Yokohama F. Marinos v Shimizu S-pulse — prediction, stats and goal analysis

J1 League · Saturday, 6 June 2026. Final score 3–0 (half-time 1–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 46% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals46%54%Under
Over 3.5 goals24%76%no pick
Both teams to score52%48%Yes

The result model puts Yokohama F. Marinos at 43%, the draw at 28% and Shimizu S-pulse at 28%, from expected goals of 1.32 and 1.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. J1 League has produced over 2.5 goals in 45% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Yokohama F. Marinos have 10 in 19 this season (4 of 9 at home), Shimizu S-pulse 6 in 19 (3 of 9 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 49% and 39%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 19 and 19 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 48% and 41%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 45%.

Head to head. These sides have met 3 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 67%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 46%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 41%, from expected goals of 1.32 for Yokohama F. Marinos and 1 for Shimizu S-pulse. Folding in 30% of that view gives 44%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 46%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Yokohama F. Marinos1953%37%47%
Shimizu S-pulse1932%11%63%

Head to head

31 May 26Shimizu S-pulse 1–1 Yokohama F. MarinosU2.5
16 Aug 25Shimizu S-pulse 1–3 Yokohama F. MarinosO2.5
16 Apr 25Yokohama F. Marinos 2–3 Shimizu S-pulseO2.5
2 Jul 22Shimizu S-pulse 3–5 Yokohama F. MarinosO2.5
6 Mar 22Yokohama F. Marinos 2–0 Shimizu S-pulseU2.5

More: Yokohama F. Marinos season stats · Shimizu S-pulse season stats · J1 League table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.