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 coachBellmare Hiratsuka Hiratsuka, KanagawaHiratsuka Stadium 15,380 Promoted Mitsuru KomaedaGamba Osaka Osaka, Osaka Osaka Expo '70 Stadium 21,000 Kunishige KamamotoJEF United Ichihara Chiba, Chiba Ichihara Seaside Stadium 14,051 Eijun KiyokumoJúbilo Iwata Iwata, ShizuokaJúbilo Iwata Stadium 15,165 Promoted Hans OoftKashima Antlers Kashima, Ibaraki Kashima Soccer Stadium 37,638 Edu CoimbraNagoya Grampus Eight Nagoya, Aichi Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium 11,900 Gordon MilneSanfrecce Hiroshima Hiroshima, Hiroshima Hiroshima General Ground Main Stadium 13,800 Stuart BaxterShimizu S-Pulse Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture Nihondaira Sports Stadium 20,248 RivellinoUrawa Red Diamonds Saitama, Greater Tokyo Area Urawa Komaba Stadium 21,500 Kenzo YokoyamaVerdy Kawasaki Kawasaki, Kanagawa Todoroki Athletics Stadium 26,232 Yasutaro MatsukiYokohama Flügels Yokohama Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium 15,454 Shu KamoYokohama 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 Campos 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 Lee Baxter Noh Jung-yoon Andrey Shimizu S-Pulse Djalminha Ronaldão Sidmar Toninho Ademir Urawa Red Diamonds Guido Buchwald Michael Rummenigge Uwe Bein Ľubomír Luhový Edwin Uehara Cho Kwi-jae Uwe Rahn Miroslav Mentel Verdy Kawasaki Bentinho Bismarck Capitão Paulo Pereira Ko Ishikawa Yokohama Flügels Fernando Moner Aldro Edu Marangon 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
NICOS Series (2nd stage) standings
Suntory Championship '94
VERDY KAWASAKI won the series on 2-0 aggregate.
Overall standings
Honours
Competition Champion Runner-up 3rd placeLeague CompetitionJ.League Suntory SeriesSanfrecce Hiroshima Shimizu S-Pulse Kashima AntlersJ.League NICOS SeriesVerdy Kawasaki Bellmare Hiratsuka Yokohama MarinosSuntory ChampionshipVerdy Kawasaki Sanfrecce Hiroshima Cup TournamentsEmperor's CupBellmare Hiratsuka Cerezo Osaka Yokohama MarinosGamba OsakaNabisco CupVerdy Kawasaki Júbilo Iwata Gamba OsakaYokohama MarinosXEROX Super CupVerdy Kawasaki Yokohama Flügels
Top scorers RankScorerClubGoals1 Frank OrdenewitzJEF United Ichihara302 Alcindo SartoriKashima Antlers283 BetinhoBellmare Hiratsuka244 Ramón DíazYokohama Marinos23 Nobuhiro TakedaVerdy Kawasaki6 ToninhoShimizu S-Pulse227 Yoshiyuki HasegawaKashima Antlers218 Ivan HašekSanfrecce Hiroshima19 Koji NoguchiBellmare Hiratsuka10 Kazuyoshi MiuraVerdy Kawasaki16 Toshihiro YamaguchiGamba Osaka12 Ramón Medina BelloYokohama Marinos15 Pavel ČernýSanfrecce Hiroshima14 BismarckVerdy Kawasaki14 Takuya TakagiSanfrecce Hiroshima
Awards
Individual awards AwardRecipientClubMost Valuable Player PereiraVerdy KawasakiRookie of the Year Kazuaki TasakaBellmare HiratsukaManager of the Year Yasutaro MatsukiVerdy KawasakiTop Scorer Frank OrdenewitzJEF United Ichihara
Best Eleven PositionFootballerClubNationalityGKShinkichi KikuchiVerdy KawasakiDFPereiraVerdy KawasakiDFMasami IharaYokohama MarinosDFYoshihiro NatsukaBellmare HiratsukaMFBetinhoBellmare HiratsukaMFBismarckVerdy KawasakiMFTetsuji HashirataniVerdy KawasakiMFTsuyoshi KitazawaVerdy KawasakiMFRuy RamosVerdy KawasakiFWTakuya TakagiSanfrecce HiroshimaFWNobuhiro TakedaVerdy Kawasaki
References
Source: J. League 1994 (RSSSF)