Shimizu S-Pulse are rightly regarded as one of the most astute J-League clubs when it comes to signing young talent. One look at their current squad, which contains the likes of Jungo Fujimoto, Naoki Aoyama, Akihiro Hyodo and Shinji Okazaki, is enough to convince many young players that S-Pulse is the destination of choice to kick-start their career.

Still, even by their standards, S-Pulse have managed to pull of a major coup by signing the wonderfully named Genki Omae. The fact that this kid is nicknamed 'Lionel' - after Lionel Messi, speaks volumes.

It's not just that Omae stands a diminutive 1.66 metres tall. He also scores goals by the bucket-load. He recently hit the net an impressive seven times in steering Ryutsu Keizai University Kashiwa to the All-Japan High School tournament title. He scored twice in the final in front of 48,884 fans at the National Stadium in Tokyo, as RKU Kashiwa bulldozed Fujieda Higashi 4-0 at a frosty Kokuritsu to take home the title.

Despite also signing Brazilians Marcos Paulo Alves and Marcos Aurélio, all the talk around the club is about Omae. While not wishing to put pressure on a youngster that hasn't even kicked a ball in professional football, club officials are quietly hoping that Omae can fill the long-term boots of recently departed Korean star Cho Jae-Jin.

With S-Pulse having also snapped up midfielder Takuya Honda - who featured regularly in the Japan Olympic team's successful qualification campaign for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Shimizu fans could be forgiven for dreaming of the start of a dynasty. For now, at least, they'd settle for that elusive J-League title.

Brazilians Marcos Aurélio and Marcos Paulo Alves have lobbed up at Shimizu S-Pulse, following the announcement yesterday that S-Pulse had lured Marcos Aurélio from Santos FC on a one year loan deal.

The signing of Marcos Aurélio is not exactly the big-name replacement for departed Korean star Cho Jae-Jin that S-Pulse fans were hoping for. Since 2002 Marcos Aurélio has played for no less than seven Brazilian clubs, and he seemed to spend the latter half of 2006 playing for Serie C side Bragantino. His stats at Santos FC, not that I'm fluent in Portugese, appear anything but flattering.

Clearly Shimizu S-Pulse have taken a gamble on Marcos Aurélio, and he'll most likely start behind Shinji Okazaki and Takuro Yajima in the pecking order. These one year intercontinental loan deals hardly ever work out well though, and in checking out the Santos FC website this morning, I noted that FC Tokyo defender Evaldo was on his way back to Brazil having signed for Santos after hardly getting on the pitch in the J-League.

Shimizu's other signing in Marcos Paulo Alves appears more promising. The former Brazilian international counts Udinese and Sporting Lisbon among his former clubs, although he failed to break through at either side. Indeed, Marcos Paulo's career seems to amount to little more than a succession of starts at no less than nine different clubs!

At least Marcos Paulo is accustomed to Japanese football, having made eleven appearances in the second half of Yokohama FC's ill-fated 2007 campaign. Indeed Marcos Paulo appeared embarrassed to even be on the pitch for Yokohama FC - clearly his agent failed to mention that he was joining one of the worst teams in the history of football, and his expression upon making his debut for Yokohama FC in their 8-1 pummelling at the hands of cross-town rivals Yokohama F. Marinos was priceless.

Yet even the signing of Marcos Paulo is somewhat puzzling. He generally features as a defensive midfielder, yet Shimizu S-Pulse already possess a defensive midfielder - one of the best in the Japanese game in Teru Ito, who has played more than 400 league games for S-Pulse!

It's clear that S-Pulse's twin signings are an exercise in strengthening the depth available to coach Kenta Hasegawa, with the permanent transfers of left-back Arata Kodama and midfielder Fernandinho from Gamba Osaka, after their one year loan deals with S-Pulse had expired, seen as the most important piece of business during the off-season.

Yet I can't help but feel concerned about the prospect of the new season. The departure of Cho Jae-Jin leaves a gaping hole in the S-Pulse squad and puts added pressure on Okazaki and Yajima up front. Maybe that's what they need but if one of them gets injured, here's hoping that Marcos Aurélio adapts to life in Japan quickly, otherwise it could be a long-season indeed for the orange faithful.

