Urawa Red Diamonds

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.

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.

As for 2004 J. League, Urawa Reds placed 3rd on 1st stage and won 2nd Stage, thus qualifying for Suntory Championship (the two-matches final to decide J. League Champion) against Yokohama F. Marinos: after losing 1–0 in Yokohama, Urawa Reds won with the same result the return match in Saitama Stadium; penalties resulted into Marinos win.

Current stars

• Alex
• Alpay Özalan

Former stars

• Shinji Ono

Title

• 2003 - Nabisco Cup championship

External links

• Urawa Red Diamonds Official Site (in English)