The Saitama Stadium 2002 is located at Midori-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. This grass surfaced stadium was opened to public on 1st October 2001.
This stadium which is mainly used for football matches, and has a field size of 105 m by 68 m. Currently, the Japanese Professional League football club, Urawa Red Diamonds, use this stadium to host their home games.
Operated by the Saitama Prefectural Park Association, the Saitama stadium is one of the largest football specific stadiums in Asia. The stadium has a seater capacity of 63,700 and a covered area of 29,000 square meters.
History
This stadium was mainly built with an intention to host matches of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. This very stadium hosted four matches during the tournament, which included the first match of Japan against Belgium.
The Saitama Stadium is also one of the playing venues that is mostly used by the Japanese national team and attracts at least 40,000 fans for all of their matches.
Major Matches
During the years of 2005 and 2007, the Urawa Red Diamonds' local derby rival club Omiya Ardija hosted matches here along with Urawa Komaba.
On 26th of June 2002, the semi-final match of 2002 FIFA World Cup was held at the stadium between Brazil and Turkey. In this game, the spectators at the venue saw the win of Brazil for a winning score point of 1-0.
Recent and Future Matches
Recently, the stadium staged for the second leg match of the 2017 AFC Champions League Final between Urawa Red Diamonds and Al Hilal. The match was witnessed with the stadium being filled up with near full capacity of fans.
While there have been many memorable matches played out at Saitama Stadium, this match remains dear in the heart of Urawa fans as their side became the first Japanese club to lift the AFC Champions League title in the fifth edition of the revamped tournament.
Also, this very stadium is one of the planned football venues for the 2020 Summer Olympics to be held at Tokyo, Japan.
