In 1991, the Japan Football Association decided that the J.League would only include a representative of the important localities of the country
Only one team from Osaka would play the new professional championship. Just that season, Gamba Osaka was better classified and that is why it was chosen
Sakura It is the cherry blossom, one of the most representative symbols of Japanese culture.. It blooms in spring and every year crowds, both tourists and locals, gather to witness an event as beautiful as it is ephemeral. Because if the cherry tree has something, it is that it is poetic: its pale and fragile flowers fall in a short time, a week at the most. Hence this tree is a metaphor for the transience of life.
The cherry tree is the symbol and the name of one of the teams of Osaka Prefecture, the third largest in Japan. The other protagonist of the derby is Gamba Osaka, which mainly represents the northern part of the territory. Its name can be misleading, but it comes from Italian prawnwhich means leg, in a pun on the Japanese term ganbaru, which means giving the best of oneself. This is how they are called now, but when both were founded, the name corresponded, as is usual in Japanese football, to the company that owns the club. The Cerezo Osaka was first founded in 1957, called Yanmar Diesel, as the trucking company. In 1965 he was one of the ‘Original Eight’, as the teams that created the first Japanese league, still non-professional, were called. It was in this era of amateurism that Cerezo Osaka won its only four league titles, the last in 1980.
Exactly in that year the team we know today as Gamba Osaka was born, founded at that time under the name of Matsushita Electric, the current Panasonic. Its birth was possible thanks to the dissolution of a Yanmar Diesel reserve team (Cerezo Osaka), because it was nourished above all by those players. Yanmar were the best team until the 1990s, but the arrival of professionalism changed the dynamics of the Osaka derby.
In 1991, the Japan Football Association decided that the J.Leagueas the local league would begin to be known, it would only include a representative of the important towns of the country, so only one team from Osaka would play the new professional championship. Just that season, the last one before the new stage began in 1993, Gamba Osaka was better classified and that is why they were chosen.
El Cerezo Osaka then took the opportunity to break away from the Yanmar company and start using its new name, that of the flower tree that withers quickly. When in the first division the quota began to open up to more teams from the same territory and to establish a method of promotion and relegation, Cerezo Osaka quickly returned to the elite. Although as it happens to the sakura, success was short-lived. After a second place finish in 2000, the following year it was relegated. Back in first place, after flirting with relegation in 2004, they came close to winning the title again in 2005, a course in which rivalry increased in the Osaka derby. It was the first season in which the league trophy was decided by classification and not by playoffs. The ‘Sakura‘, led by three Brazilian players, were the leaders for almost the entire season and thus reached the final round. They depended on themselves, but a draw and the victory of Gamba Osaka gave the title to their greatest rival, the first in their history. Gamba won the league with 60 points. The second, third, fourth and fifth ranked finished with 59.
to be great again
Since then, Cerezo Osaka has been promoted and relegated several times. Including one with Diego Forlán, when the team was the most favorite to win the league. It was in 2014, the year that Gamba Osaka won their second league title. He did, as if he also wanted to flourish like the tree that gives his rival its name, just a year after being promoted from the second division. He won the treble by lifting the Cup J.League and the Emperor’s Cup, the competition in which they now face each other again. The precedents, among which stand out a duel in the Champions League Asian who fell on the side of the ‘sakuras‘, are much better for Cerezo Osaka. El Gamba, now coached by the Catalan Daniel Poyatos, former coach of the lower categories of Espanyol and Real Madrid, has not won in the last seven derbies. Each one wants to flourish in their own way: Cerezo Osaka wants to return to being the first team in the prefecture and win their first league in professionalism, after consoling themselves with two cups since returning to the elite. The Gamba Osaka wants to turn the face to face between the two. Whatever happens, the cherry blossom says that it will be transitory.
Cherry Osaka-Prawn Osaka
OSAKA
34°41’38”N 135°30’08”E
—
Population
2,669,000 inhabitants
Country: Japan
Distance between stadiums
23.5 km: from Yodoko Sakura (24,491 spectators) to Panasonic Suita (capacity, 39,694 spectators)
Hat trick of tips
—
HOW TO GET
If you want to fly directly to Osaka, you can only do it from Barcelona and Madrid and always with a stopover. Another more flexible option is to travel to Tokyo and then travel to Osaka by plane or train. The journey takes less than two hours.
WHAT TO VISIT
It’s not a Lego piece, it’s the Umeda Sky Building. This skyscraper has two symmetrical towers connected by stairs and bridges. Its 173 meters high will allow you to enjoy the best views of the city, especially at dusk.
WHERE TO GO OUT
In it pub Yuzu no Komachi you will only have to worry that the sake does not go to your head too much.
It is the perfect place if you want to delve into Japanese culture. You will also enjoy a good sashimi sitting on cushions on the floor.
NEXT MATCH
TOMORROW, 06.18.23 (11 a.m.)