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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Play-Off, Kick-Off, Send-Off

Just as the weather was turning cold in South Korea, the action on the pitch got hot as the play-off series kicked off. Some of the fans kicked off too. Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang got involved with Daejeon Citizen supporters.

Anybody who has been to a few K-League games will be familiar with the scene. Fans disapprove of a refereeing decision and vent by throwing plastic water bottles on the pitch. Cue the arrival of their team’s players to appeal for calm while everyone else waits the five minutes or so that it usually takes for the game to restart.

After you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all but Sunday was a little different. Daejeon fans are some of the best in Korea but can get a little carried away. With ten minutes or so remaining of the play-off match, the Citizen were two goals down and facing an end to their season.

Time was running out as Daejeon attacked. A player went down, fans called for a penalty but the referee gave a free-kick just outside the box. The purple hordes behind the goal made their feelings known and one missile hit Ulsan’s goalkeeper. Ulsan’s World Cup Stadium witnessed Rivaldo’s theatrics against Turkey at the 2002 competition, but Kim stood his ground. Not only that but the ex-Chunnam star threw one of the offending articles back from whence it came.

The ripple that the object caused as it fell in the sea of away fans was immediate and obvious, Dozens of supporters charged down to the front of the enclosure. And more bottles came Kim’s way. Perhaps realizing his earlier mistake, Kim caught one and drank its contents while his team-mates dragged him out of harm’s way. Daejeon players, perhaps accustomed to the ritual, adeptly dodged the missiles and gestured for the fans to cut it out.

When order was eventually restored, the referee gestured for Kim to leave the pitch. It took some time for the goalkeeper, by now in tears, to be persuaded to head down the tunnel.



With the man advantage, Daejeon continued to attack and went close on a number of occasions, attempts that usually ended with the mercurial Ko Jong-soo standing with hands-on-hips while glaring at a team-mate who had failed to convert one of his crosses or set pieces.



Two headers from two players given too much space in the box sealed the win for Ulsan who host Pohang Steelers in the next stage of the play-off series next week. The Steelers had been involved in some drama the previous evening during their win at Gyeongnam FC but it was of the artificial kind as they triumphed in a penalty shootout.



It was a disappointing night all around for Gyeongnam. The southerners had impressed when finishing fourth during the regular season but never really got going against Pohang. Their performance wasn’t helped by the fact that the stadium was largely empty. It was a cold night but free entry and the biggest game of the club’s short history should have seen more bums on seats.

It could be the last time that they see Cabore in the red and white. The Brazilian found the target a total of 17 times during the season and is now being chased by Suwon. With his team a goal down and three minutes from the final whistle, he produced the goods once again with a close range header to take the game into extra time.



The hosts went close in the next 30 minutes but were unable to avoid the dreaded penalty shootout. Guess who missed for Gyeongnam? It can be a cruel game.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile

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26 Games, Six Teams Standing

The system has its critics but the play-offs gave the K-League regular season a final day to remember. Six teams out of 14 doing battle in the championship deciders may be a high percentage but without the games, we would have just been treated to the sight of Seongnam strolling to another title.

It is partly Seongnam’s fault that the system was reinstalled. After a 2003 season in which the Gyeonggi Province club won the league by 18 points, 2004 saw the rebirth of the play-offs. The following three seasons saw four teams fight it out but the K-League extended that to six at the start of 2007.

Seongnam finished first again and while there was no trophy, they did receive a consolation prize – the club will only face one opponent in a two-legged clash in November. Suwon Samsung Bluewings finished four points behind in second and are guaranteed a one-leg semi-final at home on October 31. Suwon’s opponent for that game will be the team that emerges from the battle between those who finished third to sixth.

Going into the final day of the regular season, two of those spots had been claimed already. Gyeongnam FC and Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I were guaranteed to finished third and fourth. Only two spots were up for grabs –fifth and sixth.

Of the five teams still in with a chance, FC Seoul were the best placed –in fifth to be exact, three points clear of seventh and in need of just a point at lowly Daegu FC. Such a result looked to be well within Seoul’s reach as Senol Gunes’s men had drawn 13 of the preceding 25 games.

Pohang Steelers occupied sixth and knew that a win at home against fellow play-off chasers Incheon United would be enough. Incheon were in the same boat as Daejeon Citizen and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors; clubs that needed to win and other results to go their way.

A defeat for Seoul was necessary and that is what happened. Brazilian striker Luisinho fired home the only goal of the game after 34 minutes at Daegu World Cup Stadium.

Pohang got their three points with a 3-2 win to claim their play-off place in a game that wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests. That result ended Incheon’s dreams and Jeonbuk’s season. The Asian Champions struggled to a 2-1 win at home to bottom club Gwangju Sangmu. It was Jeonbuk’s first victory in nine games but it was too little too late.

