Matsumoto Yamaga FC
松本山雅FC
Full nameMatsumoto Yamaga Football Club
Nickname(s)Ptarmigans, Gans
Founded1965 (1965)
StadiumMatsumoto Stadium
(Alwin)
Matsumoto, Nagano
Capacity20,396
ChairmanFumiyuki Kanda
ManagerMasahiro Shimoda
LeagueJ3 League
2023J3 League, 9th of 20
WebsiteClub website

Matsumoto Yamaga Football Club (松本山雅フットボールクラブ, Matsumoto Yamaga Futtobōru Kurabu) or simply Matsumoto Yamaga FC (松本山雅FC, Matsumoto Yamaga Efu Shī) is a Japanese football (soccer) club based in the city of Matsumoto, located in the Nagano Prefecture. The club currently plays in the J3 League, Japanese third tier of professional football.

History

The club was founded in 1965 by the players who represented Nagano Prefecture. The players frequented a cafe called Yamaga in front of Matsumoto railway station and initially they were simply called Yamaga Club. In 2004, they were renamed as Matsumoto Yamaga FC when nonprofit organisation Alwin Sports Project were set up to support the club with the intention of promotion to J. League. The very coffee shop where they founded the club no longer exists, but the club opened a new one in 2017.

In the 2007 and 2008 season they finished respectively 1st and 4th in the Hokushin'etsu First Division, but failed to gain the promotion to the Japan Football League as they exited at the group stage of the Regional League promotion series against other regional champions. 2008 also brought a crucial Emperor's Cup run, where they defeated former Japanese champions Shonan Bellmare in the third round by penalty kicks, only to be eliminated 8–0 by Vissel Kobe.

The 2009 season brought inconsistency, as they took 4th place in the regional league but knocked Urawa Red Diamonds out of the Emperor's Cup in the second round, their biggest giant-killing ever.

By virtue of winning the Shakaijin Cup, they earned a berth in the Regional League promotion series, and won the series at home to earn promotion to the Japan Football League for 2010. They earned 7th place on their first season in the third tier.

In 2011, despite a season thrown off by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the resulting inability of Sony Sendai to play a full schedule, Yamaga earned 4th place and were promoted to J. League Division 2. After three seasons they earned their first ever promotion to J1 League, only to be relegated after one season.

After failing to secure promotion in 2016 and 2017, Yamaga finished their 2018 season at the top of the J2 table, winning their first ever league title and securing automatic promotion to J1 in the process.

This began the downfall of Matsumoto Yamaga FC, due to the club's bad idea of high player turnover. Ahead of the 2020 J2 League, Yamaga turned over more than 20 players, in which began a slow start in 2020, as the club also went through many winless runs, including 5 losses in a row, which at the time was a record amount of defeats for the club in J2. Eventually, in September 2020, manager Keiichiro Nuno was sacked, and the club finished 13th that season. Things were about to get worse as they continued high player turnover, with 27 players leaving and 24 coming to the club before the 2021 J2 League. In June that year, Nuno's replacement, Kei Shibata, was fired from the club, and was replaced with Hiroshi Nanami, who couldn't help the club escape relegation after finishing dead last that season.[1]

In 2022, Matsumoto played its first season on the J3. Matsumoto failed to be promoted back to the J2 League, as it finished on fourth place in the final standings of the 2022 J3 League season. The club ended tied on points with Kagoshima United, with both having earned 66 points in 34 matches. However, the goal difference stood out in Kagoshima's favour. The club will play its 2nd consecutive season at the J3 on 2023.

Rivalry

The biggest rival of Matsumoto Yamaga are the prefectural neighbors and former Hokushin'etsu League fellows Nagano Parceiro. Matches between those teams are labelled "Shinshū derby" and generate a lot of interest in both cities.[2] For 2011 season, Parceiro joined their rivals in JFL bringing the derby to the national level.

Stadium

Matsumoto Stadium (Alwin)

Matsumoto Yamaga's home ground is Matsumoto Stadium (popularly known as Alwin) located in the Kambayashi area of Matsumoto city. The stadium has a capacity of 20,000 (16,000 seats and 4,000 standings).[3] It is the third largest Sport venue in Nagano Prefecture.

