Hyodo Confirmed as Captain

Barry writes:

Hyodo has been confirmed as captain for 2010. Arata and Iwashita deputy.

That's all. :)

S-Pulse Fixtures for 2010

Barry writes:
2010 Pre-Season Fixtures
2010 J. League Fixtures
2010 Nabisco Cup Fixtures
2010 Emperor's Cup Fixtures

Oh, yes! The 2010 J. League fixtures were released today, so here they are for your viewing pleasure. With over a month still to go before the big kick off, there's plenty of time to get planning your away days. Topping my list of must-hit stadiums are both C and G Osaka, Yamagata, Sendai and Niigata. Thankfully those games are all spread out over the year, so I might just be able to do it if can I save enough pennies.

Right after the World Cup break comes the biggest game of the season, the home derby, which is set for a balmy summer night on July 17th, kick off 6.30pm. August 22nd, the one year anniversary of the biggest Shizuoka Derby victory in history, will give us an chance to repeat the feat when we head off to Ecopa for the return match with Iwata. We end the season at home to Emperor's Cup winners Gamba Osaka. Don't know about you, but I can't wait to get back into the football groove!

Kick off times are only confirmed up to match 21, and all home games are at Nihondaira unless otherwise stated. So without further ado:

Practice Matches1) February 6th (Sat) S-Pulse 2-1 Tochigi

Kagoshima Camp
1) February 10th (Wed) S-Pulse 6-0 Roasso Kumamoto (Two game aggregate)
2) February 13th (Sat) S-Pulse 4-2 Ventforet Kofu (Two game aggregate)
3) February 16th (Wed) S-Pulse 2-2 Kyoto Sanga (Two game aggregate)

Pre-Season Friendly

1) February 28th (Sun) S-Pulse 2-0 Niigata 1.30pm report

2010 J. League Fixtures

1) March 6th (Sat) Hiroshima 1-1 S-Pulse 2pm report
2) March 13th (Sat) S-Pulse 3-0 Yamagata 2pm report
3) March 20th (Sat) S-Pulse 1-0 Kobe 1pm report
4) March 27th (Sat) Kawasaki 0-0 S-Pulse 1pm report
5) April 3rd (Sat) Yokohama FM 1-2 S-Pulse 3pm report
6) April 11th (Sun) S-Pulse 5-1 Sendai 1pm report
7) April 17th (Sat) G. Osaka 1-1 S-Pulse 2pm report
8) April 24th (Sat) S-Pulse 2-1 Omiya 1pm report
9) May 1st (Sat) S-Pulse 2-1 Urawa 4pm @ Ecopa report
10) May 5th (Wed) Kyoto 2-4 S-Pulse 1pm report
11) May 8th (Sat) S-Pulse 0-2 Niigata 3pm report
12) May 15th (Sat) FC Tokyo 2-2 S-Pulse 2pm report 1, report 2

World Cup Break

13) July 17th (Sat) S-Pulse 0-0 Iwata 6.30pm report
14) July 24th (Sat) Nagoya 3-3 S-Pulse 7pm report
15) July 27th (Tue) S-Pulse 3-2 C. Osaka 7pm report
16) August 1st (Sun) Shonan 3-6 S-Pulse 7pm report
17) August 7th (Sat) S-Pulse 2-1 Kashima 6.30pm report
18) August 14th (Sat) S-Pulse 1-2 Yokohama FM 6.30pm report
19) August 17th (Tue) Niigata 4-1 S-Pulse 7pm report
20) August 22nd (Sun) Iwata 2-1 S-Pulse 6pm report
21) August 29th (Sun) S-Pulse 2-0 Kawasaki 6.30pm report
22) September 11th (Sat) Omiya 3-0 S-Pulse 3.00pm report
23) September 18th (Sat) Urawa 1-1 S-Pulse 4.00pm report
24) September 25th (Sat) S-Pulse 1-5 Nagoya 3.00pm report
25) October 2nd (Sat) Kashima 1-1 S-Pulse 5.00pm report
26) October 16th (Sat) S-Pulse 1-1 Kyoto 7.00pm report
27) October 23rd (Sat) Yamagata 0-3 S-Pulse 3.00pm report
28) October 30th (Sat) S-Pulse 1-2 FC Tokyo 1.00pm report
29) November 6th (Sat) C. Osaka 1-0 S-Pulse 2.00pm report
30) November 14th (Sun) S-Pulse 5-0 Shonan 2.00pm report
31) November 20th (Sat) Sendai 1-3 S-Pulse 2.00pm report
32) November 23rd (Wed) S-Pulse 2-1 Hiroshima 2.00pm report
33) November 27th (Sat) Kobe 1-0 S-Pulse 2.00pm report
34) December 4th (Sat) S-Pulse 0-3 G. Osaka 3.30pm report

Final 2010 J1 Table

1. Nagoya 72 (+17) (C)
2. G. Osaka 62 (+21) (ACL)
3. C. Osaka 61 (+26) (ACL)
-----------------------
4. Kashima 60 (+20)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5. Kawasaki 54 (+14)
6. S-PULSE 54 (+11)
7. Hiroshima 51 (+7)
8. Yokohama FM 51 (+4)
9. Niigata 49 (+3)
10. Urawa 48 (+7)
11. iwata 44 (-11)
12. Omiya 42 (-6)
13. Yamagata 42 (-13)
14. Sendai 39 (-6)
15. Kobe 38 (-8)
-----------------------
16. FC Tokyo 36 (-5) (R)
17. Kyoto 19 (-30) (R)
18. Shonan 16 (-51) (R)

2010 J. League Nabisco Cup Fixtures

Group Stage

1) March 31st (Wed) S-Pulse 2-0 Shonan 7pm report
2) April 14th (Wed) Yamagata 0-0 S-Pulse 7.30pm report
3) May 22nd (Sat) S-Pulse 0-0 Yokohama FM 3pm report
4) May 26th (Wed) Kobe 3-1 S-Pulse 7pm report
5) May 30th (Sun) Urawa 0-1 S-Pulse 3pm report
6) June 6th (Sun) S-Pulse 2-0 Iwata 1pm report
7) June 9th No Game

1/4 Final

1) Sept 1st (Wed) FC Tokyo 1-1 S-Pulse report
2) Sept 8th (Wed) S-Pulse 0-0 FC Tokyo report

S-Pulse win on away goals.

1/2 Final

1) Sept 29th (Wed) Hiroshima 2-1 S-Pulse report
2) Oct 10th (Sun) S-Pulse 1-1 Hiroshima report

Hiroshima win 3-2.

2010 Emperor's Cup Fixtures

2nd Rnd) Sep 5th (Sun) S-Pulse 2-0 Honda FC report
3rd Rnd) Oct 13th (Wed) S-Pulse 4-1 Mito Hollyhock report
4th Rnd) Nov 17th (Wed)Yokohama F. Marinos 0-3 S-Pulse report
1/4 Final) Dec 25th (Sat) S-Pulse 1-1 Montedio Yamagata (AET S-Pulse win 5-4 on pens) report
1/2 Final) Dec 29th (Wed) S-Pulse 3-0 Gamba Osaka report
Final) Jan 1st (Sat) Kashima Antlers 2-1 S-Pulse report

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!