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Soccer: Shimizu edge FC Tokyo to preserve perfect start+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 18_(Kyodo) _ South Korea international Choe Jae Jin scored for the third week in a row as Shimizu S-Pulse maintained their perfect start to the season with a 1-0 win away to FC Tokyo in the J-League on Saturday.
Yokohama F Marinos also made it three wins out of three by brushing aside Cerezo Osaka 3-1 at home but 10-man Kawasaki Frontale dropped their first points after going down 1-0 to Ventforet Kofu, Bare striking a superb late winner for the home side.
At Ajinomoto Stadium, Cho stole in unmarked to head Jungo Fujimoto's corner in off the post in the 51st minute to give Shimizu a maximum nine points from three games, the club's best start to a league campaign in five years.
"We don't get so many goals from set pieces and we have been working on them on training so it was nice to see that work pay off," said Cho, whose team also came away with a third consecutive clean sheet.
"We couldn't really ask for a better start to the season. We have not got much time to recover before our next match (against JEF United Chiba on Tuesday) but we will give it our best and hopefully we can keep this momentum going," the striker added.
Ventforet, in the top flight for the first time after thrashing Kashiwa Reysol in a playoff in December, were celebrating like they had won the league after blanking Kawasaki, who had scored 13 goals in their first two matches.
Kawasaki had Marcao sent off 12 minutes from time and playoff hero Bare gave Kofu their first win of the season with a long-range strike four minutes from time.
"We just did not want to lose today," said Kofu manager Takeshi Oki. "It was a good result and the players did really well but we have a long season ahead and have to keep grinding out results."
At Nissan Stadium, 2003 and 2004 champions Yokohama went behind to an early goal from Hiroaki Morishima but Marcio Rodrigues took his tally for the season to five with a goal in each half and Marques sealed victory in the 88th minute.
Elsewhere, Alessandro Santos and Robson Ponte were both on target for Urawa Reds again as they thrashed 10-man Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-1 at Big Arch.
Kyoto Purple Sanga rebounded from two crushing defeats to earn their first point back in the top flight with a 1-1 draw away to Jubilo Iwata thanks to a last-gasp equalizer from Paulinho while a double from Edmilson gave Albirex Niigata a 2-1 win at Omiya Ardija.
Keiji Tamada missed a penalty as Nagoya Grampus Eight had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Kashima Antlers while substitute Yuichi Yoda rescued a 2-2 draw for Chiba at home to Avispa Fukuoka.
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