Shimizu S-Pulse... best team in Japan?

Are Shimizu S-Pulse the best team in the J. League? Is Marcos Paulo Alves the best player in Japan?  

The answer to both questions is, of course, "no." But it's hard not to arrive at that theory after S-Pulse saw off Kawasaki Frontale 1-0 in front of 17,256 fans at Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira - particularly after Kawasaki dished out a humiliating 5-0 thrashing of Central Coast Mariners in the Asian Champions League in midweek. 

Maybe it was their midweek trip to Australia that took the wind out of Kawasaki sails, but they struggled against an S-Pulse side that defended conscientiously in this game, even if the Shizuoka outfit didn't always look the better of the two teams.

Marcos Paulo came off the bench for a seven-minute cameo in this game, and once again the former Brazil international was a calming influence on his team. Along with Jungo Fujimoto - himself a half-time substitute - both men came off the bench to prove a decisive influence on this game, if only to break up the increasingly desperate Frontale attacks that continued to surge towards Yohei Nishibe's goal.

Fortunately for Nishibe, his team had gone one goal up thanks to a fantastic header from Shinji Okazaki after just sixteen minutes. Anyone who claims that Japanese players struggle to score goals has clearly never seen a J. League game, after Japan international Okazaki powered a stupendous header past international team-mate Eiji Kawashima to hand the home team the lead. 

Up until that point the hosts had struggled to contain Frontale's free-floating virtuoso Vitor Junior, but despite several nice touches on the ball, the former Santos man failed to feed a killer ball to an isolated Chong Tese up front for the visitors.

Shimizu S-Pulse could even have gone two ahead but for a terrible miss from Jumpei Takaki, with the full-back failing to repeat his finish in the League Cup a fortnight ago when he smashed an effort straight at Eiji Kawashima - who did well to stand tall and parry Takaki's thunderous point-blank strike.

Takaki will be relieved that his counterpart Yusuke Mori produced a similar save from Yohei Nishibe in the second half, but other than that Frontale struggled to break down a well-marshalled S-Pulse defence.

About the only disappointing aspect for S-Pulse coach Kenta Hasegawa was the fact that giant Norwegian striker Frode Johnsen failed to open his account for his new team.

Nevertheless this was a morale-boosting win for the Shizuoka side, and they will go into their upcoming Shizuoka derby with local rivals Jubilo Iwata next week bristling with a new-found confidence.