🏏 Sun, 6 Sep 2026 19:00 JST
Kawasaki Frontale
vs
Shimizu S-pulse
4-2-3-1 vs 4-3-3
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- The table says 12th against 17th, but only two points separate these teams. Kawasaki Frontale have six points from one win, three draws and one defeat, scoring nine and conceding eight. Shimizu S-Pulse sit on four points from one win, one draw and three losses with a striking return of two goals scored and four conceded. With leaders Machida Zelvia already on 16 points from six games, neither side can afford to drift further.
- Kawasaki's form line reads D-D-D-W-L: three straight draws to open the campaign, 1-1 at Tokyo Verdy, 2-2 at home to Kyoto Sanga and 1-1 at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, before a 4-2 home win over JEF United Chiba finally delivered three points. They then lost 2-1 away at Machida in round five. Shimizu's W-L-L-L-D began with a 1-0 win at Nagoya Grampus, followed by three consecutive defeats and a 1-1 home draw with FC Tokyo.
- Shimizu's biggest problem is obvious: two goals in five matches. Their defensive record is far healthier, with only four conceded and all three defeats arriving by a single goal, each finishing 0-1. Their 4-3-3 fields Kosuke Kinoshita, Tomoya Fujii and Kai Matsuzaki up front, with natural striker Ryo Germain dropped into the midfield line, an arrangement designed to add bodies around the box. Germain scored 19 goals in 32 games for Jubilo Iwata in 2024.
- The central midfield battle should decide the tempo. Yuki Yamamoto, formerly of Gamba Osaka, supplies the disguised through-balls and switches of play for Kawasaki, complemented by Kento Tachibanada, nicknamed the 'Japanese Kante' for his ball-winning and relentless running. Shimizu answer with 24-year-old Masaki Yuba, a left-footed Oita Trinita academy graduate who names Kante and De Bruyne as his models and combines defensive intensity with distribution.
- Kawasaki's attacking line is built around small, technical players. Tatsuya Ito, just 166cm, spent years in Europe with Hamburger SV, Sint-Truiden and Magdeburg before scoring 13 J1 goals in 2025 and earning a place in the Best XI. Kazuya Konno, 161cm, is a left-footed right winger who lives on cutting inside, while Yasuto Wakizaka, a Best XI selection three years running from 2021, works centrally behind academy graduate Kyosuke Mochiyama.
- Left-back Reo Yamahara faces his former club. The 165cm 27-year-old spent four seasons at Shimizu S-Pulse before joining Kawasaki, and he can cover both full-back positions as well as wide midfield. His delivery is his calling card, whether from set pieces and crosses or with fierce knuckleball efforts from distance, so how far he pushes forward against familiar opponents will shape Kawasaki's left side.
- Shimizu mix experience and youth at the back. Centre-back Jelani Leshaun Sumiyoshi was born in the United States and converted from forward to defender at university, then made the 2024 J2 Best XI while helping the club win the second division and return to J1. Veteran Yutaka Yoshida, 36, patrols the left with his stamina and duel-winning. Goalkeeper Togo Umeda, a Shimizu youth product, returned from a ruptured right ACL suffered on loan at Fagiano Okayama to post a save percentage above 90.
- Kawasaki's rearguard has an international look. Svend Brodersen, a 188cm German goalkeeper raised in the St. Pauli academy, has already won promotion to J1 with Yokohama FC and Fagiano Okayama and distributes accurately with both feet. In front of him are Filip Uremovic, a combative centre-back whose career has taken in Hertha Berlin and Rubin Kazan, and 37-year-old left-footed Yuichi Maruyama, a long-time mainstay at FC Tokyo and Nagoya Grampus.
- The benches could tip the balance. Kawasaki can introduce Brazilian winger Marcinho and his explosive first few strides, 21-year-old Tomoto Ozeki, a club U-18 graduate and Japan U-20 international who scored eight goals in 32 J3 matches on loan at Fukushima, plus the 191cm Deriki Lacerda. Shimizu hold back towering Korean striker Oh Se-hun and 32-year-old playmaker Kazuki Kozuka, who once played for Kawasaki Frontale and now waits to face them.