Urawa Reds manager Mihailo Petrovic has vowed to use the pain of last season's J. League championship collapse to fuel his players' fire in 2017, but still believes his team was last year's "moral winner."
Reds finished top of the overall table with a record-equaling 74 points but were forced by competition rules to play a two-legged championship final against Kashima Antlers — who had finished 15 points behind them in third place. Urawa won the first leg 1-0 before taking an early lead in the return fixture at Saitama Stadium, only to concede two goals and hand the title to Kashima on away goals.
The defeat added yet another sorry chapter to Urawa's long list of dramatic failures, and compounded the club's dislike of the playoff system after losing to lower-ranked Gamba Osaka in the previous year's semifinal.