Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC ready to rock the J1 League

DBasia.news – Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC have officially become the two Meiji Yasuda J2 League teams that have won promotion tickets to the top caste next season. The two of them will compete and will shake up the Meiji Yasuda J1 League next season.

This season’s J2 League is attended by 22 teams, 3 teams have the opportunity to be promoted to the J1 League. The two teams in the top position will automatically get promotion tickets, while the teams in the third to sixth position will play promotion play-offs first, including against the team ranked 16th in the J1 League this season.

Now, two automatic promotion tickets have been sealed by two teams, Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC. Not only promotion, Albirex Niigata is also the champion of the 2022 J2 League.

This is the second time Albirex Niigata has won the J2 League after previously winning the 2003 title.

Since then, Albirex Niigata played in the top tier until they were relegated in 2017.

Now, after five seasons in the second tier, the team from Niigata Prefecture is ready to compete again in the top caste next season.

Rikizo Matsuhashi is the coach who brought the White Swan champion this season, in his first season as a coach. Last season he was assistant to Albert Puig at Albirex and became the main coach after Puig moved to FC Tokyo earlier this season.

In the hands of Matsuhashi, Albirex, who last season finished sixth in the standings, brought him to victory by relying on players such as Ryosuke Kojima, Australian national team player Thomas Deng, Ryotaro Ito, Kaito Taniguchi, and team captain Yuto Horigome.

This title also makes Albirex follow in the footsteps of their satellite team, Albirex Niigata Singapore, who won the Singapore League this season.

Albirex will be accompanied by Yokohama FC for promotion next season, a team from Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture.

The team nicknamed Fulie last season became the caretaker of the J1 League and had to be relegated. Only one season in the second tier, now they will return to the top stage of the Japanese League next season.

Yokohama FC was promoted to the J1 League for the first time in 2007 after winning the J2 League the previous season, even though they only lasted one season.

They then returned to promotion after reaching second place in the 2019 J2 League, and spent two seasons in the J1 League before being relegated again.

This season, Yokohama FC is coached by Shuhei Yomoda, who was appointed earlier this season to replace Tomonobu Hayakawa. Yomoda was assistant coach to Michael Petrovic at Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo last season.

Yomoda took advantage of the strengths of players such as German goalkeeper Svend Brodersen, J2 League top scorer Koki Ogawa, Ryoya Yamashita, Tatsuya Hasegawa, to Masashi Kamekawa to be able to bring this team promotion to the top caste.

How will Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC do in the Meiji Yasuda J1 League next season? We should look forward to it!