The Shizuoka Derby!

The Shizuoka Derby

On April 13^th Shimizu S-Pulse will welcome Júbilo Iwata to Nihondaira for the latest instalment of the Shizuoka Derby. Barry Valder takes a look back at the last two decades and how they have shaped the development of one of the most fiercely contested games in Japanese club football. 

Picture from 1994 pre-season Kirigamine Cup, Júbilo Iwata vs Shimizu S-Pulse. Courtesy of Dan Orlowitz.

Remember 1993

With a sporting landscape long dominated by baseball, Japan has often been considered to consist of a number of specific areas where football flourished, relatively free of the lure of the diamond. One of those was Shizuoka prefecture. Before the establishment of the J. League in 1992, the region had a history of success in producing both championship winning high school teams, and a disproportionately large percentage of professional players. It was against this background that when the J. League committee was accepting founding member applications, two teams from the area had their sights firmly set on a prestigious Original Ten spot. 

Based in Iwata city, Yamaha Corporation’s company team had competed in the amateur Japan Football League since the early 1970s. Restructured as an independent professional team in line with J. League guidelines, Júbilo Iwata would find itself beaten to the punch by the newly formed Shimizu S-Pulse. Located an hour east, S-Pulse was formed not with the backing of a major international corporation but through the efforts of local businesses and supporters. This grassroots ethic may have appealed to the selection committee, because it was Shimizu not Iwata who participated in the inaugural J. League Cup in 1992 and the first full season the following year.

The seeds of this rivalry were thereby sown long before a ball was kicked. The frustration that is was Shimizu who enjoyed the enviable prestige and ceremony in being a founding member was immortalised in the Iwata banner REMEMBER 1993. This can be seen to this day in the sky blue end when the teams meet.

Origins and After

The first instalment in what would become the league’s longest consecutively running derby came in the 1993 Nabisco Cup when Iwata journeyed to Shimizu’s new Nihondaira Stadium. The home team would claim a 2-0 win, an outcome repeated when the two came head to head for the first time in the league. On April 6^th 1994, 18000 packed Kusanagi Athletics Stadium’s grass banks for the occasion. Shimizu triumphed again, this time 1-0, but early dominance by the oranges was not to last. The following eight derbies would all go Iwata’s way. 

Shimizu would claim the first silverware of the pair in the form of the 1996 Nabisco Cup, but like their initial signs of derby ascendancy it was to prove a false dawn. Beginning in 1997 Iwata entered a golden period claiming three league titles along with the Nabisco Cup, Emperor’s Cup and Asian Club Championship once each. While Shimizu took home the Emperor’s Cup on New Year’s Day 2002, the imbalance in honours was clear, and Iwata revelled in their supremacy.

This superiority was underlined in excruciating circumstances for Shimizu in 1999. With the season at that time still contested over two stages, Iwata had claimed the first and Shimizu the second. At the end of the year Shimizu sat atop the combined league table sixteen points superior to Iwata. Nevertheless, the two met in the Suntory Championship season climax. All square over two legs, penalty kicks would crown Iwata champions. S-Pulse manager Steve Perryman was openly scathing of Iwata’s style of football and the injustice of the outcome. 

(Un)Friendly Rivalry

The label of Silver Collectors is applied to Shimizu with glee by Iwata supporters, exacerbating especially pain at what S-Pulse fans view as the illegitimacy of that second place medal in ‘99. Shimizu is indeed yet to win a league title, and have prevailed in only three of twelve various cup final appearances. An enormous flag unfurled by Iwata supporters in 2006 depicted a giant pair of scales tipped entirely in their favour. The discrepancy in trophy distribution was glaringly obvious, and while the reaction from the opposing end was audible, the statement was ultimately unquestionable. 

The following season the visiting Iwata team bus was greeted at Nihondiara with a level of aggression rarely seen in Japan. The tempest of hostility was audible from the furthest corners of the stadium and resulted in a warning from the league against any repetition. Since then Shimizu fans have taken a more humorous approach, on one occasion raising a banner emblazoned IWATA, only to be torn open and extended to scream KICK THEIR ASS!  More recently, inspired by Germany’s Magdeburg’s supporters, Shimizu supporters pointed several vast paper arrows at an oblivious away section, accompanied by a sign reading LOL in Japanese. 

These episodes came as a welcome alternative to the violent scenes which erupted at Nihondaira in 2011. In what may have been a reciprocal effort at humour, an ill advised Iwata banner was aimed at S-Pulse’s manager Afshin Ghotbi. The resulting scuffles soured the day, and with S-Pulse perversely receiving the greater sanctions, levels of antagonism reached new heights. 

Statistically Speaking

Since 1993, the Shizuoka Derby has proved one of the most keenly contested in the country. Both teams have enjoyed unbroken spells in the top flight allowing an unparalleled 52 meetings over the last two decades, ten in the cup, the remainder in the league. Of those, Iwata have chalked up 22 victories, seven more than their neighbours. Only five games have finished all square, just two ended goal-less, with the highest scoring derby in 1999 when Iwata put five away to win 5-2. The biggest margin of victory is four goals, at a 5-1 Shimizu league win in 2009, and in an Iwata league cup victory this earlier year. 

The highest gate to watch the Shizuoka face off was 53000 at a brand new Ecopa in 2001. The stadium was initially used by both clubs to stage the derby, but since 2007 Shimizu have opted for the home advantage of Nihondaira over the increased gate receipts. Iwata have persisted with the bigger ground, but in 2013 will stage the league derby at the smaller Yamaha Stadium for the first time in over a decade. 

In recent history, Shimizu claimed a home/away double over Iwata in 2012, the first time in the fixture since 2007 it when it was S-Pulse again who took full honours. Iwata must look back to 2003 for a home/away double, with Shimizu now boasting an unbeaten record at home to their rivals stretching back ten years. 

Real Shizuoka?

So what does this all mean ahead of Saturday’s first league derby of 2013, almost 19 years to the day since the first? With every derby day the proverbial cup final, not a great deal, of course. However, current circumstances have Iwata still searching for their first three points over a month into the season. A win for Shimizu could potentially send them to the foot of the table. 

It’s too early in the year to read excessively into league positions, but the longer Júbilo go without a win the greater anxiety will mount on their terraces. Shimizu, who themselves didn’t have a great start to the new season, are showing signs of pulling themselves out of their slump. Recovering from injuries, the team is approaching full strength and will be revelling in the opportunity to increase the pressure on their neighbours. 

Supporters of both sides are aching for a result. As ever, the immense factor of local pride is at stake, but each team is also aiming to remedy their below par league positions. Even this early in the year there is more than enough riding on this game to ensure a tense, edgy but ultimately enthralling new chapter in the Shizuoka Derby’s growing history. You’d be crazy to miss it!