Talk about a thumping!

The less said about the Shizuoka derby, the better - at least from a Shimizu S-Pulse point of view - as bottom club Jubilo Iwata dished out an embarrassing 3-0 thumping of Kenta Hasegawa's side in front of a dismal crowd of just 22,152 fans at Ecopa Stadium. 

Korean striker Lee Keun-Ho made his debut off the bench for Jubilo Iwata and promptly scored twice, while Ryoichi Maeda also got on the scoresheet for a Jubilo side missing top scorer Gilsinho through suspension. 

This was a dreadful performance from S-Pulse and questions must be asked of Kenta Hasegawa's inability to motivate his team for their biggest game of the season.

Shimizu were non-existent going forward and even worse at the back, and the club is now likely to lose millions of yen by hosting Urawa Reds at Ecopa Stadium in their holiday blockbuster on April 29.  

No excuses for what happened on the pitch, though. Jubilo Iwata simply wanted this more and they out-manouevered their nervy looking opponents in brilliant sunshine in Fukuroi.

Just when S-Pulse fans thought their team was on the up and up, they come crashing back down to earth with a humiliating defeat.

Dark days indeed in Shimizu, and there'll be plenty of wounds to lick following this humiliating loss. 

The result was a pleasant one for Shimizu S-Pulse fans, but Kenta Hasegawa's men didn't exactly impress in their pre-season friendly with local rivals Jubilo Iwata.

The team from the orange half of Shizuoka came from behind after Jubilo striker Gilsinho opened the scoring with a clinical finish, only for an equaliser a minute from time from substitute Kazuki Hara to snatch the "SDT Cup" from Jubilo's grasp.

If Jubilo fans were annoyed by the last-minute goal, things got even worse three minutes into stoppage time when the impressive Shinji Okazaki blasted home to increase the gloom for the visiting supporters.

In front of an impressive crowd of 11,284 the hosts bossed the game for the opening twenty-five minutes but then appeared to fall asleep for the rest of the match.

New signing Frode Johnsen had some decent touches but it will clearly take time for the lanky Norwegian to strike up a combination with strike partner Okazaki - while fellow new arrival Yuichiro Nagai was missing due to concerns over his fitness. 

Off the pitch, the new naming rights deal struck with "Outsourcing" kicks in at Shimizu's J. League home opener against Yokohama F. Marinos on March 14, so it was into the more familiar "Nihondaira Stadium" that fans filed - with most arriving early to see Shimizu's reserves beat Jubilo's reserves 2-1 thanks to goals from Genki Omae and Shun Nagasawa, after Jubilo striker Hiroki Bandai had opened the scoring for the visitors.

Jubilo's reserve team shirts were probably the most useless pieces of apparal I've ever seen - it took me twenty-five minutes to recognise that their shirts were numbered, so well done to whomever thought that plain white against a pale blue background would work - while it was nice to see the Jubilo team bus inglamorously parked out the front of the stadium, with S-Pulse not bothering to open the parking bay for their local rivals. 

All in all it was a decent day out for S-Pulse fans, who were no doubt compelled to turn out in such numbers by the fact that Shizuoka Dai-ichi TV ironically didn't bother to broadcast the own friendly they helped sponsor.

But with the J. League season just around the corner, there is plenty for S-Pulse coach Hasegawa to consider given what was a rusty-looking display from his team.

It may only be a pre-season friendly, but there will be plenty of interested onlookers when Shimizu S-Pulse host local rivals Jubilo Iwata for the "SDT Cup" at Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira tomorrow.

Both teams have been busy with pre-season kickabouts of varying intensity. Shimizu's most recent engagement saw them split two games with Korean giants Seongnam Ilhwa - losing the first 2-0, before winning the second 2-1. 

Jubilo beat J2 side Sagan Tosu 2-0 before drawing 1-1 with the same opponents in their most recent matches, but a Shizuoka derby is always going to up the ante - even if it occurs some three weeks before the J. League season kicks off.

S-Pulse fans will no doubt run the rule over new signings Yuichiro Nagai and Frode Johnsen, and there's growing belief in this part of the world that the 2009 vintage could be one of S-Pulse's best teams in years.

