Shimitzu
S-Pulse
Overview
Shimizu
S-Pulse are best described as the "perpetual
bridesmaid" of the J.League. The team has
been runner-up in a host of championships, but
has tasted only fleetingly of victory. In fact,
the team's greatest accomplishment to date has
been its victory in the 1999 Asian Cup-Winner's
Cup, despite the fact that they had not actually
won a domestic cup; Shimizu qualified for Asian
competition in 1999 when the actual cup winners,
Yokohama Flugels, were disbanded. S-Pulse was
the second place team. Interestingly enough,
they qualified again in 2001 by finishing second
in the Emperor's Cup to Kashima Antlers, who
had too busy a schedule to try to compete for
both the Asian club championships and the CWC.
Being
second best is surely an annoyance to the thousands
of loyal S-Pulse supporters, since Shimizu,
and Shizuoka prefecture in general, can make
a strong claim to being the heartland of football
in Japan. Shimizu-area high schools have dominated
the sport at the youth level for decades, and
have produced a large share of the top talent
in the J.League. In fact, at the annual alumni
match of Shimizu Shogyo High School, the school
can frequently field two entire teams of alumni
made up entirely of J.League players.
S-Pulse
was founded in 1989, when the J.League idea
was first mooted, so that the area could prepare
to host one of the teams in the new league.
The team name supposedly refers to the "Pulse
of Shizuoka Prefecture", and the name is
certainly fitting. Shizuoka has been a vibrant
source of support for football even before the
J.League was founded, and is home to some of
the top high school teams in the country.
S-Pulse
has been led by a number of well-known coaches,
from Emerson Leao to Ossie Ardilles and Steve
Perryman. Many national team members have been
drawn from the team's ranks, including midfielders
Teruyoshi Ito and Masasaki Sawanobori, and defenders
Toshihide Saito and Ryuzo Morioka. The team
has finished second in the league three times,
and second in the Emperor's Cup three times;
however, despite the abundance of talent S-Pulse
has only won a J.League stage one time, in 1999,
and they subsequently fell to their cross-town
rivals Jubilo Iwata in the league championship
series.
The
team finally managed to cast off their "bridesmaid"
label in 2001, bringing home the Emperor's Cup
trophy at the end of that season thanks to strong
contributions from veteran midfielder Sawanobori,
defender Morioka, "attack-dog" volante
Kazuyuki Toda and naturalized Japanese-Brazilian
Alessandro Santos. However, this success would
be short-lived. In 2002, S-Pulse started the
season as one of the favourites to finish high
in the league table, or perhaps even win a league
championship at long last. This status certainly
appeared justified, as almost the entire team
was made up of current or former national team
members. But as happens so often with star-studded
groupings, S-Pulse turned out to be another
"Blind Faith" -- or at best, a football
version of "Power Station". There
seemed to be too many large egos to fit onto
a single football field. Following the World
Cup, the team's messy internal disputes spilled
out into the press, with Morioka, Toda and Santos
all throwing public tantrums when coach Zemunovic
benched them. The disputes ultimately cost Zemunovic
his job, though the players were probably more
to blame than the coach for the disarray that
marked the team. The acquisition of Korean star
Ahn Jung-Yoon simply made matters worse, and
the team finished the season in a discouraging
eighth place.
It
is hard to say what will become of the team
in 2003. Though S-Pulse still has many high-quality
players, many have asked to be traded, or are
trying to attract offers from overseas clubs.
S-Pulse are a team in disarray, and despite
the talent of the individuals on the team, they
are not likely to contend for any titles in
2003. The team has already lost Kazuyuki Toda
to the Premier League, and there are strong
indications that others may follow in June and
July. S-Pulse will be fortunate enough to keep
Ahn Jung-Hwan for another six months, as he
was unable to negotiate a transfer during the
winter. However, he will almost certainly be
gone this summer, along with possibly Alex Santos
and Daisuke Ichikawa. Though they probably will
not face the risk of relegation, the team's
performance in the second half of the year could
be one of their worst finishes ever.
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Shimitzu
S-Pulse
Info
Stadium:
Nihondaira Soccer Stadium
Honours:
Nabisco
Cup Champions:
1996
Super
Cup Champions:
2001
Emperors
Cup Champions:
2002
Asian
CWC Champions:
1999/00
QUICK
FACT
Unlike
most of the other founding members of
the J.League, S-Pulse does not have a
long history as a corporate club team.
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