manager	Levir Culpi
League	J. League Division 1
2010	3rd Place
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Cerezo Osaka (セレッソ大阪, Seresso Ōsaka^?) is a J. League Division 1 association football team. The team name Cerezo means cherry tree in Spanish, which is also the flower of Ōsaka city.

The team's home town is Osaka, Japan and plays at Nagai Ball Gall Field, with some bigger games played at Nagai Stadium. It practices at Minamitsumori Sakura Sports Park, Maishima Sports Island, and Amagasaki Yanmar Diesel Ground.

A fictional character named Teppei Kisugi from the popular Captain Tsubasa manga, becomes a professional soccer player and joins Cerezo Osaka.

History

old crest

The team, originally called Yanmar Diesel, started in 1957 as the company team of Yanmar and was an original founder of the now-disbanded Japan Soccer League. With four Japanese league titles to its credit, it was a mainstay of the JSL First Division until 1990 when it was first relegated, and thus joined the former Japan Football League in 1992.

In 1993, the club incorporated as Osaka Football Club Ltd., and adopted the name Cerezo after a public contest.^[1] In 1994, it won the JFL championship and was promoted to the J1 League in 1995. This also coincided with a run to the finals of the Emperor's Cup, which they lost to long-time league rivals Bellmare Hiratsuka; this was the last final to date in which a non-top-flight club was a finalist.

In 2001, it finished in the last spot and was relegated to the J2 league. It managed to finish in second for the 2002 season and returned to J1 in 2003.

In 2005 they came close to becoming J-League champions, and topped the league into the last match day. In their final match, they led F.C. Tokyo with minutes to go and were on course to win the title. However, Tokyo equalised on 89 minutes, and a number of other late goals around Japan meant they finished 5th. Arch-rivals Gamba Osaka, who were originally formed from players from Yanmar Club, the former B-squad of Yanmar Diesel, ended up winning the title. Cerezo returned to J2 for the 2007 season after finishing second to last in 2006. In 2009 they were promoted and returned to the top division, where they have spent the majority of their career.

Colours

Cerezo's basic kit color is pink, like the cherry blossom flowers the name is based on. Combination colors have been navy blue and black.

During the Yanmar Diesel days in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, the kit was an all-red reminiscent of Liverpool F.C.

Record as J. League member

Season	Div.	Tms.	Pos.	Attendance/G	J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
1995	J1	14	8	12,097	-	2nd Round
1996	J1	16	13	8,229	Group Stage	4th Round
1997	J1	17	11	9,153	Group Stage	4th Round
1998	J1	18	9	9,864	Group Stage	3rd Round
1999	J1	16	6	10,216	2nd Round	4th Round
2000	J1	16	5	13,548	2nd Round	Quarter-final
2001	J1	16	16	11,857	1st Round	Final
2002	J2	12	2	7,952	-	4th Round
2003	J1	16	9	13,854	Group Stage	Final
2004	J1	16	15	14,323	Group Stage	4th Round
2005	J1	18	5	17,648	Quarter-final	Semi-final
2006	J1	18	17	13,026	Quarter-final	4th Round
2007	J2	13	5	6,627	-	4th Round
2008	J2	15	4	10,554	-	4th Round
2009	J2	18	2	9,912	-	2nd Round
2010	J1	18	3	15,026	Group Stage	4th Round

Key

• Tms. = Number of teams
• Pos. = Position in league
• Attendance/G = Average league attendance

League History

• Division 1 (Japan Soccer League Div. 1): 1965–90 (as Yanmar Diesel)
• Division 2 (Japan Soccer League Div. 2): 1991 (as Yanmar Diesel)
• Division 2 (Japan Football League Div. 1): 1992–94 (as Yanmar Diesel until 1993; Cerezo Osaka since 1994)
• Division 1 (J. League Div. 1): 1995–01
• Division 2 (J. League Div. 2): 2002
• Division 1 (J. League Div. 1): 2003–06
• Division 2 (J. League Div. 2): 2007–09
• Division 1 (J. League Div. 1): 2010–

Players

Current squad

As of July 17, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Kenya Matsui 2 DF Takahiro Ogihara 3 DF Teruyuki Moniwa 4 DF Kota Fujimoto 5 MF Masaki Chugo 6 MF Hotaru Yamaguchi 9 MF Fabio Lopes 10 MF Martinez 11 FW Ryuji Bando 13 MF Hiroshi Kiyotake 14 MF Yusuke Maruhashi 15 FW Rui Komatsu 16 MF Kim Bo-Kyung 17 MF Noriyuki Sakemoto 19 FW Ryo Nagai

No. Position Player 20 MF Daisuke Takahashi 21 GK Kim Jin-Hyun 22 DF Taikai Uemoto 23 MF Shu Kurata 24 DF Kim Song-Gi 25 MF Masato Kurogi 26 MF Kazuya Murata 27 GK Kenta Tanno 28 MF Naoto Noguchi 29 DF Ryosuke Tada 30 GK Kenjiro Ogino 31 FW Kenyu Sugimoto 32 DF Hiroyuki Omata 33 DF Yutaro Takahashi

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player FW Yoichiro Kakitani (to Tokushima Vortis)

International Players

Japan Ryuji Bando Nozomi Hiroyama Takumi Horiike Akihiro Ienaga Takashi Inui Shinji Kagawa Akira Kaji Katsuo Kanda Toshinobu Katsuya Teruaki Kurobe Teruyuki Moniwa Hiroaki Morishima Hiroshi Nanami Akinori Nishizawa Yoshito Okubo Hisato Sato Kazuaki Tasaka Takuya Yamada

AFC Witthaya Hloagune Hwang Sun-Hong Ko Jeong-Woon Noh Jung-Yoon Yoon Jung-Hwan Kim Song-Gi

CONCACAF Jorge Dely Valdés

CONMEBOL Adriano Bruno Quadros Fabinho Germano Gilmar João Carlos Kaio Sérgio Manoel

UEFA Ivan Radeljić Almir Turković Radivoje Manić

World Cup Players

World Cup 1998

• Hiroaki Morishima
• Ha Seok-Ju

World Cup 2002

• Hiroaki Morishima
• Akinori Nishizawa
• Yoon Jung-Hwan

Titles

Yanmar Osaka Soccer Club

• Japan Soccer League: (4) 1971, 1974, 1975, 1980
• JSL Cup: (2) 1973 (shared), 1983, 1984
• Emperor's Cup: (3) 1968, 1970, 1974

Cerezo Osaka

• Japan Football League: (1) 1994 (as the company team)

Managers

Manager	Nat.	Tenure
Paulo Emilio	Brazil	1994–96
Hiroshi Sowa	Japan	1996
Levir Culpi	Brazil	1997
Yasutaro Matsuki	Japan	1998
René Desaeyere	Belgium	1999
Hiroshi Soejima	Japan	2000–01
João Carlos	Brazil	2001
Akihiro Nishimura	Japan	2001–03
Yuji Tsukada	Japan	2003
Petar Nadoveza	Croatia	2004
Fuad Muzurović	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2004
Albert Pobor	Croatia	2004
Shinji Kobayashi	Japan	2004–06
Yuji Tsukada	Japan	2006
Satoshi Tsunami	Japan	2007
Levir Culpi	Brazil	2007–

References

1. ^ "Cerezo Osaka Profile". Cerezo Osaka official website. http://www.cerezo.co.jp/english/history.html. Retrieved 2008-01-12. 

External links

• (English) Cerezo Osaka Official Site
• (Japanese) Cerezo Osaka Official Site