Starless Steelers Return To Glory Days

2007 K-League champions Pohang Steelers have no stars. That is the official line in South Korean football but it is one that it is only partly true.

The south-eastern outfit may have lacked a big-name player since Lee Dong-gook left for Middlesbrough at the start of the year but there have been some big performances from those in red and black in recent weeks as the team powered through the play-offs to take the title.

“We have no stars but now we have one more star on our shirt. Today we proved that you need effort and determination, not star players to win the championship,” Pohang’s beaming Brazilian coach Sergio Farias told the press after the win at Seongam last week.

“For a year, the players gave their all through some difficult times. I am highly satisfied with the success.”

The 40 year-old is not alone is welcoming a return to the top table of Asian football for the Steelers, formerly known as Posco Atoms. The club’s loyal followers have waited 15 long years to taste domestic success. The older members of that group will remember the glory days. Three league titles in seven seasons at the end of the eighties and the start of the nineties established the club as a genuine powerhouse.

As the decade progressed, it got better. A 1996 FA Cup win provided entry to the Asian Club Championship. Pohang won it. The 1997 triumph was followed by a successful defence in 1998.

So, in less than a decade a half in existence, two continental titles and three domestic league triumphs had been celebrated. The supporters were spoiled and when the trophies stopped arriving at the Steelyard, the fans, as fans are wont to do, started dreaming wistfully of the past. The reality at the time was that the club was struggling in the league, leaving Seongnam, Suwon and Ulsan to take the titles and plaudits.

Slowly however, the Steelers bounced back and up the table. In 2004, only a penalty shootout defeat at the end of a championship play-off final against Suwon denied a league championship. Before the start of the next season, the club saw the subsequent introduction of a young Brazilian coach names Sergio Farias as the missing piece in the Pohang puzzle.Three years later and patience has been rewarded.

Patience is ample but stars are lacking? Hardly, and that’s before the four golden ones that will appear on the famous shirts next season are taken into account. Tavares is in line for the player of the year after 11 assists over the course of the season and a good deal more besides. The Brazilian pulls the strings for Pohang on the park and has been one of the most consistent performers since joining the K-League in 2004.

Park Won-jae excelled in the play-off matches, scoring against Suwon and Seongnam. It is the 23 year-old’s misfortune that he has come to the fore when the national team is without a coach.

Kim Ki-dong’s time has come and gone as far as the Taeguk Warriors are concerned but the old warhorse is still going strong. The 34 year-old started his career when Pohang was last champion and over 400 games (and according to the official stats, 602 fouls) later, he finally collected a winner’s medal.Kim is talking about playing until he is 40 and anybody who has watched him in action up and down the southern half of the Korean peninsula would not doubt his ability to do so.

Also not in doubt is the potential of goalkeeper Jung Syung-ryeong. Three goals conceded in five play-off games suggest a solid backline. There may be no head coach but the national team’s goalkeeping guru is still in employment and has witnessed Jung consistently deny the best strikers that the league has to offer.

Perhaps the talk of no stars refers to the fact that it has been a genuine team effort and that is hard to argue with. Pohang work hard and are hard to beat.

With coach Farias due to sign a new contract, the signs are that it won’t be another 15 years until Pohang is once again the champion of South Korea.

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Silky Steelers Shatter Seongnam

It was surprisingly easy in the end. Pohang Steelers defeated Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 1-0 in the second leg of the final of the 2007 K-League championship play-off series to add to their 3-1 win a week previously.

As Kim Ki-dong lifted the golden trophy on a chilly November afternoon at Seongnam’s Tancheon Stadium, he became the fourth Pohang captain to do so but the first in 15 years.

It is open for debate as to whether the south-eastern outfit deserve to be champions after finishing in fifth (and with a negative goal difference) at the end of the regular season but in the play-offs, Pohang were dynamite.



The fuse burned slowly at first. A penalty shootout win at Gyeongnam FC after 120 minutes of football on October 20 finished 1-1. The reward was another short trip –this time to rivals and 2005 champions Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i. A deserved 2-1 win was the result and suddenly the Steelers were 90 minutes away from the final. There was a formidable barrier in the way however, a big blue one in the shape of Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

That was no problem either. An 87th minute, slightly fortuitous backward-diving header from Park Won-jae won the game and silenced the famous Grand Bleu.

By this time, the Korean media was getting excited about the possibility of Pohang boss Sergio Farias becoming the next coach of the national team. A Brazilian with success in the K-League looked to be the best of both worlds. Unfortunately for the 40-year old, he enjoys little support in the KFA and if he was to get the job, he would be far from first choice.

Back to the play-offs and it was expected that Seongnam, who finished four points clear at the top of the standings at the end of the regular season, would be a test to far for Pohang.

That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Pohang took the first leg 3-1. Only some desperate defending and a last-minute strike from Seongnam’s Keith Gillespie lookalike left-back Jang Hak-young kept the cushion at a respectable two goals.



It was Seongnam’s first game since their Asian Champions League semi-final exit at the hands of Urawa Reds. Tempting as it is to use that epic 4-4 encounter and the subsequent penalty shootout heartbreak as a reason for Seongnam’s sluggishness, the fact is that since the summer, the seven-time champions haven’t been at their best. As boss Kim Hak-beom said after the Pohang loss, “the players didn’t play the Seongnam way.”

Pohang won the second leg almost as comfortably as they took the first. From the moment, Brazilian striker Cleber Schwenck hammered the ball into the top corner of the hosts’ net on the stroke of half-time, the destination of the golden trophy was never in doubt.

Seongnam knew it too, despite their best efforts. In truth, the yellows rarely troubled Jung Ryoeng-syong in the Pohang goal and the visitors could have scored more.

It didn’t matter in the end. A 4-1 aggregate win over the defending champions in the play-off final is emphatic enough.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile

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