Season | 2021 |
---|---|
Dates | 26 February – 4 December |
Champions | Kawasaki Frontale (4th title) |
Relegated |
Tokushima Vortis Oita Trinita Vegalta Sendai Yokohama FC |
Champions League |
Kawasaki Frontale Yokohama F. Marinos Vissel Kobe Urawa Red Diamonds |
Matches played | 380 |
Goals scored | 920 (2.42 per match) |
Top goalscorer |
Leandro Damião Daizen Maeda (23 goals each) |
Biggest home win |
Yokohama F. Marinos 8–0
FC Tokyo (6 November 2021) |
Biggest away win |
Urawa Red Diamonds 0–5
Kawasaki Frontale (21 March 2021) |
Highest scoring |
Kashima Antlers 5–3
Yokohama F. Marinos (15 May 2021) Yokohama FC 5–3 Tokushima Vortis (16 October 2021) Yokohama F. Marinos 8–0 FC Tokyo (6 November 2021) |
Longest winning run | 7 matches Kawasaki Frontale Yokohama F. Marinos |
Longest unbeaten run | 25 matches Kawasaki Frontale |
Longest winless run | 13 matches Yokohama FC |
Longest losing run | 7 matches Avispa Fukuoka Oita Trinita |
Highest attendance | 30,657
[1] Yokohama F. Marinos 1–1 Kawasaki Frontale (4 December 2021) |
Lowest attendance | 1,899
[1] Yokohama FC 0–3 Sanfrecce Hiroshima (7 April 2021) (excluding matches played behind closed doors) |
Total attendance | 2,531,007 [1] |
Average attendance | 6,661
[1] (excluding matches played behind closed doors) |
←
2020
2022 → |
The 2021 J1 League, also known as the 2021 Meiji Yasuda J1 League ( Japanese: 2021 明治安田生命J1リーグ, Hepburn: 2021 Meiji Yasuda Seimei J1 Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, was the 29th season of the J1 League, the top Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. This was seventh season of J1 League as renamed from J. League Division 1. The league began on 26 February and ended on 4 December 2021.
Kawasaki Frontale were the reigning champions, having won their third title in 2020 with four rounds to play. [2] They successfully retained the title, again with four rounds to play. [3]
On 20 November 2021, Oita Trinita, Vegalta Sendai, and Yokohama FC were relegated to J2 League with two games to play. On the final matchday Tokushima Vortis was relegated back to J2 League after just one season.
There were no teams relegated last season due to impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. [4] Instead, four relegation places were applied for the current season to reduce the total number of teams from 20 back to 18. [5]
Two teams were promoted from the 2020 J2 League: Tokushima Vortis won the title and clinched a second promotion to J1 (the first came in 2013), while Avispa Fukuoka came second, returning to J1 after five seasons. [6]
Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yokohama FC | Takahiro Shimotaira [7] | Sacked | 7 April 2021 | Tomonobu Hayakawa [8] | 8 April 2021 |
Kashima Antlers | Antônio Carlos Zago [9] | 14 April 2021 | Naoki Soma [10] | 14 April 2021 | |
Gamba Osaka | Tsuneyasu Miyamoto [11] | 13 May 2021 | Masanobu Matsunami (interim) [11] [a] | 14 May 2021 | |
Yokohama F. Marinos | Ange Postecoglou [13] | Signed by Celtic | 10 June 2021 | Hideki Matsunaga (caretaker) [14] | 10 June 2021 |
Yokohama F. Marinos | Hideki Matsunaga [15] | End of caretaker spell | 18 July 2021 | Kevin Muscat [15] | 18 July 2021 |
Cerezo Osaka | Levir Culpi [16] | Sacked | 26 August 2021 | Akio Kogiku [17] | 26 August 2021 |
Shonan Bellmare | Bin Ukishima [18] | Resigned | 31 August 2021 | Satoshi Yamaguchi [19] | 1 September 2021 |
Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Hiroshi Jofuku [20] | Resigned | 26 October 2021 | Kentaro Sawada (interim) [20] | 26 October 2021 |
Shimizu S-Pulse | Miguel Ángel Lotina [21] | Sacked | 4 November 2021 | Hiroaki Hiraoka [22] | 4 November 2021 |
FC Tokyo | Kenta Hasegawa [23] | Resigned | 7 November 2021 | Shinichi Morishita (interim) [24] | 10 November 2021 |
As of 2021 season, there were no more restrictions on a number of signed foreign players, but clubs could only register up to five foreign players for a single match-day squad. [25] Players from J.League partner nations (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Qatar) were exempted from these restrictions.
