J1 League 2022 it’s over. The 30th edition of the competition since it was launched in 1993 has produced Yokohama F. Marinos came out as the champion.
Marinos managed to collect 68 points in 34 games, the result of 20 wins, eight draws and six defeats. The team under the leadership of Australian coach Kevin Muscat is two points clear of last season’s closest competitor and champion, Kawasaki Frontale.
That is, Marinos managed to stop Frontale’s dominance which he has won four times in the last five seasons of the Japanese championship. In the match between the two teams this season, Marinos won the first home match with a score of 4-2, while Frontale’s match ended with a 2-1 win for the hosts.
For the Marinos, this is the fifth J1 League title in history. Previously, they won in 1995, 2003, 2004 and most recently in 2019.
Similar to the 2019 title, this season’s Marinos title also allowed them to keep Kawasaki Frontale at bay in order to win three times in a row.
Now, the Marinos are the team with the second most J1 League titles in Japan. They only lost to the Kashima Antlers who have racked up eight titles.
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Yokohama F. Marinos Photo: J.League doc
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Australian manager, Kevin Muscat, managed to lead Marinos to victory in his first full season as team manager. You took over as club captain when Ange Postecoglou, also from Australia, left for Celtic FC in the summer of 2021.
Muscat has also been selected as the best coach of the J1 League three times this season, namely in May, July and September. That number is more than any other Japanese league manager this season.
There are several players on the pitch who have almost always been a pillar of Kevin Muscat this season. Goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka is the only player to have played all J1 League games this season with the Marinos.
Takaoka was recorded to have managed to score 13 times without a goal in 34 games. This record is only lost by FCTokyo goalkeeper Jakub Slowik, who has scored 14 goalless goals this season.
In attack, the Brazilian duo, Leo Ceara and Anderson Lopes, both contributed 11 goals and became the team’s top scorer. The duo are only three goals away from this season’s J1 League top scorer, Shimizu S-Pulse’s Thiago Santana.
In addition, there are also Takuma Nishimura who has scored 10 goals, and Kota Mizunuma and Teruhito Nakagawa who have both recorded six assists this season. Muscat also relies on many other names that almost always adorn the Marinos squad this season such as Tomoki Iwata, Joel Chima Fujita, Elber, Ryuta Koike, up to Katsuya Nagato.
Three players have won the monthly MVP aka J1 League Player of the Year title this season, Mizunuma City in June, Leo Ceara in July and Tomoki Iwata in September. At this season’s J.League Awards, Marinos defensive midfielder Tomoki Iwata was voted MVP aka J1 League Player of the Season.
Iwata was also named in this season’s J1 League Team of the Year, along with goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, defender Ryuta Koike, midfielder Kota Mizunuma and striker Elber. This season, Yokohama F. Marinos also recorded the longest winning streak in the J1 League with six straight wins and the longest winning streak with nine straight unbeaten games.
The game against Shimizu S-Pulse on July 2, 2022 was also the J1 League game this season with the most spectators, followed by 56,131 people. Yokohama F. Marinos managed to become the champion with a collection of 68 points, scored 70 goals and conceded 35 goals.
This record is actually no better than last season’s record, when the J1 League was still full of 20 teams. Last season they had 79 points and were second in the standings, scoring 82 goals and conceding 35 goals.
Even Marinos’ record this season is no better than that of last season’s champions Kawasaki Frontale, who won with 92 points, scored 81 goals and conceded 28 goals. Even so, that doesn’t rule out Yokohama F. Marinos being the best team in the Meiji Yasuda J1 League this season.
(aff / rin)
