Sagawa Express Tokyo SC
Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. (soccer club) was an industrial-league association football team based in the Kōtō, Tokyo. The team was founded in 1991 and was a member of the Japan Football League from 2001–2007, when it merged with Sagawa Express Osaka S.C. to form Sagawa Shiga F.C. As the name implies the club was organized by Sagawa Express.
| Full name | Sagawa Express Tokyo Soccer Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | – | ||
| Founded | 1991 | ||
| Dissolved | 2007 | ||
| Ground | – | ||
| Capacity | – | ||
| Chairman | ? | ||
| Manager | Nobutaka Tanaka (田中 信孝) | ||
| League | Japan Football League | ||
| 2006 | 2nd | ||
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This team had its origin in two preceding football teams, one is Sagawa Express Tokyo branch office soccer association founded in 1991, and the other is Tokyo Fulie soccer club, founded in 1993, which consisted of players that were former members of All Nippon Airways (Yokohama) soccer club and former Yokohama Flügels.
In 1999, Sagawa Express soccer club had absorbed the Tokyo Fulie soccer club which was active in Tokyo league division 1 at the time and then came to be present form of the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. (Since the Sagawa Express soccer club was belonging to Tokyo league division 4 when the absorption took place, the team's leading members were actually composed of members of Tokyo Furie mostly, although the team name was Sagawa Express soccer club.) For expressing this team circumstance, the team name was "Sagawa Express Tokyo Fulie soccer club" for a while.
In 2000, the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. had won final match of local league championship and achieved its promotion to JFL. In this match, the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. entered in the championship with a team name of "Sagawa Express soccer club" for meaning that it was the representative team of several Sagawa football teams co-existing in Sagawa Express corp. at that time. However, in 2002, Sagawa Express Osaka soccer club was also promoted to JFL, thus to distinguish each team, the team name of Sagawa Express soccer club was changed back to "Sagawa Express Toyo soccer club".
The Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. was one of the very strong teams in JFL aiming for upper-rank of the same. Since the team was formed by the absorption of former Tokyo Fulie members, there existed former J. League players and efficient amateur players in it. In the all Japan football championship for the Emperor's Cup in 2001, the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. defeated Nagoya Grampus Eight of J1 league for 4 – 0. This victory became the talk of the people and called as "best upset ever recorded". In 2003, the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. competed with Otsuka F.C. and Honda F.C. for championship of the season in JFL for a while.
However, in the year of 2004, before opening of the season of JFL league championship, there was such accident that the manager in charge at that time was arrested for committing a buying sex from a child and being deprived the rights of instructor permanently from Japan Soccer Association.
In the year of 2006, at the Sagawa sports festival which was held among its company, the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C. had a match with the Sagawa Express Osaka S.C., which was also belonging to JFL, and could not win against the Sagawa Express Osaka S.C. after the match went into a penalty shoot-out.
On 14 September 2006, it was announced that the Sagawa Express Tokyo S.C and the Sagawa Express Osaka S.C. would be merged and its base would be moved to Shiga prefecture. Further, it was announced that said merged team will make new start from the beginning of 2007 with new team name "Sagawa Express S.C.".
Its base stadium is Yumenoshima athletic field of Koto district, Tokyo, (seating capacity is 5,000) and the matches are mainly taken place there. However, the matches are also frequently held at other stadiums in Tokyo metropolitan area such like at Edogawa and Nishigaoka.
Club records
| Season | Belonging league | Matches | league point | Win | Draw | Lose | Goal difference | Point | Lost point | Final rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Kanto industrial-league | 18 | 42 | 14 | 0 | 4 | +38 | 54 | 16 | 1 |
| 2001 | JFL | 30 | 62 | 19 | 5 | 6 | +37 | 60 | 23 | 4 |
| 2002 | 17 | 39 | 12 | 3 | 2 | +27 | 49 | 22 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 30 | 52 | 15 | 7 | 8 | +17 | 54 | 37 | 5 | |
| 2004 | 30 | 44 | 13 | 5 | 12 | +4 | 43 | 39 | 7 | |
| 2005 | 30 | 52 | 16 | 4 | 10 | +22 | 55 | 33 | 6 | |
| 2006 | 34 | 75 | 23 | 6 | 5 | +61 | 84 | 23 | 2 | |
See also
- Sagawa Express Osaka S.C.
- Sagawa Shiga F.C.