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kawasaki Frontale (C) | 38 | 28 | 8 | 2 | 81 | 28 | +53 | 92 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage |
2 | Yokohama F. Marinos | 38 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 82 | 35 | +47 | 79 | |
3 | Vissel Kobe | 38 | 21 | 10 | 7 | 62 | 36 | +26 | 73 | Qualification for the AFC Champions League play-off round |
4 | Kashima Antlers | 38 | 21 | 6 | 11 | 62 | 36 | +26 | 69 | |
5 | Nagoya Grampus | 38 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 44 | 30 | +14 | 66 | |
6 | Urawa Red Diamonds | 38 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 45 | 38 | +7 | 63 [a] | Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage [b] |
7 | Sagan Tosu | 38 | 16 | 11 | 11 | 43 | 35 | +8 | 59 | |
8 | Avispa Fukuoka | 38 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 42 | 37 | +5 | 54 | |
9 | FC Tokyo | 38 | 15 | 8 | 15 | 49 | 53 | −4 | 53 | |
10 | Consadole Sapporo | 38 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 48 | 50 | −2 | 51 | |
11 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 38 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 44 | 42 | +2 | 49 | |
12 | Cerezo Osaka | 38 | 13 | 9 | 16 | 47 | 51 | −4 | 48 | |
13 | Gamba Osaka | 38 | 12 | 8 | 18 | 33 | 49 | −16 | 44 | |
14 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 37 | 54 | −17 | 42 | |
15 | Kashiwa Reysol | 38 | 12 | 5 | 21 | 37 | 56 | −19 | 41 | |
16 | Shonan Bellmare | 38 | 7 | 16 | 15 | 36 | 41 | −5 | 37 [a] | |
17 | Tokushima Vortis (R) | 38 | 10 | 6 | 22 | 34 | 55 | −21 | 36 | Relegation to the J2 League |
18 | Oita Trinita (R) | 38 | 9 | 8 | 21 | 31 | 55 | −24 | 35 | |
19 | Vegalta Sendai (R) | 38 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 31 | 62 | −31 | 28 | |
20 | Yokohama FC (R) | 38 | 6 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 77 | −45 | 27 |
Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anderson Lopes | Consadole Sapporo | Vissel Kobe | 3–4 (H) [32] [33] | 20 March 2021 |
Ado Onaiwu | Yokohama F. Marinos | FC Tokyo | 3–0 (A) [34] | 1 May 2021 |
Shoma Doi | Kashima Antlers | Yokohama F. Marinos | 5–3 (H) [35] | 15 May 2021 |
Kyogo Furuhashi | Vissel Kobe | Yokohama FC | 5–0 (H) [36] | 23 June 2021 |
Daizen Maeda | Yokohama F. Marinos | Oita Trinita | 5–1 (H) [37] | 15 August 2021 |
Léo Ceará | Yokohama F. Marinos | Vegalta Sendai | 5–0 (H) [38] | 21 August 2021 |
Douglas Vieira | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Kashiwa Reysol | 3–0 (A) [39] | 18 September 2021 |
Daizen Maeda | Yokohama F. Marinos | FC Tokyo | 8–0 (H) [40] | 6 November 2021 |
Patric | Gamba Osaka | Oita Trinita | 3–2 (A) [41] | 7 November 2021 |