🏏 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 18:30 JST
Shimizu S-pulse
vs
Avispa Fukuoka
4-2-3-1 vs 3-4-2-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Sixteenth versus seventeenth, and the two are level on four points from six games with identical 1-1-4 records. Only goal difference separates them: Avispa are -1, Shimizu -4. V-varen Nagasaki are also on four points in 18th, with Tokyo Verdy and JEF United Chiba on three just below. For a fixture this early in the campaign, the stakes are unusually high.
- Shimizu's problem is obvious: three goals in six matches, and seven conceded. They lost 1-0 three times in a row — at home to Yokohama F. Marinos in round two, away at Cerezo Osaka in round three and at home to Kashiwa Reysol in round four — failing to score in any of them. A 1-1 home draw with FC Tokyo in round five broke the run before a 3-1 defeat at Kawasaki Frontale.
- Avispa's W-L-L-L-D sequence began with their only victory, a 3-0 home rout of Cerezo Osaka in round two. Since then they have lost three one-goal games: 3-2 at Kashima, 2-1 at Kyoto Sanga and 3-2 at home to Urawa, before drawing 1-1 with Mito Hollyhock. Nine goals scored and 10 conceded suggest a side competitive in every match but unable to close them out.
- Shimizu's 4-2-3-1 against Avispa's 3-4-2-1 makes the flanks the key battleground. The visitors use 29-year-old Yota Maejima on the left, a wing-back who spent six years in the Yokohama FC academy, and 24-year-old Yu Hashimoto on the right, a two-footed defender who topped the Kyushu university league with 16 assists in 21 games for Fukuoka University. Shimizu answer with 172cm Hidemasa Sugai, 27, and 35-year-old Yuki Honda, whose roughly one-metre vertical leap makes him formidable in the air despite his size.
- Shimizu do have firepower on paper. Oh Se-hun, the 193cm South Korean left-footed centre-forward, arrived via Machida Zelvia and Ulsan Hyundai and thrives on aerial duels and hold-up play. Ryo Germain, 31, scored 19 goals in 32 matches for Jubilo Iwata in 2024 and starts in the band behind, alongside 32-year-old Kazuki Kozuka, a technician whose career has taken in Albirex Niigata, Kawasaki Frontale and Suwon Samsung Bluewings.
- Avispa's engine room pairs 29-year-old Keiya Shiihashi, a combative holding midfielder from the Ichiritsu Funabashi high school pipeline who has played for Nagoya Grampus, Kashiwa Reysol and Vegalta Sendai, with 24-year-old Masato Shigemi of Fukuoka University. Ahead of them, 28-year-old Tomoya Miki — the number 10 who drove Tokyo Verdy's promotion push — plays as a shadow striker behind 190cm Brazilian Popo, 24, a former Copa Sao Paulo top scorer who came through Fagiano Okayama.
- One Shimizu substitute faces a former club. Won Du-jae, a 187cm South Korean midfielder of 28, built his career at Ulsan Hyundai and Gimcheon Sangmu before a spell at Avispa Fukuoka and his move to Shimizu. His height offers something different in the final stages, and any introduction would pit him against the midfield he once shared a dressing room with.
- The goalkeepers arrive from contrasting paths. Togo Umeda, 26, came through the Shimizu academy and suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament while on loan at Fagiano Okayama, yet returned to post a save percentage above 90 per cent, among the best in J1. Avispa's Yuma Obata, 24 and 185cm, graduated from the Vegalta Sendai academy and held down the number one shirt there for a full season, with 191cm Takumi Nagaishi in reserve.
- Avispa hold the stronger bench. Oriol Romeu, 34, made 256 appearances across Barcelona, Chelsea and Southampton and has won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup. Beside him sit 168cm playmaker Shintaro Nago, who made 36 appearances and scored five goals for Kashima in 2024, and 187cm forward Abdel Hannan Sani-Brown, younger brother of Japanese sprint record holder Abdul Hakim Sani Brown. Shimizu counter with left-footed Brazilian winger Capixaba, 29, and Kosuke Kinoshita, 31, who scored 11 times for Kashiwa in 2024.