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The J.League 1994 season was the second season of the J.League. The league commenced on March 12 and completed on November 19. The Suntory Championship took place on November 26 and December 2.

Clubs

The following 12 clubs participated in J.League during 1994 season. Of these clubs, Bellmare Hiratsuka and Júblio Iwata were newly promoted teams from Japan Football League.

Club name	Hometown	Stadium (majority games)	Capacity	Notes	Head coach
Bellmare Hiratsuka	Hiratsuka, Kanagawa	Hiratsuka Stadium	15,380	Promoted	Mitsuru Komaeda
Gamba Osaka	Osaka, Osaka	Osaka Expo '70 Stadium	21,000		Kunishige Kamamoto
JEF United Ichihara	Chiba, Chiba	Ichihara Seaside Stadium	14,051		Eijun Kiyokumo
Júbilo Iwata	Iwata, Shizuoka	Júbilo Iwata Stadium	15,165	Promoted	Hans Ooft
Kashima Antlers	Kashima, Ibaraki	Kashima Soccer Stadium	37,638		Edu Coimbra
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Nagoya, Aichi	Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium	11,900		Gordon Milne
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Hiroshima, Hiroshima	Hiroshima General Ground Main Stadium	13,800		Stuart Baxter
Shimizu S-Pulse	Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture	Nihondaira Sports Stadium	20,248		Rivellino
Urawa Red Diamonds	Saitama, Greater Tokyo Area	Urawa Komaba Stadium	21,500		Kenzo Yokoyama
Verdy Kawasaki	Kawasaki, Kanagawa	Todoroki Athletics Stadium	26,232		Yasutaro Matsuki
Yokohama Flügels	Yokohama	Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454		Shu Kamo
Yokohama Marinos	Yokohama	Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium	15,454		Hidehiko Shimizu

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Non-visa foreign	Former players
Bellmare Hiratsuka	Almir	Betinho	Edson	Mirandinha
Gamba Osaka	Sergei Aleinikov	Flávio	Kiril Metkov	Akhrik Tsveiba	Oleh Protasov
JEF United Ichihara	František Mysliveček	Pavel Řehák	Nenad Maslovar	Frank Ordenewitz	Pierre Littbarski	Sandro Shin Che-bon
Júbilo Iwata	Walter	Salvatore Schillaci	André Paus	Gerald Vanenburg
Kashima Antlers	Alcindo	Edinho	Leonardo	Santos			Zico
Nagoya Grampus Eight	Elivélton	Garça	Jorginho	Dragan Stojković	Dragiša Binić	Dido Havenaar	Gary Lineker
Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Ivan Hašek	Pavel Černý	Tore Pedersen	Noh Jung-yoon		Andrey	Lee Baxter
Shimizu S-Pulse	Djalminha	Ronaldão	Toninho			Ademir	Sidmar
Urawa Red Diamonds	Guido Buchwald	Michael Rummenigge	Uwe Bein			Edwin Uehara Cho Kwi-jae	Uwe Rahn Ľubomír Luhový Miroslav Mentel
Verdy Kawasaki	Bentinho	Bismarck	Capitão	Paulo	Pereira	Ko Ishikawa
Yokohama Flügels	Fernando Moner	Aldro	Edu	Válber			Raúl Amarilla
Yokohama Marinos	David Bisconti	Gustavo Zapata	Ramón Díaz	Ramón Medina Bello			Everton

Format

In the 1994 season, the league followed split-season format, just like the previous season. Each halves (or stages) were known as Suntory Series and NICOS Series for sponsorship purposes. In each series, twelve clubs played in double round-robin format with a total of 22 games per club (per series). The games then went to golden-goal extra time and penalties if needed after regulation. The clubs were ranked by number of wins, and tie breakers are, in the following order:

• Goal differential
• Goals scored
• Head-to-head results
• Extra match or a coin toss

The club that finished at the top of the table is declared stage champion and qualifies for the Suntory Championship. The first stage winner hosts the first leg in the championship series. If the same club win both stages, the runners-up of each stages plays against each other and the winners challenges the stage winner at the championship game.

Changes in competition format

• Number of competing clubs increased from 10 to 12
• Number of games per club in a series increased from 18 to 22 games and from 36 to 44 games per season.

Standings

Suntory Series (1st Stage) standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Qualification
1	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	22	17	5	44	26	+18	1994 Suntory Series Champions Qualified to Suntory Championship '94
2	Shimizu S-Pulse	22	16	6	41	25	+16
3	Kashima Antlers	22	16	6	45	32	+13
4	Verdy Kawasaki	22	14	8	43	21	+22
5	Yokohama Flügels	22	13	9	36	27	+9
6	JEF United Ichihara	22	10	12	34	43	−9
7	Júbilo Iwata	22	9	13	27	32	−5
8	Nagoya Grampus Eight	22	9	13	23	28	−5
9	Yokohama Marinos	22	8	14	29	35	−6
10	Gamba Osaka	22	7	15	37	46	−9
11	Bellmare Hiratsuka	22	7	15	27	54	−27
12	Urawa Red Diamonds	22	6	16	26	43	−17

NICOS Series (2nd stage) standings

Suntory Championship '94

Sanfrecce Hiroshima	0 – 1	Verdy Kawasaki
		35' Kitazawa

Verdy Kawasaki	1 – 0	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Ramos 80'

VERDY KAWASAKI won the series on 2-0 aggregate.

Overall standings

Honours

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Frank Ordenewitz	JEF United Ichihara	30
2	Alcindo Sartori	Kashima Antlers	28
3	Betinho	Bellmare Hiratsuka	24
4	Ramón Díaz	Yokohama Marinos	23
	Nobuhiro Takeda	Verdy Kawasaki
6	Toninho	Shimizu S-Pulse	22
7	Yoshiyuki Hasegawa	Kashima Antlers	21
8	Ivan Hašek	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	19
	Koji Noguchi	Bellmare Hiratsuka
10	Kazuyoshi Miura	Verdy Kawasaki	16
	Toshihiro Yamaguchi	Gamba Osaka
12	Ramón Medina Bello	Yokohama Marinos	15
	Pavel Černý	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
14	Bismarck	Verdy Kawasaki	14
	Takuya Takagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Awards

Individual awards

Award	Recipient	Club
Most Valuable Player	Pereira	Verdy Kawasaki
Rookie of the Year	Kazuaki Tasaka	Bellmare Hiratsuka
Manager of the Year	Yasutaro Matsuki	Verdy Kawasaki
Top Scorer	Frank Ordenewitz	JEF United Ichihara

Best Eleven

Position	Footballer	Club	Nationality
GK	Shinkichi Kikuchi	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
DF	Pereira	Verdy Kawasaki	Brazil
DF	Masami Ihara	Yokohama Marinos	Japan
DF	Yoshihiro Natsuka	Bellmare Hiratsuka	Japan
MF	Betinho	Bellmare Hiratsuka	Brazil
MF	Bismarck	Verdy Kawasaki	Brazil
MF	Tetsuji Hashiratani	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
MF	Tsuyoshi Kitazawa	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
MF	Ruy Ramos	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan
FW	Takuya Takagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Japan
FW	Nobuhiro Takeda	Verdy Kawasaki	Japan

References

• Source: J. League 1994 (RSSSF)

• J1 League seasons
• 1994 in Japanese football leagues
• 1994–95 in Asian association football leagues
• 1993–94 in Asian association football leagues