J League Update: This ain’t your Grandpa’s Grampus

By: Ian Rose | April 5th, 2008

We’ve made a pretty big deal here on the Offside (and rightfully so) about the MLS entering its thirteenth season, and thus, becoming a teenager. But if Americans are excited about their little league growing up so fast, think how the Japanese feel … theirs can drive.

The 16th season of the J League is underway in Japan, and like the MLS, we’ve seen some early surprises and some teams doing about what you’d expect. First, a little history. The J League started play in 1993, and between then and now, only six teams have been able to stay in the 18-side top flight without at least one relegation. These include, not surprisingly, some of the top teams in J League history, like 5-time (and defending) champions Kashima Antlers. But two of these J League survivors have never won the top flight: Nagoya Grampus and JEF United Chiba. This season, these two have started very differently, and this could be a defining year for both.

For Nagoya Grampus (名古屋グランパス), this season was about change before it even started. One of the oldest clubs in Japan, Grampus decided before this season to change its name, dropping the word “Eight” from the end. Grampus may be best known to European football trivia buffs as the team managed by none other than Arsène Wenger after his sacking at Monaco. Not shockingly, the Wenger years (1994-96) were some of the best ever for the club, garnering them an Emperor’s Cup win and their only second-place finish in the league. This season, though, they have started out strong, and sit in second place, looking much more like Wenger’s Grampus team than in recent years. Since drawing their first match, they have won four in a row, conceding only two goals in that span and beating Urawa Reds, the 2006 champions and last year’s runners up. They also took out fellow J League veterans Yokohama F. Marinos, who have won the league three times. It’s early, only five matches into the 34-game season, but they are only two points behind leaders Kashima, and if they can keep pace, they might just play spoiler for the Antlers’ title defense.
Sidenote – Question: How much do I love the killer whale dancing like an Egyptian on the club logo? Answer: A lot.

On the other end of things is JEF United Chiba (ジェフユナイテッド千葉). As recently as 2003, Chiba was in the top three, winning themselves a place in the AFC Champions League. Since then, they have steadily fallen in the league table. Their start in 2008 has been a mirror image of Grampus’, and not the flattering sort of mirror. Their first five games have netted them only two points, which puts them in a playoff relegation spot as things now stand. The other two relegation sides have played one less game as well, so Chiba might be in even more trouble soon. This past week was not the most opportune time to try to right the ship, with the tough trip to Kashima ending fairly predictably in a 4-1 loss. Their next match, at home against mid-table Omiya Ardija, could be a more telling one, and even a point might help restore some morale.

It could be that neither of these teams will be first, or last, in the league. So far, Kashima Antlers are perfect at the top, with five wins in five matches and a +12 goal differential, and at the bottom, Albirex Niigata (on 0 points from four matches) could well be the Derby County of Japan. But, the start of the season has looked very different for both of these old-guard Japanese clubs, and 2008 could be the year that both make very different sorts of history.