Mascot

The mascot of the club is named "Gans-kun" (ガンズくん), who is a Ptarmigan (ターミガン, Tāmigan), the symbol bird of Nagano Prefecture.[4]

Theme song

The club's theme song is "wanna be a superstar" by local rock band ASIAN2.

Affiliated clubs

On 23 November 2016, Matsumoto Yamaga and Geylang International signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in a press event which was held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform. This MOU will enable both clubs to establish a platform to exchange expertise and knowledge with the objective of promoting cohesion and development of football between the two clubs. The MOU spells out possible areas of collaboration such as the exchange of players and technical staff for training attachments and loans. Geylang will be looking to select promising players from its Active SG-GIFC Soccer Academy and junior teams to send on short training stints with Matsumoto Yamaga while the Japanese club is also looking into the possibility of sending players from their junior team to Singapore for a pre-season training stints. Amongst the key initiatives of the partnership with Matsumoto Yamaga is the exchange programmes for head coach, Mohd Noor Ali, who had a one-year attachment with the club in 2018, where he guided the club U18 B team to the Japan FA’s Under-18 Football League Nagano prefecture title while on 17 August 2018, Anders Aplin become the first Singaporean football player to sign for a J.League team signing on loan until the end of the 2018 J2 League season in November.


On 30 October 2022, both club reaffirmed their close and long-standing relationship as Geylang International officials went to Japan to explore future collaborations going into the seventh year of partnership since 2016. Geylang International has a memorandum of understanding with J.League outfits, Matsumoto Yamaga that was signed in 2016, while Epson’s relationship with the club also dates back to the same year when it became the club’s platinum sponsor. In the last seven years, Epson has enjoyed premium hospitality access to the club’s home matches and has also supported the Singaporean football community and youths with the staging of the Epson Youth Cup.

League & cup record

Champions Runners-up Third place Promoted Relegated
League Emperor's
Cup
SeasonDivisionTierPosPWDLFAGDPts
1975 Hokushin'etsu36th8314141317Did not qualify
1976 6th9243171438
1977 8th92341722−57
1978 10th9108927−182
1979 2nd96121811713
1980 4th96211981114
1981 3rd9513159611
1982 5th9414111019
1983 7th92341214−27
1984 7th92341315−27
1985 1st97112371615
1986 4th94232113810
1987 4th94231211110
1988 3rd94321981111
1989 2nd96121710713
1990 4th93421614210
1991 5th9414171259
1992 45th94321512311
1993 6th93331517−29
1994 35th92521113−29
1995 6th9225814−68
1996 5th9324919−1011
1997 8th92161123−1271st round
1998 3rd84-41724−712Did not qualify
1999 49th92(1)-7429−254
2000 8th8107618−123
2001 9th8026424−202
2002 8th93151218−69
2003 9th121471342−297
2004 Hokushin'etsu
(Div. 2)		56th144281627−1114
2005 1st1383236112527
2006 Hokushin'etsu
(Div. 1)		42nd141112341024342nd round
2007 1st14101347153231Did not qualify
2008 4th14734311813244th round
2009 4th14923401426293rd round
2010 JFL37th341571248417522nd round
2011 4th341788603822594th round
2012 J2 League212th4215141346433592nd round
2013 7th421991454540663rd Round
2014 2nd4224117653530833rd round
2015 J1 League116th3477203054−24284th round
2016 J2 League23rd4224126623230842nd round
2017 8th4219914614516664th round
2018 1st4221147543420773rd round
2019 J1 League117th34613152140-19312nd round
2020 J2 League213th421315144452-854Did not qualify
2021 22nd42713223671-35343rd round
2022 J3 League34th342068463313662nd round
2023 9th38159145147454Did not qualify
2024 TBD38
Key
  • Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained
  • Source: J.League Data Site