Half of Japan's football fans may have been sporting a wry smile on Saturday night. The other half are Urawa fans, and they were no doubt bemoaning Urawa's most recent 1-0 loss to Kashima Antlers in front of 62,123 fans at Saitama Stadium; a result that once again throws the title race wide open.

Cynical keyboard warriors like myself could perhaps be forgiven a bout of Schadenfreude after Urawa's German coach Holger Osieck was quick to point out how many players he was missing through injury in the wake of the defeat. Far be it for Urawa to ever admit being outplayed - they've been one of the most boring teams in Japanese football all season, preferring to wear down their opponents and grind out results instead.

Last season Urawa played a swashbuckling style under popular coach Guido Buchwald. The former German international tipped his hat and bid adieu to take over at 2.Bundesliga club Alemannia Aachen last January, and the red half of Saitama has seen their previous attacking style replaced with clinical (i.e. boring) efficiency under ex-Canada coach Osieck.

At any rate, perhaps the J-League was hoping that Urawa would wrap up the title at Saitama Stadium after all? Referee Kenji Ogiya had apparently already ordered his "Urawa - 2007 Champions" commemorative t-shirt - he sent off both Toru Araiba and Yuji Funayama for no apparent reason other than that they play for Kashima. It wasn't enough, as the nine-men Antlers held on for a famous 1-0 win.

If Kashima beat Shimizu S-Pulse at Kashima Stadium next weekend and Urawa fail to beat Yokohama FC at Nissan Stadium, then it is Kashima - and not Urawa, who will be crowned 2007 J-League champions. Of course, with 50,000 Urawa fans likely to outnumber the "home" fans by about ten thousand to one, there's more chance of me being picked for The Socceroos then there is of Yokohama FC beating Urawa. Still, stranger things have happened... like Urawa failing to win the league title at Saitama Stadium, for example.

Kashima Stadium will be packed next weekend as well, but one thing is for sure - there's no way they'll be outdancing the Yajima Fan Club! Shimizu experienced a bizarre afternoon at Nihondaira Stadium last Saturday. They went behind to an absolute peach of a goal from striker Seiichiro Maki, who if memory serves me correctly, last scored around the time that the Ice Age ended.

Jungo Fujimoto took it upon himself to level up proceedings, dancing passed two defenders before smashing an unstoppable drive that Tomonori Tateishi barely saw as it flashed into the net. Referee Hajime Matsuo then took centre stage, sending off United defender Daisuke Saito for a bookable offence after just eighteen minutes. Saito was the last man when he clipped Korean star Cho Jae-Jin's heel, but the decision to hand Saito a straight red card may have been slightly harsh - his collision with Jae-Jin looked accidental. Nevertheless Matsuo should be applauded for applying the letter of the law, when too often J-League referees have turned a blind eye to goalscoring opportunities being blatantly denied.

The send off left United to battle on with ten men, but it failed to hinder one of the goals of the season. On sixty-four minutes, JEF United defender Nenad Djordevic spotted Shimizu goalkeeper Yohei Nishibe off his line. As the ball broke to him in midfield, the Serb simply hammered a shot in on goal, and the 18,577 fans in attendance watched breathlessly as Djordevic's strike from inside his own half sailed over Nishibe's head and into the net. The Yajima Fan Club was not impressed!

Elsewhere Omiya Ardija virtually guaranteed their top flight status with a 2-1 win away at neighbours FC Tokyo, with defender Leandro challenging Nenad Djordevic in the Goal Of The Season stakes with a stunning, solo stoppage time winner. Ventforet Kofu were relegated after losing 2-1 away at Kashiwa Reysol, and for all the obvious refereeing vendettas against them, sceptics will point to the fact that Kofu have scored only 33 goals in 33 games - despite employing more strikers than I do bad metaphors. Sanfrecce Hiroshima will almost certainly play J2 side Kyoto Sanga FC in the promotion/relegation playoff match, but all eyes will be on Yokohama and Kashima next weekend, where either the Reds or the Antlers will be crowned 2007 J-League champions.

