Omiya Ardija

Omiya Ardija
大宮アルディージャ

Full name	Omiya Ardija
Nickname(s)	Squirrels
Founded	1964
Ground	NACK5 Stadium Ōmiya Omiya-ku, Saitama, Saitama (Capacity: 15,500)
Chairman	Seigo Watanabe
Manager	Jun Suzuki
League	J. League Division 1
2010	12th Place
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Omiya Ardija (大宮アルディージャ, Ōmiya Arudīja^?) is a professional football (soccer) club which play in the J. League Division 1, and are based in Ōmiya-ku in Saitama, Japan. Its "hometown" as designated by the league is the whole of Saitama city, which is shared with neighbours Urawa Red Diamonds. Omiya currently compete in the J1 and have done since 2005, after promotion from J2 in 2004 as the second placed team.

Their home field is Nack5 Stadium Ōmiya (Nack5スタジアム大宮, Nakku-faibu Sutajiamu Ōmiya^?): Ōmiya Park Soccer Stadium by the naming rights.

History

The team were founded in 1964 as NTT Saitama Soccer Selection in Urawa, Saitama and later known as the NTT Kantō Soccer Club in 1969. They were first promoted to the Japan Soccer League Second Division in 1987, and when the JSL folded, joined the former Japan Football League.

In 1998 it was separately incorporated as NTT Sport Community K.K. based in Ōmiya to participate in the J. League. The nickname "Ardija" is a transcription of the Spanish language ardilla (squirrel) which is the mascot of Ōmiya and the park in which their home stadium is located.

Their matches against Urawa Red Diamonds have been called the "Saitama Derby".

In 2005-2007 most of Omiya's home matches were held at Saitama Stadium 2002 and Urawa Komaba Stadium due to expansion works at their home ground. In October 2007 the expansion was complete. On November 11, the re-opening match was held as a J. League season match between the Ardija and Ōita Trinita (1-2).

Record as J. League member

Season	Div.	Tms.	Pos.	Attendance/G	J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
1999	J2	10	6	2,674	1st Round	3rd Round
2000	J2	11	4	3,477	1st Round	3rd Round
2001	J2	12	5	3,864	1st Round	1st Round
2002	J2	12	6	5,266	-	4th Round
2003	J2	12	6	5,058	-	3rd Round
2004	J2	12	2	6,108	-	5th Round
2005	J1	18	13	9,980	Quarter-final	Semi-final
2006	J1	18	12	10,234	Group Stage	5th Round
2007	J1	18	15	11,465	Group Stage	4th Round
2008	J1	18	12	9,350	Group Stage	5th Round
2009	J1	18	13	13,707	Group Stage	3rd Round
2010	J1	18	12	11,064	Group Stage	4th Round

Key

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

Current players

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 Takashi Kitano 2 DF Taishi Tsukamoto 4 DF Yuki Fukaya 6 MF Takuya Aoki 7 FW Lee Chun-Soo 8 MF Keigo Higashi 9 FW Naoki Ishihara 10 FW Rafael 11 MF Chikara Fujimoto 13 DF Daigo Watanabe 14 DF Shusuke Tsubouchi 16 MF Jun Kanakubo 17 MF Kota Ueda 18 MF Hayato Hashimoto 20 DF Kim Young-Gwon

No. Position Player 21 GK Koji Ezumi 23 MF Shin Kanazawa 24 DF Norio Suzuki 25 MF Taisuke Miyazaki 26 DF Kazuhiro Murakami 27 MF Masakazu Kihara 29 FW Shintaro Shimizu 30 FW Daisuke Watabe 31 GK Keiki Shimizu 32 DF Arata Sugiyama 33 DF Shotaro Kudo (youth) 34 DF Yosuke Kataoka 35 GK Shuhei Kawata (youth) 37 FW Rodrigo Pimpao

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 DF Shunsuke Fukuda (to Kataller Toyama) MF Kohei Tokita (to Oita Trinita) MF Ryohei Arai (to F.C. Gifu) FW Masahiko Ichikawa (to Tokyo Verdy) FW Denis Marques (to Atlético Paranaense)

International Players

Japan Chikara Fujimoto Yasuhiro Hato Takashi Hirano Eiji Kawashima Daigo Kobayashi Hiromi Kojima Hisashi Kurosaki Koji Noguchi Yoshiteru Yamashita Kota Yoshihara

AFC An Yong-Hak Lee Chun-Soo Lee Ho Park Won-Jae

CONCACAF Saul Martínez Jorge Dely Valdés

CONMEBOL Baré Christian Leandro Toninho Tuto

UEFA Mato Neretljak Mark Burke Jeroen Boere Jan Veenhof Klemen Lavrič Fuat Usta

Managers

Manager	Nat.	Tenure
Takashi Shimizu	Japan	1992-96
Norio Sasaki	Japan	1997-98
Pim Verbeek	Netherlands	1998-99
Toshiya Miura	Japan	2000-01
Henk Duut	Netherlands	2002
Masaaki Kanno	Japan	2003
Eijun Kiyokumo	Japan	2003
Toshiya Miura	Japan	2004-06
Robert Verbeek	Netherlands	2007
Satoru Sakuma	Japan	2007
Yasuhiro Higuchi	Japan	2008
Chang Woe-Ryong	South Korea	2009-10
Jun Suzuki	Japan	2010-

External links

• Omiya Ardija Homepage (Japanese)