Honours

Current squad

As of 26 August 2023.[6]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF Japan JPN Taiki Miyabe
4 MF Japan JPN Akira Ando
6 FW Japan JPN Kazuma Yamaguchi
7 FW Brazil BRA Lucas Rian
8 MF Japan JPN Yota Shimokawa
9 FW Japan JPN Kunitomo Suzuki
11 MF Japan JPN Kohei Kiyama
13 DF Japan JPN Yuya Hashiuchi
14 MF Brazil BRA Paulinho
15 FW Japan JPN Yusuke Kikui
16 GK Japan JPN Tomohiko Murayama
18 FW Japan JPN Leon Nozawa (on loan from FC Tokyo)
19 FW Japan JPN Ren Komatsu
21 GK Spain ESP Víctor Ibáñez
23 MF Japan JPN Yuta Taki (on loan from Shimizu S-Pulse)
25 FW Japan JPN Itsuki Enomoto
28 DF Japan JPN Yuya Fujimoto
No. Pos. Nation Player
29 MF Japan JPN Kaiga Murakoshi
30 MF Japan JPN Ryuji Kokubu
31 GK Japan JPN Haruto Usui
32 MF Japan JPN Shusuke Yonehara
33 FW Japan JPN Naoto Arai
34 MF Japan JPN Taku Inafuku
35 GK Japan JPN Shoma Kanda
36 MF Japan JPN Sho Sumida
37 DF Japan JPN Ko Shimura
38 MF Japan JPN Mao Hamana
40 DF Japan JPN Daiki Higuchi DSP
41 MF Japan JPN Ryuhei Yamamoto
42 MF Japan JPN Sora Tanaka
43 DF Japan JPN Masato Tokida
44 DF Japan JPN Takato Nonomura
46 MF Japan JPN Reo Yasunaga (on loan from Mito HollyHock)
48 DF Japan JPN So Fujitani
49 FW Japan JPN Kazuma Watanabe

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
27 DF Japan JPN Jiyo Ninomiya (at Veroskronos Tsuno)

Club officials

For the 2023 season.

Position Name
Manager Masahiro Shimoda
Assistant Manager Tomonobu Hayakawa
Kentaro Tsuboi
Kohei Takeishi
Goalkeeper Coach Tetsuro Yoshimoto
Physical Coach Rui Kokubo
Interpreter Felipe
Doctor Takashige Momose
Chief Trainer Koji Inoue
Trainer Chisato Chiba
Fumiya Sugiuchi
Competent Makoto Shiraki
Side affairs Kazumasa Hirabayashi
Yudai Maruyama
Hiroya Taniguchi

Managerial history

ManagerNationalityTenure
StartFinish
Katsua Kobayashi Japan2004
Keiju Karashima Japan1 February 200531 January 2008
Hideo Yoshizawa Japan21 February 20088 June 2011
Yoshiyuki Katō Japan9 June 201131 January 2012
Yasuharu Sorimachi Japan1 February 201231 January 2020
Keiichirō Nuno Japan1 February 202024 September 2020
Kei Shibata Japan25 September 202020 June 2021
Hiroshi Nanami Japan21 June 202131 January 2023
Masahiro Shimoda Japan1 February 2023Current

Kit evolution

First kit - home
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023 -
Second kit - away
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023 -
Third kit
2015
Club
50th anniversary
2016
Mountain Day
2017 3rd
2017
Mountain Day
2018
Mountain Day
2019
Mountain Day
2020
Club
55th anniversary
2021 SP
2022
Summer
2023
Summer


References

  1. ↑ From J1 to J3 in three years | What happened to Matsumoto Yamaga?, retrieved 22 August 2022
  2. ↑ Senta, Houji. 信州ダービー (in Japanese). JAPAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE. Archived from the original on 17 September 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  3. ↑ 【松本平広域公園】 信州スカイパーク アルウィン (in Japanese). TOYBOX. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  4. ↑ Matsumoto Yamaga F.C. - Club Profile
  5. ↑ "Geylang International and Matsumoto Yamaga FC reaffirm strong ties - Geylang International FC". 30 October 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  6. ↑ "選手・スタッフ". yamaga-fc.com. 1 July 2022.
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