2016 Gamba Osaka season

Gamba Osaka

2016 season
Chairman	Teruhisa Noro
Manager	Kenta Hasegawa
J1 League	4th
Emperor's Cup	Quarter-final
J.League Cup	Runner Up
AFC Champions League	Group Stage
Japanese Super Cup	Runner Up
Top goalscorer	League: Ademilson 9 Shun Nagasawa 9 All: Ademilson 13
Highest home attendance	34,231 vs Yokohama F. Marinos (J1) on 2 April 2016
Lowest home attendance	8,789 vs Shimizu S-Pulse (Emperor's Cup) on 9 November 2016
Average home league attendance	25,342
Home colours Away colours
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The 2016 Gamba Osaka season was Gamba Osaka's 23rd season in the J1 League and 29th overall in the Japanese top flight. Like the previous season, the 2016 campaign was split into two stages, with the first stage running from February to June, the second stage being held between July and November and finally a Championship stage in late November. With city-rivals Cerezo Osaka failing to gain promotion from J2, Gamba's main rivalry match was the Hanshin derby against Vissel Kobe with an away game held in round 4 on the 19th March and the return home match in round 26 on August 20.^[1][2] Gamba finished in 6th place in the first stage of the season and 4th place in the second stage for an overall 4th-place finish.

Gamba's position as runner-up in the 2015 J1 League Championship saw them automatically qualify for the 2016 AFC Champions League, their eighth appearance in the competition. Looking to improve on their run to the semi-finals in 2015, they were drawn into the tough looking Group G along with Australian side Melbourne Victory, South Korea's Suwon Samsung Bluewings and big-spending Chinese outfit Shanghai SIPG. The group stage kicked off on Wednesday 24 February and concluded on Tuesday 3 May with all sides in the group playing each other home and away in a round-robin basis.^[3] Gamba were eliminated at the group stage with only 2 points from 6 games to show for their efforts.

As winners of the 2015 Emperor's Cup, Gamba competed in the season opening Japanese Super Cup, held in Yokohama on 20 February. The annually held match pitted Gamba against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, the side who defeated them in the final of the 2015 J1 League Championship. This was Gamba's 6th appearance in the Super Cup, however they were unable to build on their previous victories in 2007 and 2015 and lost 3–1. Trailing 2–0 due to early second half goals from Satō and Asano, top scorer of the previous 3 campaigns Takashi Usami pulled one back, however Utaka added a third for Hiroshima shortly afterwards to seal the win.^[4]

Later on in the season, Gamba entered the 2016 J.League Cup and 2016 Emperor's Cup. Due to their AFC Champions League commitments, they were given a bye past the J.League Cup group stage and entered in the quarter-finals.^[5] Similarly they entered the Emperor's Cup in the 4th round.^[6] They went all the way to the final of the J.League cup for the 3rd time in a row, however they lost out to the Urawa Red Diamonds in a penalty shoot-out. In the Emperor's Cup, they bowed out to Yokohama F. Marinos in the quarter-finals meaning that this would be their first season without any silverware since 2012.

This was Gamba's first season playing at the newly opened Suita City Football Stadium which was built in the same park as Osaka Expo '70 Stadium, their home from 1980–2015.^[7] The first official game to be held in the new stadium was on 14 February 2016, the pre-season Panasonic Cup match between Gamba and Nagoya Grampus which the home side won 3–1.^[8] The first league match was held in front of 32,463 spectators on 28 February against Kashima Antlers. It resulted in a 1–0 defeat against the team which went on to win the first stage of the 2016 J1 League^[1] The move to the new stadium was a huge success in terms of increasing attendance with average league attendances increasing from 15,999 in 2015 to 25,342 in 2016.