A lack of depth in defence leaves an obvious question mark, but compared to Jubilo's threadbare looking squad, the team from the orange half of Shizuoka-ken look in good shape.

By contrast Jubilo haven't managed to attract any decent signings of note - save, perhaps, for the versatile Daisuke Nasu - who swaps the mediocrity of Tokyo Verdy for the potential mediocrity of Jubilo for the current campaign.

The team from Yamaha-town will be leaning heavily on Brazilians Rodrigo and Gilsinho this season, but how new coach Masaaki Yanagishita could do with a return to form of some of Jubilo's other heavyweights such as Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, ex-Sanfrecce Hiroshima man Yuichi Komano and Bobby Cullen.

Only Ryoichi Maeda provided sporadic glimpses of his best last season, but the occasional Japan international will need more support from his team-mates in what could be a make-or-break season for both Maeda and club.

It may be one of a spate of derbies to take place around the globe this weekend, but it could be a confidence-boosting one for either Shimizu S-Pulse or Jubilo Iwata. Plenty to play for then - pre-season friendly notwithstanding.

With fans in Japan itching for the return of competitive league action, Shimizu S-Pulse have lined up an interesting-looking friendly with local rivals Jubilo Iwata.

The two will line up on February 21st at "Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira" to celebrate the 30th anniversary of local broadcaster Shizuoka Broadcasting Station.

With the league itself set to kick off on March 7, S-Pulse fans will have the chance to cast the eye over new signings Frode Johnsen and Yuichiro Nagai.

Some fans have suggested that coach Kenta Hasegawa will switch to a 4-5-1 formation for the 2009 season, with Nagai playing wide on the right opposite Shinji Okazaki or Kazuki Hara on the left, leaving a three-man-midfield to play in behind lone front man Johnsen.

With only international fixtures to satisfy Japanese fans during the three-month off-season - Japan host Yemen in an Asian Cup qualifier in Kumamoto today, before taking on Bahrain away on January 28 and facing off with old foes Australia in a World Cup qualifier in Yokohama on February 11 - S-Pulse fans could be forgiven for eagerly awaiting another installment of the Shizuoka derby, albeit in friendly form.

The rumours doing the rounds of the blogsophere are that Shimizu's seven-team League Cup group stage opponents have also been decided, with S-Pulse reputedly set to take on FC Tokyo, JEF United and Kyoto Sanga at home, with away day trips to Kashiwa Reysol, Vissel Kobe and promoted side Montedio Yamagata also in the mix.

The fixture list will officially be released in the first week of February.

Well, that was a close run thing.

The Shizuoka derby lives to see another day after local misfits Jubilo Iwata got their act together just in the nick of time, beating Vegalta Sendai 3-2 on aggregate in the promotion/relegation playoff to retain their place in the top flight for next season.

The star of the playoff was undoubtedly Jubilo's teenage midfielder Takuya Matsuura.

Matsuura turns twenty on December 21, but his performances belied his young age as he scored the equaliser in the first leg in front of a hostile capacity crowd of 18,974 at Yurtec Sendai Stadium, cancelling out Brazilian striker Nadson's first half goal for the northerners.

The stage was set for an epic second-leg showdown at the compact Yamaha Stadium and 16,693 fans piled into every available vantage point to witness another J. League classic. 

Vegalta are no strangers to top flight football - they spent two seasons in J1 in the early part of the century - and predictably one of Japan's most passionately supported clubs fought tooth and nail to get back to the promised land.

They didn't count on coming up against Takuya Matsuura though, as the youngster chested home a Ryoichi Maeda cross just before half-time to calm Jubilo nerves.  

With Vegalta piling everyone forward in search of an equaliser in the second half, Jubilo took their chance on the break - and what a goal it was, as a long clearance from a corner was picked up by Matsuura on the halfway line, and the youngster twisted and turned inside two Sendai defenders before chipping the ball over keeper Takuto Hayashi, to send the home fans packed into the clock end at Yamaha into frenzied jubilation.

