J3 League is starting and, despite its recent birth, it seems the tier acquired all the features from the first two divisions: unpredictability, uncertainty and a good dose of WTF-moments. Among five seasons already played, three came to the wire and just two were won before the last match (in 2014 it happened to Zweigen Kanazawa, last year with FC Ryukyu).
Yet, five years have gone by and the powerhouse of J3’s history is still in this tier. With their season starting in Kumamoto, Nagano Parceiro are one of the few teams still loyal to the third division. It’s going to be their sixth season in J3, but when the league was born we were pretty sure that they weren’t going to be around for long.
But after their worst season in pro-football (they came tenth last season), a series of disappointments and five different managers – the sixth will be Yuji Yokoyama, the man who brought Tochigi SC back to J2 –, is it really the time for Nagano to step up their game? Keeping also in mind that, a few miles of distance, the historic rivals of Matsumoto Yamaga are living their second top tier-season of their history.
Where to start
But how much road have we covered to end up here? Before of J3 birth, Nagano Parceiro was considered of the most promising realities in non pro-football. Originally named Nagano Elza Soccer Club after their foundation in 1990, the club had to switch to “Parceiro” in 2007 due to a trademark problem. Yet, their change of denomination wasn’t the most unfortunate event of their history.
Managed first by Valdeir Vieira and then by Norihiro Satsukawa, Nagano Parceiro were able to win the Hokushinetsu Football League three times. The 2010 season was the right one to achieve the promotion to Japan Football League, since the club came as runners-up in the Regional Football Competition, following Kamatamare Sanuki.
For Nagano, though, the problem was called Matsumoto Yamaga. Situated in the same Prefecture, the Shinshū derby took place only during the 2011 Japan Football League. In that season, we could basically see the kind of curse that will mark Nagano’s future in comparison to their closest rivals’ fortunes.
Nagano lost one derby and drew the other, but they kept a good pace and ended up being the runners-up, while Matsumoto finished fourth, four points adrift of Parceiro. Unfortunately for them, Yamaga had the right features to be promoted in J2 League: alongside Machida Zelvia, the Ptarmigans conquered their first pro-season in their history.
Despite all of this, with Matsumoto Yamaga in J2, many thought Nagano Parceiro had finally the chance to take the ship as well to professional football. Instead, it didn’t happen immediately: they slightly improved their attendances and they also won JFL in 2013 by a good margin, but they joined the newly-born J3 League in 2014 only due to a re-shuffle of the league.
Yet, the moral was high and confident to reach J2. Little did they know.
A troublesome period
In 2014, there was no doubt that there were three candidates to win the first season of J3: just relegated Gainare Tottori, former J2-member Machida Zelvia and Nagano Parceiro. Instead, Zweigen Kanazawa suddenly appeared on the stage and they were solid: they defeated Nagano two out of three league matches and ended up winning the inaugural season of the league with six points of advantage.
At that point, Nagano Parceiro still had a chance. Managed by Naohiko Minobe – the man who let the talent of Yoichiro Kakitani bloom in Tokushima –, the club faced a difficult series of play-offs against Kamatamare Sanuki. After drawing the first leg 0-0 in Nagano, Parceiro lost 1-0 and felt their dream slipping away from their hands. But it wasn’t over.
It’s strange, but every season worsened the condition of the club. All of this happened despite Parceiro featured decent coaches and most of all a wonderful stadium, the renovated Minami Nagano Sports Park, which could be a solid venue also for J2 League. But while the women’s club – AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies – grew rapidly in Japan, the J3 member remained one of the most faithful protagonists of the third tier.
Nagano Parceiro came third in 2015, again third in 2016 (but this time only due to a last matchday’s win, otherwise they would have been fifth), fifth in 2017 and tenth in 2018. While the club always showed good performances with their defense, they lacked a solid offensive game and most of all their main characters in that department – Yuki Sato, Yuji Unozawa, – are going to be remembered among the most loyal servants of the club, but they didn’t deliver so much in the last three seasons.
And while all of this happened, many coaches didn’t survive this black hole of shortcomings and disappointments: Tetsuya Asano or Minobe himself (he returned as a GM only to leave again) didn’t work out in the end. Meanwhile, other clubs – even smaller ones, like Blaublitz Akita, Renofa Yamaguchi or FC Ryukyu – enjoyed great success in this tier, even getting promoted.
Especially last season was a bloodbath. Nagano started with less expectations, but things panned out even worst than every pessimistic fan would have imagined at the start of the year. Nagano came as low as 15th and lost several games against smaller teams (losing twice in the same season against Cerezo Osaka U-23 and Grulla Morioka shouldn’t have been the best to witness).
Where to go
With this past, it’s even hard to imagine a different future for Nagano Parceiro. This year’s J3 present some solid teams – like Thespakusatsu Gunma and Azul Claro Numazu – and two decent sides which just got relegated. And if Kamatamare Sanuki seem in rebuilding mode, Roasso Kumamoto have actually a decent shot at direct promotion.
How can Nagano Parceiro even dream of a stairway to J2? Two elements might push towards this hope. First reason: the manager. Yuji Yokoyama hasn’t been so acclaimed, but he did the job in Tochigi. He initially brought the club back to J2 (even without winning the title), then he kept the squad in second division, even living some prestigious results and a solid achievement (the 100 goals of Oguro in J2).
Is Yokoyama more solid than Minobe or Asano when they came to Nagano? No, but he could have a decent shot, having already lived the toughness and the pressure of making his way back to J2. Moreover, given the recent past, probably no one would ask him straightly to bring Parceiro to the second division. Rationally they’ll ask him to have a better season than 2018.
Second reason? The core of players. Given the long time spent in this tier, many Nagano Parceiro players feature in the all-time table of J3 League both for goals and games played. Yuki Sato scored 30 goals in five years; Yoshinori Katsumata left at 23, while Yuji Unozawa can still improve his record of 22. And as for the caps, Kazuki Arinaga is fourth all-time; Yuki Sato is currently eighth, while Yuki Matsubara and Takahiro Oshima are in the Top 20.
But some of these senators left: Sato moved to FC Kariya, while Katsumata opted to join Ococias Kyoto AC. At the same time, Parceiro lost Kengo Tanaka, Shuto Kawai and Yuta Tsunami. The hope around Nagano is that some of the acquisitions of this winter may work. If I had to pick some of them, I’d say I’m curious about Riku Yamada (on loan from Omiya Ardija), Shinji Yamaguchi (who lost himself a little between Oita and Kobe) and most of all Naoya Senoo, a true class-player who just moved from Gamba Osaka.
Nothing really pushes J3 fans to pick Nagano as one of the two top teams at the end of the 2019 season. But could it be that this overlooked, quiet and feeble approach to Parceiro might benefit them in the end? In December, we’ll have some new answers about one of the strangest saga in Japanese football pyramid.
J. League Regista 