New Captain, New Slogan, New Goal, New Uniform, Same Sponsors

With Hiramatsu going to FC Tokyo, the new captain will be defender Masashi Owada, in his 6th year at the club.

The slogan for 2009 is 「前へ」 ("Forward")

Coach Kiyama's goal for the year is a top 8 finish, which would be the first top half finish in the table for the team and mean finishing ahead of at least one former J1 club, which hasn't happened since 2006.

The uniform supplier remains Mitre, and the uniform sponsors remain K's Electronics and Mito Securities. Uniforms still appear to have the Ibaraki Airport logo on the sleeves as well.

The uniforms remain the same, which saves me a bit of money this year, but the goalkeeper uniform has undergone a style change. From either all green and all yellow to green/white and all black. I'm not sure about the purpose of adding a white section to the traditionally home green uniform, but the yellow would have to change due to new J2 arrivals Tochigi SC having exactly the same shade as their home color.