As is so often the case in football, Sendai managed to pull back a stoppage-time consolation that only added to their fans' misery, as ex-North Korean international Ryang Yong-Gi curled a spectacular free-kick over the wall and passed Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi in the final minute of the game, although the Zainichi Korean's strike proved too little to propel Sendai back into the top flight.

So the Shizuoka derby lives to see another day - not that too many Shimizu S-Pulse fans were concerned about the prospect of it disappearing - and Jubilo coach Hans Ooft was a visibly relieved man after the final whistle sounded in Iwata.

Grinning like a cheshire cat, the big Dutchman thanked the Jubilo fans and promised that his club had learned from their mistakes this season.

One would hope so, with the three-times J. League champions coming within a whisker of experiencing a taste of life in the basement of professional Japanese football in 2009.

Wow. After my tirade against Adelaide United's technical skills, I sure hope no other Australians saw tonight's Shizuoka derby. 

In what will surely rank as one of the worst games of the season, Jubilo Iwata beat local rivals Shimizu S-Pulse 1-0 thanks to a Ryoichi Maeda goal barely twenty seconds after the half-time interval.

Persistent rain kept the crowd in Fukuroi to just under 25,000 but the fans who stayed home were the lucky ones, as Jubilo and Shimizu turned in an error-fest of embarrassing proportions.

The highlight - or lowlight, depending on which team you were supporting - came just after the restart when S-Pulse defender Naoaki Aoyama, under no pressure whatsoever, attempted to pass the ball to his goalkeeper from the kick-off, only to stumble and trip, presenting the ball to Jubilo striker Ryoichi Maeda who dutifully dispatched a skidding low drive passed a perplexed Kaito Yamamoto.

How the fans must have wished that had been a golden goal, as S-Pulse in particular turned in a performance totally bereft of inspiration and creativity, so much so that the beaten League Cup finalists were booed off the pitch at the end, despite receiving good support from the S-Pulse faithful throughout the ninety minutes. 

As far as J. League games go, this was as bad as it gets, and how Shimizu hammered Gamba Osaka 3-1 the other day I'll never know. Forget the AFC Champions League. If Adelaide United want to restore some confidence right now, they should challenge Kenta Hasegawa's misfiring team to a duel. 

What a time to be alive! These are certainly heady days for fans of Shimizu S-Pulse, who are gearing up for three massive clashes in just seven days.

The first takes them to a sold-out National Stadium in Tokyo, where one of Japan's most popular clubs will be looking to see off Oita Trinita in the League Cup final. "Kokuritsu" will be a sea of orange with more than 30,000 S-Pulse fans expected to turn out in the capital, but with Shimizu red-hot favourites to claim the title, coach Kenta Hasegawa will do well to dampen some of the euphoria currently surrounding his team.

Any suggestions that this will be a mere walk in the park should be dispelled by memories of Shimizu's opening day home defeat to Oita Trinita in the J. League this season. That spelled a catastrophic start to the new campaign for S-Pulse, but for Oita it set off a fairytale run that is yet to cease, with the Kyushu side not only qualifying for the League Cup final - they are also sitting fourth in the table, just two points behind league leaders Kashima Antlers with four games to go.

Oita's chances of winning a first ever trophy have been cruelled by a suspension to influential midfielder Shingo Suzuki for this match. Worse still for coach Pericles is that goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa has not recovered from injury in time to take his place between the posts, while fellow Beijing Olympian Masato Morishige is also suffering from injury, meaning that Oita could start the League Cup final missing arguably their three most important players. Much will rest on the young shoulders of midfielder Mu Kanazaki who has been the driving force of the Oita attack for most of the campaign.

Travelling up to Sendagaya could prove problematic for S-Pulse fans given that seemingly half of Shizuoka is planning to decamp to the National Stadium, but spare a thought for Oita supporters - who have probably left for the game by now - with barely enough seats on JAL and ANA airlines between the two to accommodate those wishing to fly up to the main island of Honshu for Oita's big day out. 

