🏏 Sat, 19 Sep 2026 18:30 JST
Shimizu S-pulse
vs
JEF United Chiba
4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
Substitutes
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Match Preview
- This is a genuine six-pointer near the foot of the table. Shimizu are 13th on seven points from seven games (2-1-4) with four goals scored, seven conceded and a goal difference of -3, edging V-varen Nagasaki on that tiebreaker. JEF United Chiba are bottom in 20th on four points from one win, one draw and five defeats, level on points with Avispa Fukuoka (18th, -3) and Tokyo Verdy (19th, -6) but well adrift on goal difference at -10 after shipping 16 goals.
- Shimizu's recent run reads 0-1 at Cerezo Osaka, 0-1 at home to Kashiwa Reysol, 1-1 with FC Tokyo, 1-3 at Kawasaki Frontale and finally a 1-0 home win over Avispa Fukuoka in round seven. Four goals in seven matches underlines exactly where their problem lies. Chiba, meanwhile, lost three straight before beating Gamba Osaka 2-0 at home in round six and drawing 1-1 away at Tokyo Verdy in round seven, so they travel unbeaten in two.
- Shimizu's 4-3-3 is led by Oh Se-hun, the 193cm, 89kg left-footed South Korea international who scored twice in seven games at the U-20 World Cup and arrived via FC Machida Zelvia and Ulsan Hyundai. To his left is Ryo Germain, 31, who struck 19 goals in 32 matches for Jubilo Iwata in 2024 and shoots fiercely with his left foot; to his right is Kenta Inoue, 24, schooled at Yokohama F. Marinos and Oita Trinita. For a side with four goals all season, that trio clicking is everything.
- Chiba's front two are Ken Yamura, 29, the 168cm forward who scored steadily for Albirex Niigata and Fujieda MYFC, and Daichi Ishikawa, 30, whose career-best return of 10 J2 goals came at Roasso Kumamoto and who presses relentlessly from the front. They meet a Shimizu centre-back pairing of Jelani Sumiyoshi, 28, the American-born defender who converted from forward to centre-back at university and made the 2024 J2 Best Eleven, and Brazilian Mateus Brunetti, 26, who also played for Dunajska Streda in Slovakia.
- The midfield contest carries weight too. Shimizu build around left-footed Masaki Yumiba, 24, an Oita Trinita academy graduate who names N'Golo Kante and Kevin De Bruyne as his models, alongside 187cm South Korean Du-jae Won and left-footed Kai Matsuzaki, 28, a player so tactically minded that he fronts his club's analysis videos. Chiba anchor with 172cm Yusuke Kobayashi, 31, a Kashiwa Reysol academy product and their holding man since 2021, plus 182cm Brazilian Matheus Indio, while Takumi Tsukui, 24 — the first Yokohama F. Marinos youth player to sign professional terms while still in the academy — bursts forward from the second line.
- The flanks could decide it. Chiba's full-backs are Masaru Hidaka, 31, whose left-footed crossing is his calling card after a path through Ryutsu Keizai University, Honda FC and Iwaki FC to the club in 2023, and Rikuto Ishio, 25, a JFA Academy Fukushima graduate with a long throw who made 30 J2 appearances for Vegalta Sendai in 2025. Ahead of them, left-footed Naohiro Sugiyama, 28, of Otsu High School and Juntendo University, looks to cut inside. Shimizu counter with 35-year-old Yuki Honda, whose vertical leap of roughly one metre belies his height, and 172cm Hidehiro Sugai, 27, a Meiji University product who has played for Kashima, Kofu and Kyoto.
- The goalkeeping contrast is intriguing. Shimizu's Togo Umeda, 26, came through the club's own academy and tore his right ACL during a loan at Fagiano Okayama, yet returned to post a save percentage above 90%, among the best in J1. Chiba's Jose Aurelio Suarez is a Spaniard from Barcelona's La Masia who made more than 90 J2 appearances at Tokushima Vortis, and his comfort with the ball at his feet makes him an extra outlet in build-up.
- If the game opens up, the benches matter. Shimizu hold back Koya Kitagawa, an academy graduate who was in Japan's 2019 Asian Cup squad, Kosuke Kinoshita, who has played in Germany, Sweden, Belgium and Norway and scored 11 goals for Kashiwa in 2024, and the creative Kazuki Kozuka. Chiba can introduce Taishi Taguchi, the former Japan international nicknamed 'Japan's Xavi' after nine seasons at Nagoya Grampus, Hiroto Goya, who once finished third in the J2 scoring charts with 22 goals for V-Varen Nagasaki, U-17 World Cup graduate Makoto Himeno from their own academy, and 200cm Portuguese forward Leonardo Rocha.