Urawa Red Diamonds
| Logo | |||
| Full name | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Urawa Reds | ||
| Founded | March 10, 1992 | ||
| Ground | Urawa Komaba Stadium and Saitama Stadium 2002 Saitama, Saitama | ||
| Capacity | 21,500 and 63,700 | ||
| Chairman | Motoaki Inukai | ||
| Manager | Guido Buchwald | ||
| League | J. League Div.1 | ||
| J. League 2005 | 2nd place | ||
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The Urawa Red Diamonds (Japanese: 浦和レッドダイヤモンズ), also known as Urawa Reds (Japanese: 浦和レッズ), are one of the most popular football clubs in the J. League. Its hometown is Urawa-ku in the city of Saitama, Saitama. Their name comes from the logo of their owner, Mitsubishi, whose own name means three diamonds.
Urawa has two home stadiums, Urawa Komaba Stadium and Saitama Stadium 2002 (FIFA World Cup 2002 venue). The club is also notable in that current Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono began his professional career playing for Urawa.
In August 2004, Urawa appeared in a pre-season four-team friendly tournament, the Vodafone Cup, at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. The Japanese club lost their first game 5-2 against the Argentinian side Boca Juniors. The second fixture against the hosts, Manchester United, was called off due to a massive electric storm. Some 800 Urawa fans had travelled to the game and were later compensated.
In 2004 J. League campaign, Urawa placed 3rd in the First Stage and won the Second Stage, thus qualifying for the Suntory Championship (the two-match final to decide the J-League Champion) against Yokohama F. Marinos. After losing 1–0 in Yokohama, the Reds won with the same result the return match in Saitama Stadium; penalties resulted into a victory for the F. Marinos.
In 2005, Urawa finished 2nd, only 1 point after the champion, Gamba Osaka, in their J. League campaign. However, they won the firstever Emperor's Cup title since the establishment as a professional team, by defeating Shimizu S-Pulse by 2-1 in January 1, 2006