Saitama derby


The Saitama derby is the local derby in
Saitama, Japan, between fierce city rivals Urawa Red Diamonds and RB Omiya Ardija.

History

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SC was founded in 1950 by the employees of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Kobe, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Kanto SC was founded in 1969 by the employees of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in Urawa. Mitsubishi SC moved to Tokyo in 1958, and was sold to group company Mitsubishi Motors in 1990. Mitsubishi and NTT Kanto first faced each other in 1987 but at the time it was a match between clubs from Tokyo and Saitama and not a derby match, and they had to wait until 1996 for their first Saitama derby. Mitsubishi moved to Urawa that the same place as NTT Kanto in 1992 and went professional as Urawa Red Diamonds, and NTT Kanto moved to Omiya in 1998 and went professional as Omiya Ardija. The cities of Urawa and Omiya merged to form the city of Saitama in 2001.
The Saitama derby is known as one of the most intense derby matches in Japan. The stronger rivalry between Urawa and Omiya began with Omiya's promotion to the 2005 J.League Division 1. On the 17 July 2016 derby, the Omiya's ultras displayed insulting banners for Urawa. On the 30 April 2017 derby, the Urawa's ultras kicked the buffer zone fence, destroyed the mesh covering and threw objects onto the pitch after the defeat.

Honours

CompetitionUrawaOmiya
JSL Division 1 / J1 League50
JSL Division 2 / Japan [Football League (1992–1998)|JFL (1992–1998)] / J2 League11
Emperor's Cup80
JSL Cup / J.League Cup40
Japanese Super Cup50
All Japan [Senior Football Championship]01
Japanese Regional Football League Competition01
Asian Club Championship / AFC Champions League30
J.[League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship]10
Total273

Statistics

CompetitionPlayedUrawa winsDrawsOmiya winsUrawa goalsOmiya goals
J1 League249783123
J2 League430181
Emperor's Cup4400103
J.League Cup6600176
Total3822796633

Goalscorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1