Football Season Guide

In their first season back in J2 after the relegation Shimizu somehow failed to earn the deserved promotion back to the top flight they deserved. Slow start, winless in the first 7 rounds, prompted a managerial change in mid-April. This transformed the fortunes of Shimizu and they started winning almost every home match they played. In the end, come the final round of the regular season all Shimizu needed was a win and they were going up directly. Instead, they registered a draw and had to prepare for the play-offs. Shimizu reached the final of the play-offs and looked to be heading up again up until the 96th minute when they gave away a penalty against FC Tokyo. This sent the game to extra times and eventually Shimizu lost on penalties. Two such awful heartaches must galvanize the troops with Shimizu now determined to right these wrongs in 2024. This is the first proper full season in charge for coach Tadahiro Akiba and based on what we saw from him last autumn Shimizu should be once more one of the highest scoring teams. Captain Suzuki, as well as, the main holding midfielder Ronaldo left this winter. However, Shimizu added some quality players to their ranks and they look very well prepared for the season ahead. Carlinhos and Inui remain the main creators up front and between them they were involved in 42 goals last season. Thiago (12 goals) and Oh left this winter, but two new Brazilian centre forwards [Lucas Braga and Douglas] have been signed to replace them. It seems that at least on paper Shimizu are not weaker than last season so they will be in the hunt for the J2 title.