There were plenty of highlights for Shimizu S-Pulse fans when the J-League draw was made last January. The derby with Jubilo always takes precedence, but the Round 32 clash with Urawa Reds at Saitama Stadium was also a stand-out fixture. As one of the lucky few to score a ticket in the away end at Saitama, I thought I'd share with you some of my experiences, in what was essentially a day in the life of a J-League fan.

The day starts early. For dedicated fans of clubs like Oita Trinita or Consadole Sapporo, an away match means a trip to Japan's main island of Honshu and often an entire weekend of travel. For me, this match meant an early Sunday morning rise - the official S-Pulse organised tour bus left Shimizu station just before 5am! Domestic rail travel in Japan is expensive, particularly on the Shinkansen, so for the money-conscious the choice often falls between driving or taking one of the club-organised tour buses to the stadium.

Normally bus travel is something I look upon as a necessary evil. I've travelled the length and breadth of England quite comfortably on National Express coaches, but then National Express coaches don't have a habit of arriving at their destination six hours early!

Japan is nothing if not a unique place, and one of the peculiarities of its upstanding citizens is their willingness - scratch that, desire, to line up! These guys would beat the English in a Olympics Queue-Off hands down, and in anticipation of a 2pm kick-off, it was with a heavy heart that I disembarked from the bus at the ungodly hour of 8am! Being a self-proclaimed man of the world there was little to do but whip out a newspaper and catch up on yesterday's news.

"Why do people line up so early to enter the stadium?" you might reasonably ask. It has to do with the fact that General Admission is a popular concept in Japan. That is to say that many fans buy non-numbered tickets - reserved seating in Japan is usually the last to sell-out, and will then arrive at the stadium hours in advance in the hope of scoring the best seats available. While most fans use the long wait as an excuse to put on an impromptu picnic, I can't help but feel that the method takes away from some of the more ritualistic elements of attending a match.

Saitama Stadium is one of those super modern arenas built on the outskirts of town that FIFA seem to prefer these days. There's no chance of a quick pre-match pint - the stadium lies in a middle of a field literally miles from the city centre, and any hopes I had of enjoying an early afternoon brew in the beer garden (okay, plastic tables and chairs put out on the stadium forecourt) were dashed by the fact that I didn't want to be the only fan whose view was obscured by an errant pillar. So I piled in with the rest of my early-morning bus-trippers and spent several hours watching the shadows creep slowly across the pitch.

Both sets of supporters set about creating an atmosphere, with Shimizu's away end packed by around 3,000 travelling fans. Yet the atmosphere from the Urawa fans was strangely lacklustre, not the least because most of those in the reserved seating seemed to take their seats only moments before kick-off. Even then, those fans remained quiet for most of the match - it was hardly the kind of welcome one would expect for a team that had just been crowned continental champions, with only the wall of Urawa fans behind the goal making concerted efforts to lift their team.

Those efforts began to diminish as soon as Shimizu S-Pulse began to take the upper hand. Indeed, the Urawa fans seemed to spend more time jeering opposition players who happened to be in possession of the ball, than they did cheering on their own team. It didn't help that one of Urawa's best players, Keita Suzuki, had to be substituted after just seventeen minutes, nor did it help that Washington was suspended, while Nobuhisa Yamada, Tatsuya Tanaka and Shinji Ono were all injured. Yet for a club that is so quick to trumpet its depth, and one that so eagerly proclaims its fans to be the best in Japan - Urawa were being out-played both on and off the pitch, as every hoofed long ball forward from ex-Hertha Berlin defender Fabio Nene brought ironic cheers from the Shimizu fans.

The match ultimately ended in a 0-0 draw - the second time I've seen a scoreless draw at Saitama Stadium this season, after Urawa's cynical 0-0 draw with Sydney FC in the AFC Champions League. Both teams had chances; Marcus Tulio Tanaka going agonisingly wide with a header in the opening stages, while Ryota Tsuzuki pulled off a miraculous stop after Fernandinho found himself one-on-one with the Urawa shot-stopper in the last minute of play.