That left Daejeon Citizen. The 2001 FA Cup winners hadn’t looked like play-off candidates at the end of the first half of the season, collecting 13 points from the first 13 games. During the summer, coach Choi Yoon-kyum hit his assistant over the head with a beer glass during a drinking session. Such an act is not an automatic firing offence in Korea and for a while, Choi looked like staying on, backed by fans as well as his stitched-up sidekick. The number two soon changed his mind and Choi changed jobs,

Kim Ho stepped in. The 1994 World Cup and former Suwon coach is more of a soju man and also changed a few other traditions in Daejeon. In the first half of the season, the Citizen had drawn seven out of 13 games but Kim’s revolutionary concept that a win is three times better than a draw caught on. From August, Daejeon lost five games ( more than it lost in the first stage) but won the other eight to collect 24 points..

It was a close-run thing however. Despite Daejeon’s improved form, only a late run of four consecutive wins had put them in with a chance on the final day and with a good record at home against Suwon, the home fans were confident.

They were ecstatic when Brazilian striker Shuba scored the only goal of the game in the second half. Daejeon should have scored more but the finish wasn’t too tense. Suwon’s slim hopes of catching Seongnam meant that as the game drew to a close, the Bluewings weren’t too concerned about scoring a goal that would have shot rivals Seoul into the playoffs.

Daejeon’s response at the end was an emotional one but the team have little time to celebrate. They have a game at Ulsan on Sunday, the day after Gyeongnam host Pohang. The two winners will play-off against each other a week later for the right to face Suwon.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com

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K-League Taking Shape

After four games of the new K-League season, four teams are level on ten points.

Only goal difference separates the leading quartet –Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, Pohang Steelers, Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I and FC Seoul.

Ten points from a possible twelve mean that none of the four have yet to experience defeat so far this season but one of the pre-season favorites Suwon Samsung Bluewings can no longer say the same.

Before last weekend’s action, Suwon was part of that exclusive club. Unfortunately for the loyal and passionate Bluewings fans, Sunday saw a 3-1 defeat at Seongnam. That bitter pill would not have been sweetened at all with the fact that the scorer of two of those goals for Seongnam, Kim Dong-hyun (see picture), was released by Suwon coach Cha Bum-keun two years ago.

Cha has his work cut out to keep those fans, the “Grand Bleu,” happy. After being thrashed 4-1 by rivals FC Seoul ten days earlier, the 2004 champions needed to bounce back against Seongnam and not just to keep morale high. It was Seongnam that defeated Suwon in the championship play-off last November to lift a seventh title. The cold dish of revenge stays in the Suwon refrigerator for a little longer.

Suwon is not short of big names as four heroes from the 2002 World Cup wear the blue shirt on a regular basis -not least the destroyer of Italy Ahn Jung-hwan and the bane of Spain, Lee Woon-jae. These two experienced players watched Sunday’s action from the bench however; victims of Cha’s quest to find the right blend in his star-studded squad though the coach was philosophical after the defeat.

“These kind of things happen during the course of a season and we need to be strong mentally,” he told reporters. If we keep losing like this then we will find ourselves in a dire situation but we will bounce back.” the coach said on Sunday.

The situation is brighter a few miles north in the capital. New coach and media darling Senol Gunes may not have brought any players since joining FC Seoul in January but he certainly is changing the way the team plays. Fans at Seoul World Cup Stadium have seen more attractive football in March alone under former Turkey national team coach than they did in the whole of last season under Lee Jang-soo.

Gunes is popular with the fans and press who love such statements as: “Seoul could win the Turkish league. At least they would finish in the top five."

The same could perhaps be said then of Pohang and Ulsan and they should be in a similar lofty positions in the K-League in November when the top six teams enter the championship play-off series.

The south-eastern clubs have slipped under the radar of much of the media for the time being. The main writers of the main soccer publications don’t venture down to Gyeongsang Province too often.

Pohang is also a club without stars after the departure of Lee Dong-guk to Middlesbrough and the Premier League. Under Brazilian boss Sergio Farias, the Steelers have the habit of picking up points with the minimum of fuss as demonstrated with a 2-1 win at the home of Asian Champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Ulsan won the title two years ago and look handily placed to challenge again especially as the Tigers have yet to really get into their stride. Coach Kim Jung-nam, like his Pohang counterpart won’t be too concerned at the current focus on Seoul and Suwon.

There is still a long way to go.

Uruguay Lesson

On the international scene, March wasn’t the best of months as Uruguay came to Seoul and won 2-0 with a comfortable, even depressing, ease.

The story was a familiar one. Korea started well, enjoyed possession, looked energetic, lost concentration in defence and found itself a goal down.

