🏏 Sat, 8 Aug 2026 19:00 JST
Nagoya Grampus
vs
Shimizu S-pulse
3-4-2-1 vs 4-3-3
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Nagoya Grampus and Shimizu S-Pulse both open their 2027 J1 campaigns here on matchday 1, with Gamba Osaka and Kashima the early pace-setters on three points from the clubs already in action. Nagoya's 3-4-2-1 faces Shimizu's 4-3-3, setting up a contest between Shimizu's wingers attacking the space behind Nagoya's wing-backs and Nagoya's shadow strikers working the channels beside Shimizu's inside midfielders.
- Four players face former clubs. Nagoya start Katsuhiro Nakayama, 30, and Kiki Hara, 28, both of whom played for Shimizu, while Shimizu field Yuki Honda, 35, a long-serving Nagoya defender. Shimizu also hold 36-year-old Yutaka Yoshida, another former Nagoya man, in reserve, so familiarity runs in both directions.
- Nakayama's long stride and explosive acceleration make him hard to catch once he turns upfield, and he delivers accurate crosses from wide areas. Hara is a right-back by trade who can also fill in at centre-back, in midfield or wide, having gone from Ichiritsu Funabashi High School to Grasshoppers in Switzerland. With both stationed on Nagoya's right, that flank becomes the natural entry point against Shimizu's left.
- Shimizu's left-back Honda is a 35-year-old left-footer. At 173cm he lacks height but compensates with a vertical leap of around a metre, making him competitive in the air and stubborn in one-on-one duels. His long J1 education came at Nagoya, so he knows exactly what he is facing. Yoshida, who played all three games at the U-17 World Cup, waits as a defensive specialist for the closing stages.
- Nagoya's midfield combines mileage and shooting. Sho Inagaki, 34, regularly covers more than 11km per match and made his Japan debut at 29, scoring twice for the national team. His partner Tomoki Takamine, 28, is a left-footed holding midfielder who scored 10 J2 goals in 2025 to earn a place in the Best XI, and who also spent time in Europe with KV Kortrijk.
- Nagoya's attack is built on size. Lone striker Yuya Yamagishi, 32, is 183cm and 80kg, does the hold-up and pressing work, and helped Avispa Fukuoka win the Levain Cup. In the shadow role, the 184cm Yudai Kimura, 25, wore the No.10 shirt at Tokyo Verdy and reached double figures for goals there. Between them they give the hosts a physical, direct route to goal.
- Shimizu's front three carries real threat. In the middle, Oh Se-hun, the 193cm left-footed South Korean, offers aerial dominance and inviting hold-up play, and scored twice in seven U-20 World Cup games. Ryo Germain, 31, hit 19 goals in 32 matches for Jubilo Iwata in 2024 with a fierce left foot, and his duel with Nagoya's 185cm centre-back Yoya Fujii is the marquee individual battle.
- Two contrasting profiles fill Shimizu's midfield. Koya Kitagawa, 30, came through the club's own youth system, played at the 2019 Asian Cup and spent time in Austria with Rapid Vienna, and his decoy runs create space for others. Alongside him, 19-year-old Yudai Shimamoto wore the No.10 at Otsu High School and orchestrated their overall Premier League title as a hard-running playmaker.
- Shimizu's defence and goal are worth a look too. Centre-back Park Seung-wook, 29 and 184cm, built his reputation at Pohang Steelers, has been called up by South Korea and offers accurate build-up passing. Left-back Hidemasa Sugai, 27, is only 172cm but relentless up and down the flank and tenacious in duels. Goalkeeper Togo Umeda, 26, is a club academy product who returned from an ACL rupture suffered on loan at Okayama and posted a save percentage above 90%.
- Nagoya's goal belongs to 20-year-old Alex Pisano. The 195cm academy graduate commands high balls and covers a wide area, and he has already been called into a Japan squad for the U-17 World Cup. Facing Shimizu's 193cm Oh Se-hun and the 182cm Germain, the young keeper will be tested from the first whistle of the season.
- Both benches offer attacking options. Nagoya can turn to Tsukasa Morishima, a set-piece specialist formerly of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, the left-footed Yuya Asano, 29, who scored 12 league goals at Sapporo and whose brother is Takuma Asano, and the 167cm academy graduate Hidemasa Koda, 22. Shimizu counter with Brazilian winger Capixaba, 29, a left-footer who played for Cerezo Osaka, the creative Kazuki Kozuka, 32, and Kosuke Kinoshita, 31, who has played in four countries abroad and scored 11 goals for Kashiwa in 2024.