Urawa now go on to face second-placed Kashima Antlers in what is a clash of the titans at Saitama Stadium next weekend. For me, I went straight back on to the bus. Any notion that perhaps the vast majority of Urawa fans really do come from the city of Saitama were dispelled by the bumper-to-bumper traffic that clogged the highway all the way through the megalopolis that is Tokyo, and out on to the Tomei Expressway that winds down the Pacific coastline. The bright lights of the big city were blurred by my tired eyes - I had a headache, and I was hungry. But after one of the biggest days on the Shimizu S-Pulse fan calendar ended in somewhat of an anti-climax, there's no doubt that given the chance, I would do it all again.

Jungo Fujimoto shows how it's done in front of 16,508 fans at Nihondaira Stadium, who turned out to watch Shimizu S-Pulse come from behind to beat Sanfrecce Hiroshima 3-1.

The match was notable for the fact that it marked Shimizu-born Teruyoshi Ito's 400th J-League game for the club.

Ito became the first player to achieve the milestone for the same club, after Toshiya Fujita reached the mark playing for both Jubilo Iwata and Nagoya Grampus Eight.

Sometimes it's just not your day. That's certainly what the students of Meiji University must have been thinking at around a quarter-to-four yesterday afternoon, after their football team had held Shimizu S-Pulse to an heroic 3-3 draw in the Fourth Round of the Emperor's Cup, only to lose on penalties.

How Shimizu managed to conjure a miraculous escape against the Kanto League part-timers will forever be a source of conjecture for the Nihondaira faithful, but the fact of the matter is that Shimizu are now in the hat for the Fifth Round of Japan's oldest sporting competition. For 120 minutes of a pulsating, thrill-a-minute clash, however, that never looked likely to be the case.

The two teams certainly looked mis-matched when they took to the pitch. For perhaps the first time in his career Shimizu's midget-like Brazilian Fernandinho was actually taller than someone, with Meiji University's left-midfielder seeming to stand around four foot tall! Appearances can be deceptive, however, and any doubts about Meiji University's talent were dispelled when the students bundled J2 side Kyoto Sanga FC out in the Third Round of the competition.

And after weathering an early onslaught, Meiji took the game to their illustrious rivals - taking a shock lead ten minutes before half-time, following a superb right-wing counter-attack. That prompted fury from Shimizu's hardcore fans, who responded with muted boos when their team left the pitch.

S-Pulse coach Kenta Hasegawa withdrew Korean star Cho Jae-Jin for the pacy Takuro Yajima at half-time, with most inside the stadium and watching on broadcaster NHK expecting Shimizu to make short shrift of Meiji's plucky resistance in the second half. Wishful thinking perhaps, as Meiji spurned several glorious chances to take a deserved two goal lead. It took until fifteen minutes from time for midfielder Akihiro Hyodo to thump home an emphatic equaliser, to the visible relief of those dressed in orange.

With eight minutes remaining, man-of-the-match Naoki Aoyama produced what could politely be described as a "defender's finish," simply bludgeoning the ball home from around ten yards out, after he had been thrown into the attack as a makeshift centre forward. Several locals began to head for the exits, but their confidence was misplaced. Deep into stoppage time Meiji received a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area, and throwing everyone forward they managed to loop a header over the hapless Kaito Yamamoto to send the game into extra-time.

The drama didn't stop there, and for the second time in the match, Japan's Olympic goalkeeper Yamamoto failed to cover himself in glory, as he was beaten just before the half-time interval in extra-time, with Meiji taking the lead for the first time in the match. It took Shimizu until five minutes from time to equalise, when the bullocking Aoyama powered a header home to send this breathless match to penalties.

As is so often in football's version of Russian Roulette, it was the woodwork that separated these two sides, with Meiji's second penalty thundering into the crossbar with Yamamoto well beaten. The Shizuoka side were flawless from the spot, but the response from both team and fans said it all after Akinori Nishizawa had converted his side's final kick. Shimizu fans gave their side the frostiest of after-match receptions - just one week after the team had been lauded as heroes for their outstanding 3-1 win over Gamba Osaka at the same venue. Instead the Shimizu fans reserved their applause for Meiji University, who were given a deserved standing ovation from all sections of Nihondaira Stadium.

