Pre-Season: S-Pulse 6-0 Shizuoka Sangyo University

Barry writes:

In a game of four halves, S-Pulse strolled to victory against the team of the local Sangyo University. The goals were spread between Nagasawa (2), Fujimoto (2), Edamura (1) and Omae (1).

With numerous changes being made throughout the match, many players got a run out, although our biggest names were rested. However, perhaps the most interesting thing was that we played a 4-3-3 formation throughout. I wasn't at our Miho training ground to see how it all worked, but it'll be interesting to see if this is a taste of things to come in 2010.

Kenta has always favoured 4-4-2, so we'll see what happens when the season starts up again in March.

Full 2010 Squad Listing

Barry writes:

Are you ready? Well, here it is!

1 山本 海人
Kaito YAMAMOTO
2 児玉 新
Arata KODAMA
3 青山 直晃
Naoaki AOYAMA
4 太田 宏介
Kosuke OTA
5 岩下 敬輔
Keisuke IWASHITA
6 杉山 浩太
Kota SUGIYAMA
7 伊東 輝悦
Teruyoshi ITO
8 枝村 匠馬
Takuma EDAMURA
9 永井 雄一郎
Yuichiro NAGAI
10 藤本 淳吾
Jungo FUJIMOTO
11 原 一樹
Kazuki HARA
12 Supporters
13 兵働 昭弘
Akihiro HYODO
14 高木 純平
Jumpei TAKAKI
15 辻尾 真二
Shinji TSUJIO
16 本田 拓也
Takuya HONDA
17 山本 真希
Masaki YAMAMOTO
18 フローデ ヨンセン
Frode JOHNSEN
19 木島 悠
Yu KIJIMA
20 長沢 駿
Shun NAGASAWA
21 西部 洋平
Yohei NISHIBE
22 大前 元紀
Genki OMAE
23 岡崎 慎司
Shinji OKAZAKI
24 永畑 祐樹
Yuki NAGAHATA
25 市川 大祐
Daisuke ICHIKAWA
26 平岡 康裕
Yasuhiro HIRAOKA
27 廣井 友信
Tomonobu HIROI
28 竹内 涼
Ryo TAKEUCHI
29 碓井 健平
Kenpei USUI
30 小野 伸二
Shinji ONO
31 武田 洋平
Yohei TAKEDA
32 鍋田 亜人夢
Atomu NABETA
33 エディ ボスナー
Eddy BOSNAR

Supporter's Thanks Day 2010 / Okazaki Player of the Year

Barry writes:

Players singing in drag, embarrassing President Obama impressions and photos with players. Another year another Supporter's Thanks Day. Yesterday myself and fellow UK Ultras Yujiro and Susie trooped off to Shizuoka's vast Twin Messe event complex for the annual festival of all things S-Pulse.

Aside from the various attractions and things to do we also got to meet our line up for 2010, hear the result of last year's player of the year vote, and generally pass a thoroughly pleasant closed season Saturday afternoon. This year around 6300 fans turned out, 500 more than last year, making it by far our most successful Thanks Day event.

As for the player of the year, the result was as follows:

3) Johnsen

2) Iwashita

1) Okazaki

No surprises there, then. Iwashita was immense in 2009 and visibly grew as a player over the season. Okazaki was always going to be the winner though, and I'm sure the vote wasn't even slightly close!

As for the rest of the day, I'll let some pictures do the talking.

Thousands turned out
Mr Hayagawa and half the team
The other half
This year's shirt
Gorgeous!
Ono
Nishibe, Edamura and some English fella

Only six weeks till the new season, and we now know we have a friendly to help pass the time, so I'll see you all down Nihondaira on Feb 28th, then?

S-Pulse v Albirex Niigata Pre-Season Match Announced

Barry writes:

It was announced today that we'll play Albirex Niigata in a pre-season friendly on Sunday February 28th. Kick off is 1:30pm at Nihondaira. Tickets go on sale on January 30th.

It's a shame we won't have a derby to help pass the closed season weeks, but Albirex will no doubt offer a better test of our 2010 team than Iwata could present.

Rumours are abounding that Jubilo refused to sign up for another instalment of the SDT Cup after last August's 5-1 humiliation. :-D

New Kit, Squad Numbers and Catchphrase for 2010

Barry writes:

In a busy S-Pulse Friday, our squad numbers, new kit, and club catchphrase for 2010 were all announced today.

Kit

Click here for the new kit's feature on J's Goal. A nice kit, but it's not very different from last year, is it?

Squad Numbers

New squad numbers are available here, with the biggest change being Kaito Yamamoto claiming the number one shirt from the retired Kakegawa. Nishibe remains at number 21 and maybe this will set the tone for who'll be starting between the sticks this season. We can hope.

Ono takes up the number 30 shirt.

Our new arrivals can be seen in S-Pulse colours for the first time here, and you can read a few of their comments (in Japanese).

Catchphrase

After the last two years of "We Believe" this year sees us change to the wonderful "The Confidence". Bit of a random use of English, but I know what they're getting at. :)

Only six weeks till the new season starts!

2010 Opening Two Weeks Fixtures Confirmed

Barry writes:

It was confirmed today that S-Pulse will start the 2010 campaign away at Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Saturday March 6th.

Week two, Saturday March 13th, will be our first home game of the season as we host Montedio Yamagata. Kick off times are yet to be confirmed.

Click here for the first two week's fixtures in full (in Japanese).

Whether or not I decide to make it two years in row down Big Arch way remains to be seen, but the home opener is a given. See you there!

1) 3/6 (Sat) Hiroshima v S-Pulse
2) 3/13 (Sat) S-Pulse v Yamagata

Shinji Ono signs for S-Pulse

Barry writes:
Shinji Ono signs for Shimizu S-Pulse.

The signing of Shinji Ono was officially announced today. The former Asian Player of the Year, who has been playing in the Bundesliga since 2007, was born and raised in Numazu in the east of Shizuoka Prefecture, and attended high school in Shimizu. Apart from the fact he's one of the biggest names in Japanese football, it's great to welcome such a local hero back home. Read the Sky Sports report here.

A quick look at Mixi reveals the extent of Ono's appeal; while the S-Pulse community has 11113 members, the dedicated Shinji Ono community has 11371. A scan of comments on the Ono group suggests we'll be selling a lot more shirts and a lot more tickets off the back of him signing. This is all excellent news for S-Pulse as a club, but most importantly Ono's acquisition will mean we have the midfield presence we were lacking last year. A direct line from Shinji Ono to Shinji Okazaki is a truly exciting prospect.

Roll on the 2010 season!