It’s a cold day at the Toyama Athletic Stadium. No surprise, since it’s December. Kataller Toyama just snatched a 2-1 comeback win against YSCC Yokohama, with a penalty scored by Arthur Silva. But no one is actually celebrating, since the news from Tottori are not good: Kagoshima United FC took one point from Gainare, which is enough lock promotion to J2 thanks to a better goal difference.
The home team players are destroyed. Kataller were tantalisingly close to getting back to J2 the whole season, only to drop several points throughout the year. And it wasn’t the first close call – with Toyama wasting another chance to go back to the second tier, despite a positive season from several players. Only two weeks before, Toyama lost in Hachinohe, after having lost at home the week before against Nara.
It must be why then the club opted for a clear out of the current roster – out Rindo, Yagishita, Ono, Ando, Ohata, plus the permanent goodbye to Shota Kawanishi. Kataller have played 465 games in J3 League, despite not having been among the “Original 10” clubs to have started the third tier in its professional era. They’re second for most win (134), they’ve never done worst than 11th since joining J3.
They’re on the verge of crossroads: either coming back to J2 – at least trying to have a shot at it, since realities like Iwate Grulla Morioka and SC Sagamihara managed to do so – or becoming a sort of “Mito HollyHock of J3”, perennial characters of this specific division, with no aim to either go up or go down. For Kataller Toyama, it’s a crucial season.
A life ago
As we mentioned, Kataller Toyama were in J2 once. Just like Kagoshima United FC, their existence was credit to a merger – between YKK AP SC, owned by YKK (a Japanese manufacturing company), and ALO’s Hokuriku. There was interest in promoting football in the Toyama Prefecture, with the aim for the newly-formed team to feature in the 2008 Japan Football League. It took just one season to make the step to J2, with them, Tochigi SC, and Fagiano Okayama getting promoted.
The leap of the team coached by Hiroshi Sowa was surprising – Kataller immediately reached 13th place in their maiden season, defeating Shonan Bellmare, and Cerezo Osaka once. But it wasn’t easy to keep that rhythm and eventually Kataller declined to the bottom of the table, despite having a stable coach at the helm, Takayoshi Amma. It wasn’t enough to avoid the worst.
In a league full of Brazilians and possible foreigners, Kataller struggled to get some players and ended up 10 points shy of Kamatamare Sanuki (who instead featured in the play-out against Nagano Parceiro and avoided relegation). Little did Toyama know that relegation was a no way back-ticket to J3 – they’re one of the few clubs who didn’t manage to go back to the second tier.
Life in the third tier
Nevertheless, Kataller Toyama had several chances to watch J2 football again. Their history of close calls towards promotion is pretty big – whether it’s about final chances lost or dips in form. Take 2017: Kataller were in second position until July, fourth until October, then ended up seventh. 2019 had some similar shades, with an inconsistent squad incapable of keeping the pace.
2021 was another blow, especially because it was a 15 teams-league. Kataller were in Top 2 for two-thirds of the season, and then completely folded from mid-October, racking up only five points in the last seven games. 2023 was even worse, with 75% of the season spent in Top 2, but then a few terrible losses – including a four defeats-streak between August and September – condemned Toyama to disappointment.
Kataller Toyama have changed seven managers in nine years – not so many, but only one (Ryo Adachi, who nevertheless kept an average of 1,59 points per game) coached the team for almost three seasons. And continuity will be fundamental to achieve what’s been missing until now. In the dugout, the appointment of Michiharu Otagiri – which happened in September 2022 – worked out well.
Breaking the curse?
Otagiri has a particular backstory, since he’s born in Ichikawa Prefecture, but moved very young to Toyama and built his career as a player there. He had brief stints in Kyoto, Kofu, and with Jatso SC (a dissolved team in Shizuoka), before coming back to Toyama, first with YKK AP and then with Kataller (he featured even in 16 games in the maiden J2 season). Once retired, he joined the coaching staff, from U-15 in 2010 until the head coach position in 2022.
The players who stayed will be anyway important – Yoji Sasaki and Nobuyuki Shiina are good midfielders in J3, just like Junya Imase at the back. The newly-appointed captain, Tsubasa Yoshihira, is still 27 and he’s been one of the strongest J3 strikers ever (31 goals scored). Matheus Leiria has finally more space among forwards and he’s to deliver a 10+ goals season.
The new signings should bring decent replacements. Yosuke Kawai isn’t fit anymore for J2 as a starter, but J3 might be the right fit. Naoki Inoue has been a nice resource for Blaublitz Akita, but needs a starting spot and Toyama could be an option to find it. And another step of growth from Daichi Matsuoka and Takumi Ito might be the step to reach a solid play-off spot.
This was just the start of the pre-season coverage. J3 League has been the first to be analysed, with a brief deep dive on Giravanz Kitakyushu’s fortunes as an opener. You can find it still here. Tune soon here for the Top 10 Transfers!
[…] That’s the last article of our pre-seasonal coverage for the J3 League in 2024. Next week we’ll have J2, but if you wanna recover the other two pieces around the third tier, we’ve asked ourselves which year will await Giravanz Kitakyushu (here) and Kataller Toyama (here). […]