Shimizu will now take on Kanagawa giants Yokohama F. Marinos in the Fifth Round, with the Tokyo-based Meiji University left to ponder what might have been. They came within an inch of producing undoubtedly the upset of the season, but as so often happens in knock-out Cup competitions, it was simply a case of so near, yet so far.

The first day of autumn brought derby day delight for Shimizu S-Pulse and Omiya Ardija, as the two away teams won the Shizuoka and Saitama derby respectively.

Thousands of orange clad supporters made the seventy kilometre trip to Ecopa Stadium in Fukuroi to see their team take on bitter local rivals Jubilo Iwata.

Shimizu won 2-1 thanks to a Cho Jae-Jin brace earlier in the season, and S-Pulse did the double over their local rivals when the Korean striker scored a last minute goal to hand Shimizu a 1-0 victory.

The win sees Shimizu move to within a point of third placed Kashima Antlers on the table. 

The real story was at Saitama Stadium, however, where a crowd of 49,910 watched mainly in disbelief as second-from-bottom Omiya Ardija kept their season alive by beating city neighbours and league leaders Urawa Reds.

Hiroshi Morita scored the only goal of the game on the hour mark to hand Omiya a result that has implications at both ends of the table. With Gamba Osaka thrashing an injury-ridden Nagoya Grampus Eight 4-1 at Mizuho, the Osakans have pulled themselves back to within a point of league leaders Urawa. Omiya Ardija, meanwhile, are now just one point behind fifteenth placed Oita Trinita after yet another absorbing round of J-League action.

I'm beginning to understand what the great Australian football broadcaster Les Murray was getting at when he said in his autobiography "By The Balls," that analysing football for a living can be a grinding experience.

That's certainly what watching Shimizu S-Pulse's 0-0 League Cup draw against Kashiwa Reysol last Wednesday night felt like. That result means that, for the second season in a row, Shimizu S-Pulse have been knocked out at the group stage of the League Cup.

The result was arguably more interesting for the fact that Kashiwa bludgeoned their way to a draw, with any promising S-Pulse attack invariably broken up by a foul. That tactic has brought Kashiwa success in the J-League as well, but it's sure to infuriate opposition players and fans alike - and the angry scenes after Kashiwa had beaten S-Pulse in the League Cup earlier in the season, bear testament to that.

Elsewhere in the League Cup, defending champions JEF United look a good bet to progress to the quarter-finals, despite their 1-0 loss to Gamba Osaka in their most recent match. They should be joined by Oita Trinita and Ventforet Kofu, although Shimizu's group is a lot tighter, with Omiya Ardija the favourites to go through.

After the disappointment of Wednesday's result, I was hoping for better things in Shimizu's J-League blockbuster with Kawasaki Frontale on Sunday. As it was, Shimizu went down 2-1 in a pulsating encounter, but only after a terrible backpass by Arata Kodama (I think...I may have been blinded with rage at the time) gifted an equaliser to substitute Masaru Kurotsu. A shell-shocked S-Pulse immediately conceded a second, to the delight of the majority of the 21,208 fans inside a packed Todoroki Stadium.

The real match of the day was probably at the National Stadium in Tokyo, however, where 35,013 fans witnessed Urawa Reds beat the aforementioned Kashiwa Reysol 2-0. Washington and Shinji Ono scored the goals in front of a sea of Urawa fans, with Reysol's Kashiwa Stadium far too small to accommodate the Reds' travelling army.

There was a similar scenario in Yokohama, where a crowd of nearly 20,000 turned out to witness Yokohama FC go down 1-0 to an out-of-form Kashima Antlers on Saturday. Both matches were interesting in that the partisan atmospheres generated at Mitsuzawa Stadium and Kashiwa Stadium respectively were negated, by the necessity to play in a much larger stadium.

Coming full circle then, and its interesting to note that Shimizu S-Pulse have switched their derby with Jubilo Iwata from Ecopa Stadium - a 2002 World Cup venue, back to their spiritual home of Nihondaira Stadium. S-Pulse have even gone to trouble of printing t-shirts proclaiming as much, with the unpopular Ecopa a sixty minute train ride from Shimizu. Just goes to show that when it comes to generating an atmosphere, sometimes less truly is more.