The 19th minute strike from Carlos Bueno gave the South Americans license to sit back and allow their opponents to have the ball in their half, comfortable in the knowledge that the Koreans, even with their European-based stars, rarely looked capable of delivering a final ball that was capable of penetrating the blue wall.

With a lack of cutting edge in the final third, Korea often struggles to break the defensive walls erected by the likes of Syria or Iraq but the slick Uruguayans are on a different level and deserved their win. When Bueno added a second before the break, there was no doubt in the less-than-full Seoul World Cup Stadium as to the final result.

“We played with a lot of energy, they were more mature and played more with their brain. This is what we have to learn,” said coach Pim Verbeek after the game.
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“To break down a team like that we have to be faster. We were dangerous outside the box but we never gave one good pass inside to cause problems.

"They defended well and made no mistakes. We have to learn from this game and we still have three or more months before the Asian Cup. If we are to do well at the Asian Cup, we cannot make defensive mistakes and we have to be sharper in attack."

The media was muted in its criticism as there was a general acceptance that the game was a friendly against professional and impressive opponents. The main gripe was concerning Pim Verbeek’s decision to continue selecting Kim Dong-jin and Kim Sang-sik in the centre of defence when the pair don’t play there for their clubs.

The bright start that Senol Gunes has made at FC Seoul has given the newspapers lots of ideas about comparing Pim Verbeek and the man who took Turkey to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile

Lion King To 'Boro?

The news that English Premier League team Middlesbrough look set to buy South Korean striker Lee Dong-gook will be welcomed by the player. It may not be such good tidings for the K-League which will lose one of its biggest stars but even the competition’s greatest supporters would not begrudge the Lion King his chance to roar on one of the world’s biggest and brightest stages.

Lee has wanted to move to Europe for some time but hoped that it would come after impressive performances at the World Cup last June. However, he didn’t make it to Germany. Well, he did, but spent much of the summer at a Frankfurt sports clinic receiving treatment on a torn cruciate ligament.

It was a cool early April evening when the 27 year-old fired home a spectacular volley for his club Pohang Steelers against Incheon United. An hour later, Lee ran for the ball but never made it, collapsing to the ground instead. The World Cup was two months away but even if it had been six, Lee wouldn’t have made that either.

For any player to miss a World Cup is heartbreaking but Lee felt it more than most after being unexpectedly left out of the 2002 World Cup squad by Guus Hiddink two years after finishing as the top scorer of the 2000 Asian Cup. After the coach departed, Lee returned to the team and under new Dutchman Jo Bonfrere, he finished as third-highest scorer in the 2004 continental competition. He wanted nothing more than the chance to show that he could perform just as well on the global stage.

Three goals – two of which were fearsome volleys - helped the team qualify for the 2006 version. As the Taeguk Warriors danced on the pitch in Kuwait in June 2005, Lee was more reserved than most.

“I know what it is like to miss out on the World Cup,” he said. “Anything can happen between now and next summer.”

The worst happened. The fact that despite missing more than half of the K-League season he still finished as the fifth top scorer wasn’t much of a consolation though a move to England will be.

It will not be his first time in Europe; he played seven games for Werder Bremen in 2001. He failed to settle in Germany however and was soon returning to Pohang.

A more mature Lee could soon be pulling on the red shirt of Middlesbrough. It remains to be seen if the north-east club will suit him. An unfashionable outfit, ‘Boro look set for mid-table mediocrity in the current season but that won’t bother the fans who were concerned at the club’s flirtation with the relegation zone.

Such a situation could help Lee. Being thrown into the middle of a relegation battle is no fun for anybody – fans are even more tense than the coaching staff and players. An environment that is a little more relaxed could see the spiky-haired marksman given more time and opportunities.

Middlesbrough may not be as glamorous as Manchester United or Arsenal but the fans care deeply about the club and will support the Korean in his efforts as long as he gives his all.

That isn’t a given as Lee has been accused of laziness in some quarters. It’s harsh; no player is picked 64 times, or scores 22 goals, for such a hard-working national team if he is idle. Like most strikers, Lee does have his anonymous periods but he comes alive in and around the penalty area where he is capable of producing goals from nothing. If he learns to score the simple, instinctive tap-ins to add to his armory of spectacular missiles, then coach Gareth Southgate will be more than happy.

It’s hard to say if Lee and his Hawaii-born wife will settle in England; every signing is a gamble, those from overseas more so. Middlesbrough has signed its fair share of foreign stars, some stayed and scored, others were quick to leave sometimes muttering darkly about the weather.

Few places are colder than Middlesbrough in winter time as the North Sea wind cuts across the industrial city, but Korea is one of them and few players will be as desperate to succeed as Lee Dong-gook.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile