Tochigi SC
Tochigi SC
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Wikipedia - Tochigi SC
Tochigi Soccer Club (栃木サッカークラブ, Tochigi Sakkākurabu), commonly referred to as Tochigi SC (栃木SC, Tochigi Esushi) is a Japanese football club based in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. They currently play in the J2 League, Japan's second tier of professional football.
History
Teachers in Tochigi Prefecture founded the club in 1953. They were initially called Tochigi Teachers' Soccer Club (栃木教員サッカー部 Tochigi Kyōin Sakkā Bu). They started to welcome players with other professions in 1994 and renamed themselves as Tochigi Soccer Club. In 1999, Tochigi won the Kanto Regional League and were promoted to the Japan Football League after finishing runners-up in the Regional League play-off. In March 2005, they announced that they would set up a task force to give a serious consideration to turn professional and try to gain J.League status.
In January 2007 they achieved J.League Associate Membership status and in the 2008 season they secured qualification for promotion to professional status on November 16; on December 1 promotion was made official by J.League and Tochigi had competed in J2 from 2009. In 2015 Tochigi finished bottom and were relegated for the first time to J3, the third and lowest professional level in the league system. After two seasons, they returned to J2 as runners-up in 2017.
Tochigi SC har vunnet ett trofé i sin historie, nemlig JFL-mesterskapet i 2008. Klubben har aldri spilt i J1 League, men det har vært nær ved flere ganger. I 2009 og 2012 endte klubben på andreplass i J2 League, men tapte i opprykksfinalen begge gangene.
Tochigi SC er kjent for sin offensive spillestil og har ofte vært blant de mest scorende lagene i J2 League. Klubben har også vært kjent for å utvikle unge spillere, og flere spillere som har spilt for Tochigi SC har senere gått videre til større klubber.
Noen av de mest kjente spillerne som har spilt for Tochigi SC inkluderer:
* Masato Yamazaki
* Yuki Muto
* Yohei Katayama
* Shinya Mitsuhashi
* Riku Matsuda