Just kidding folks, just kidding! I thought one way to get everyone interested in Japanese football is simply to talk about the English Premier League.

It seems that interest in Japanese football is on the wane, even *gasp* right here in Japan! While I can understand that Kashiwa Reysol vs FC Tokyo might not capture the attention of your average fan from Barcelona to Bury, I think it's a little concerning that media coverage of the J-League in Japan is plummeting as fast as the attendance figures of certain clubs.

According to The Rising Sun News - which is by far and away the best resource on Japanese football...on the web or elsewhere, interest in the J-League is dwindling, both in the media and with your more casual fans. And on the issue of decreasing interest in the league, The Rising Sun News has been most vocal on the topic of the poor standard of refereeing in Japan. I can see why.

When Shimizu S-Pulse took on Yokohama F. Marinos in the League Cup last weekend, I was really not looking forward to attending the match. That was for the simple reason that, in the previous two matches, both against Kashiwa Reysol - once in the J-League and once in the League Cup, S-Pulse had been on the receiving end of some seriously dubious refereeing. 

I took it with a grain of salt, since in 2006, Shimizu had been the beneficiaries of poor refereeing on numerous occasions. And they were the beneficiaries once again on Saturday afternoon, when referee Masaaki Iemoto gave a straight red card to Omiya's new signing Mauricio Salles just eight minutes into his Omiya debut.

The send-off probably had little impact on the outcome of the match, since Shimizu were playing Omiya off the park anyway. But what impact will it have on the miserly 7,737 crowd that bothered to turn up at Komaba Stadium - where standing behind the goals offers you the same kind of view that you might have if you were standing on the moon? 

I think I know. People stop coming. And who can blame them? When they can just as easily sit at home and watch Liverpool vs Arsenal instead, there's little incentive for the casual fan to get out to a windswept Japanese stadium, only to watch their team's chances disappear down the drain - which is where any credibility that J-League referees once had, has long since disappeared.

So the League Cup kicks off here in Japan this week, and woe any coach who doesn't take this competition seriously!

With talent spread so evenly in the J-League, plenty of clubs realise that the League Cup represents an excellent chance to pick up a piece of silverware.

Conversely, a poor run in the Cup can spell doom and gloom if you're a highly paid foreign coach brought in to win trophies. Just ask Paulo Autori!

The League Cup in Japan features only J1 clubs, and kicks off with a four-team Group stage. There a couple of interesting looking groups this year, but none of that is important...because my home-town team Shimizu S-Pulse have been drawn in the same group as Kashiwa Reysol.

Now I'm a mild-mannered man and I try to be fair and objective. But last weekend in the J-League, Shimizu were robbed thanks to what can only be described as THE WORST DECISION IN THE HISTORY OF FOOTBALL.

Okay, it wasn't really that bad. But I reckon Shimizu will be out for revenge, since it was Kashiwa Reysol to whom they lost at Nihondaira Stadium for the first time in ages, and since they kick-off their League Cup campaign, predictably, against Kashiwa Reysol.

As for the decision in question - let's just say it was another classic piece of J-League refereeing, which saw Shimizu striker Cho Jae Jin pulled down in the box, Shimizu midfielder Fernandinho slot the ball into the net, and J-League referee Tsutomu Anazawa blow for a foul - after the ball had hit the back of the net - against Shimizu.

Anyway, I would say that JEF United are the team to beat in the League Cup, since they've won the last two editions, but I reckon a team of blind monkies could probably beat United at just about anything right now. Kashima Antlers obviously couldn't, but that's another story.

On a final note, Kawasaki Frontale and Urawa Reds are absent from the group stage of the League Cup, as they are competing in the "prestigious" (according to the AFC) Asian Champions League. Kawasaki take on Bangkok University tomorrow, but I must confess a personal interest in the Sydney FC - Urawa game.

I was a Sydney FC season-ticket holder during their inaugural A-League season, and since I possess a healthy disdain for all things related to Urawa, I'll be cheering louder than usual for their opponents in this one.