As if one Cup outing wasn't exciting enough, S-Pulse are back in action on Wednesday evening, this time in the Emperor's Cup. There'll be no repeat of Shimizu's nail-biting penalty shoot-out win over the students of Meiji University in the fourth round last season - no sir, this time it's the big guns coming to town, as Alex Miller brings top flight outfit JEF United down from Chiba to the atmospheric Nihondaira Stadium. Both clubs must have sighed a collective groan of disbelief to have been drawn against each other - particularly as the two also meet at Nihondaira in the penultimate round of the league campaign - but only one will progress to the fifth round of the Cup and a chance to claim a coveted place in the newly cashed-up AFC Champions League next season.  

If S-Pulse fans weren't already frothing at the mouth at the prospect of these two clashes, they'll be suffering from severe heart palpitations come next Saturday when Shimizu make the seventy kilometre trip down to Ecopa Stadium to take on bitter local rivals Jubilo Iwata in the fabled Shizuoka derby. S-Pulse fans are still revelling in the glory of last season's double over Jubilo, but the hero from those fixtures is long gone, with Cho Jae-Jin these days not endearing himself to K-League fans by missing open goals for his new club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

The big South Korean will always be a legend around these parts, but S-Pulse fans can't afford to dwell in the past, and they've already played Jubilo three times this season as the two clubs drew 1-1 in front of a full house at Nihondaira Stadium in the league. They met again in the League Cup group stage, with S-Pulse crushing Jubilo 4-2 at Nihondaira, only to be on the end of a 2-0 defeat at Yamaha Stadium in the final group game.

Kenta Hasegawa will hope that his team is not punch-drunk given the critical fixture list come November 8, but with Jubilo Iwata sitting second-from-bottom in the league and Dutch coach Hans Ooft desperate to drag the Shizuoka giants to safety, this will be a bitterly contested clash with more than 40,000 fans expected to pile in to the windswept Ecopa Stadium to witness it.

All to play for, then, for Shimizu S-Pulse and fans of the popular seaside club will hope that it doesn't end in tears in seven days time.

On a quick personal note, I hope you guys are digging the new banner and profile pic I've come up with as a means of increasing readership from more than just that Mongolian yak herder and the Obscure Leagues Of The World fanclub in the Faroe Islands. I had a thousand monkeys working for a thousand years on a thousand typewriters to come up with that one (but seriously, cheers to Soul Rebel for the professional-looking banner and my old mate Rieper for the life-like portrait). Hold on to your hats, guys, I can feel a Pulitzer prize coming on here. 

Twelve years after Arsene Wenger left Nagoya Grampus bound for Arsenal, and seven years after the French tactician convinced Junichi "T-Shirt" Inamoto to swap the J. League for life at Highbury, the question arises... could Arsenal be about to raid the J. League once more? The answer, according to my sources, is no.

In slightly unrelated Arsenal news, the fourth matchday of Japan's League Cup group stage takes place on May 25, and the afternoon kicks off with a mouth-watering clash between bitter local rivals Shimizu S-Pulse and Jubilo Iwata.

These two sides met in the league back on May 3, with Jubilo outplaying their hosts in a 1-1 draw at Nihondaira Stadium. The stakes are different when they meet again at the hill-top venue, with Shimizu currently leading their League Cup group on seven points, while Jubilo trail three points further back. With only the group winners guaranteed progression to the final eight, there's bound to be plenty of passion on show at Nihondaira, with matches between these two rarely dull affairs.

The return fixture is set down for the final matchday on June 8 at Yamaha Stadium, by which time Shimizu S-Pulse will hope to have sealed their place in the knock-out stage. With the two best-placed runner's up also joining AFC Champions League participants Kashima Antlers and defending League Cup champions Gamba Osaka in the last eight, there's still a chance for Jubilo to progress even if they fail to win tomorrow - although things are looking bleak with their goal difference currently standing at 0.

Both Shimizu and Jubilo have been hindered by international call-ups, while Shimizu's current injury woes are well documented over on the S-Pulse UK Ultras site - with Arata Kodama and Fernandinho looking set to join the similarly injured Daisuke Ichikawa and Teruyoshi Ito on the sidelines. There'll nevertheless be a cracking atmosphere inside Nihondaira as two of Japan's most bitter rivals slug it out in the quest to progress to the quarter-finals of the 2008 League Cup.