Gamba Osaka

Gamba Osaka (ガンバ大阪, Gamba Ōsaka) is a Japanese professional association football club, currently playing in the J1 League. The team's name Gamba comes from the Italian word "gamba" meaning "leg" and the Japanese ganbaru (頑張る), meaning "to do your best" or "to stand firm". Located in Suita, Osaka, the team's home stadium is Suita City Football Stadium.

Gamba Osaka is currently the second-most accomplished J. League club, having won 8 top-tier domestic titles as well as the 2008 AFC Champion's League.

History

Founded in 1980 as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (which was renamed "Panasonic Corporation" on 1 October 2008) soccer club in Nara Prefecture and a member of the Japan Soccer League. It was mostly made of remaining players and staff of the defunct Yanmar Club, the former B-team of Yanmar Diesel F.C., later to be known as Cerezo Osaka. Gamba Osaka was an original member of the J. League in 1993.

In 2005, the club claimed its first J. League championship on a dramatic final day during which any of five clubs could have claimed the championship. Gamba needed to win, and have cross town rivals Cerezo Osaka draw or lose. Gamba defeated a valiant Kawasaki Frontale 4–2, while victory was snatched from Cerezo by a last-minute FC Tokyo equalizer. In an AFC Champions League match in 2006, Gamba Osaka defeated Vietnamese side Da Nang FC in a record-equaling victory of 15–0. In the 2008 Pan-Pacific Championship final, Gamba Osaka beat MLS club Houston Dynamo 6–1 to win the tournament, in large part because of Bare who scored 4 goals in the final (5 in all at the tournament). After his brilliant display and having just scored 10 goals in 18 games for Gamba in the domestic league, he was sold to UAE club Al-Ahli for 1 billion yen.

Osaka

Osaka (大阪市, Ōsaka-shi) (Japanese pronunciation: [oːsaka];  listen ) is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. It is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Japan and among the largest in the world with over 19 million inhabitants. Situated at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, Osaka is the second largest city by the daytime population after Tokyo's 23 wards and the third largest city by the nighttime population after Tokyo's 23 special wards and Yokohama in Japan, serving as a major economic hub.

Historically a merchant city, Osaka has also been known as the "nation's kitchen" (天下の台所, tenka no daidokoro) and served as a center for the rice trade during the Edo period.

History

Prehistory to the Kofun period

Some of the earliest signs of human habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins (森ノ宮遺跡, Morinomiya iseki) comprise shell mounds, sea oysters and buried human skeletons from the 5th–6th centuries BC. It is believed that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a peninsular land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular.

Osaka (disambiguation)

Osaka or Ōsaka may refer to:

Osaka may also refer to:

Locations

Japan

United States

Fictional characters

Osaka (album)

Osaka is the only album put out by The Kickovers. It was released on April 23, 2002 on the Fenway Recordings record label.

Some promotional copies of Osaka went out with the band's original name, The Brakes. Shortly after, they had to change their name because of a New York band called The Break.

The album includes one cover, "Hanging on the Telephone", which was originally performed by The Nerves, although a cover of it by Blondie was more popular. "The Good Life" is also the name of a Weezer song, so some fans may have expected it to be a cover, especially since bassist Mikey Welsh was a member of Weezer prior to The Kickovers. Although not a member, Dave Aarnoff of The Shods performed bass on several tracks of the album.

Track listing

All songs by Nate Albert unless otherwise noted.