Brazilian striker Amaral scored a hat trick in FC Tokyo's 5-2 triumph over Cerezo Osaka on Saturday condemning the visitors to J. League Division Two soccer next season.
With three more rounds remaining in the second stage, Cerezo are now 11-points behind the 14th-place Yokohama F. Marinos, and so became the first team to be relegated. One other team will join Cerezo for the trip down to J2 at the end of the season.
| J-League 1st-division | |||||||
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts. | |
| Kashima | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 14 | 30 |
| Iwata | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 12 | 27 |
| Ichihara | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 20 | 19 | 20 |
| FC Tokyo | 12 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 27 | 23 | 19 |
| Shimizu | 12 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 30 | 22 | 18 |
| Kashiwa | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 27 | 19 | 18 |
| Hiroshima | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 26 | 18 |
| Nagoya | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 21 | 22 | 16 |
| Yokohama | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 16 | 17 | 15 |
| Tokyo V | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 20 | 14 |
| Osaka G | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 15 | 19 | 14 |
| Sapporo | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 23 | 25 | 13 |
| Fukuoka | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 24 | 13 |
| Kobe | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 22 | 27 | 12 |
| Urawa | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 9 |
| Osaka C | 12 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 13 | 37 | 4 |