Description
Zweigen Kanazawa are a professional soccer club in the J. League, currently playing in J2. Their home town is the entire Ishikawa prefecture, centering around the Kanazawa city. The team’s home stadium is the Ishikawa Athletics Stadium in Kanazawa city.
The team was originally founded in 1956 under the name Kanazawa Soccer Club. They passed the Ishikawa Prefecture League, the Hokushinetsu League and in 2009, after beating JFL’s 17th place holder FC Kariya in the relegation match, they secured their spot in JFL from the 2010 season. While they were in Hokushinetsu League’s 1st division, they changed their club name to the present Zweigen Kanazawa.
Even though they didn’t manage to leave any outstanding results during their time in JFL from 2010 to 2013, they were recognized as associate members of the J. League in February 2013 and thus started in the newly established J3 league from 2014.
In their 2014 J3 debut, the team was reinforced with experienced J. League players, which drastically improved their performance, which helped them win their first championship with a huge lead above all other contenders.During that year’s J. League board meeting Zweigen Kanazawa’s promotion to J2 was acknowledged.
Moreover, their good performance continued during their first J2 season in the following year. They demonstrated steady progress by winning 6 matches in a row at the start of the season and in an instant they were in first place.In the second half of the season they lost momentum, eventually finishing in 12th place with passable results.
This downward trend continued in their second year in 2016, when most of their strong players were lured away by other clubs, which left the weakened Zweigen in a slump in last place.
In the J2-J3 relegation matches they faced Tochigi SC, who they beat in both games and just barely managed to stay in J2. Currently, in the 2017 season, they are also fighting in J2.
One of Zweigen’s famous players is Tatsuhiko Kubo. Kubo was a former Japan National team player, who was also the ace striker for Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Yokohama F. Marinos. He played for Zweigen for 2 seasons from 2010 to 2011, appearing in 50 matches, where he scored 15 goals.
The team’s home jersey is red and their supplier from 2016 has been Adidas. Their shirts are decorated with their local sponsors like The Hokkoku Shimbun, The Hokkoku Bank, and others.
