Shimizu S-Pulse defeated Júbilo Iwata, 2-1, over the weekend in a hotly-contested derby between two old foes.

The promotion of Júbilo to the top flight brought not only the club’s long and impressive history back to the Meiji Yasuda J1 League but also a pair of Shizuoka Derbies. The great rivalry would return to the first division and in Matchweek 2, we got the first taste as Shimizu S-Pulse visited Júbilo to rekindle the clash.

S-Pulse, the more established top flight side, were bright from the start and scored after just nine minutes. Yuito Suzuki raced in behind the Júbilo defense and coolly slotted the ball into the back of the net for an early strike, egging on the massive visiting support who made the trip to cheer on their boys in orange.

Júbilo responded brilliantly, equalizing not long after through a sensational Yuto Suzuki finish. Suzuki ran into the box down the right to meet a long ball and, after it took a short hop, dove to meet it. He stretched his foot and directed it on goal, perfectly lifting it over the goalkeeper and then dipping it into the far side netting for an incredible goal.

With the match level and the home fans pushing their team on, Júbilo continued to attack and nearly followed up their equalizer with some equally amazing strikes, but they were unable to finish.

S-Pulse’s counterattack continued to be a threat in the second half and it paid off in the 67th minute as Katsuhiro Nakayama gathered the ball on the left. The Júbilo defense was scrambling back and that gave Nakayama the time to cut in onto his right and hit a beautiful curling effort that left the goalkeeper no chance. S-Pulse were in front and the visiting fans were thrilled yet again.

The visitors continued to threaten on the counterattack and, with 16 minutes to go, Norimichi Yamamoto was shown a second yellow card that reduced Júbilo to 10 men. Not long after, Fabian Gonzalez was issued a straight red card and the hosts were down to nine.

That functionally ended the match as S-Pulse pushed on to a 2-1 victory in the Shizuoka Derby’s fabulous return to the top flight.