Oita
Trinita
Overview
Oita
Trinita is a relatively new club, located
in a very small town in Kyushu (western Japan).
The team was founded in 1994, as Oita Football
Club. Upon joining the J2 in 1999, it changed
its name to Oita Trinita. The name "Trinita"
is formed from "Trinity" and "Oita"
Despite the team's small home town and grassroots
origin, Oita Trinita's performance in the
JFL, not to mention its challenge for the
league title its first two years in the J2,
has attracted a huge and faithful following.
In its very first year of existence, the team
won the regional championship and was accepted
as a member of the JFL's regional league.
In its first season as a regional team, Trinita
proceeded to win the Kyushu Regional Championship,
and the following year it won both the regional
title, and a share of the nationwide championship
of regional teams, qualifying it for promotion
to the JFL in 1996.
Oita
made steady progress as a JFL club, advancing
from 10th place in its first year of membership
to 6th place in 1998. This was good enough
to secure the team a spot in the J2 when the
league was formed in 1999. But Oita's rapid
progress did not end there. In the J2's inaugural
year, the team finished third, failing to
qualify for promotion to the J.League by just
a single point. In 2000, the team once again
came within a single victory of promotion
to the J1, falling short due to Urawa Reds'
last-minute victory in the final match of
the season. Then, in 2001, the team collapsed
in the final month of the season to dash fans'
hopes of promotion once again. Although the
roller-coaster ride of hope and despair make
Oita Trinita a very popular team, fans were
tremendously relieved when the team managed
to avoid a late-season let-down in 2002, and
finally won promotion to the top-flight division.
Oita
Trinita is working hard to position itself
to stay up in the J1 during the 2003 season.
However, this will not be an easy task. Oita
have a proven scoring threat in the form of
Andradinha, a striker who has been one of
the J2 scoring leaders both with Oita in 2002,
and with Albirex Niigata, the previous two
years. There are several experienced players
in the squad who have been picked up from
other clubs, such as keeper Hayato Okanaka
and defender Tomohiro Katanosaka. However,
the team probably will struggle at the J1
level without a few more quality players.
It will be very interesting to see if this
miniature club from Oita can succeed in the
Big Leagues.
