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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Good Week For The Two Lees

It has been a good week for South Korean footballers and their exploits caused the ever-happy presenter on SBS sports news to smile even wider last week. “Finally”, she beamed, “Lee Dong-gook scores in England for Middlesbrough.” The next evening, she was at it again. “At the last moment, Lee Chun-soo returns to Europe.”

After seven months, eleven appearances and no goals with Premier League team Middlesbrough, the Lion King was looking less regal and more ragged by the week. Minutes spent on the pitch in the north-east of England were never plentiful but were dwindling further, as was his confidence.

Consequently, last Wednesday’s cup game against minnows Northampton Town was a crucial test for the former Pohang Steelers star. After the pressures of the Premier League, the cup game against a team way down the leagues would not only give Lee a chance to play a rare 90 minutes but an opportunity to impress that he couldn’t afford to miss.

He didn’t. Lee fired home a low shot from outside the area in the second half to score his team’s second goal. Relief was evident on his face, his team-mates and the fans were obviously delighted. His lack of success had not been through any lack of effort.

“I have waited for the first goal for such a long time. Now I want more during the rest of the season,” a relieved 29 year-old told Middlesbrough’s local newspaper.

"I have been frustrated that I haven't been able to show so far what I can do but it takes time to adapt to English football, and I am still in that process.”

There is still much for Lee to do to persuade coach Gareth Southgate that he deserves an extension to the 18-month contract that expires in July 2008 but a first goal is a first step. The next one is obvious – do it again.

The same can be said of the other Lee, Chun-soo. There has rarely been a player so keen to move to Europe. The past 18 months have generated rumors and reports, some started by the talkative attacker, of interest from European clubs. Some were true, Premier League club Wigan Athletic almost signed the player in January and a few month’s later, Fulham were scared off by Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I’s asking price.

Former European champions Feyenoord had no such qualms and paid two million Euros for the 26 year-old’ who will be 30 when his new contract ends. The name of Feyenoord may no longer striker fear into the hearts of Europe’s giants but the Rotterdam outfit is a respected name on the continent and still a force in the Netherlands.

Lee is no stranger to Europe. The forward spent around 18 months in Spain from 2003 to 2005 with Real Sociedad and Numancia but he failed to impress. He headed back to the K-League in 2005, a move he soon regretted.

“Coming back from Spain to Korea was a big mistake,” Lee told reporters last week. “At that time, I had offers from teams in France and Germany.” He was resigned to staying in Korea until 2008. “I really thought that this season I would move abroad."

With the transfer window creaking shut, the call came. "I have got what i wished for. This is not an opportunity that comes often and I will not try to blow it," he said before leaving Incheon International Airport.

Lee deserves the chance. There is little more for him to prove in Asia but plenty in Europe. If he plays to his ability, fans in Rotterdam will be smiling along with news presenters in Seoul.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile



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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

2007 K-League Preview: Part Two

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma

The champions are still warm from their seventh title triumph that was achieved at the start of a winter that has yet to leave the Land of the Morning Calm.

As they say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and Seongnam haven’t been too busy in the transfer market. 2006 top scorer Woo Sung-young has gone and his goals will be missed but at the age of 33, he has been traded in for a younger model – Kim Dong-hyun.

The former Suwon striker has spent the past two seasons in Portugal with Braga and Russian club Rubin Kazan. Kim may be younger but, as yet, is far less dangerous than the wily Woo in front of goal. Choi Sung-kuk is another expensive addition at over $2 million. “Little Maradona” may not be a prolific goalscorer either but his silky skills do cause problems around the penalty area.

Star striker Mota is fit and ready to show the other marksman in Korea how to score and with national team stars such as Kim Doo-hyun, Kim Sang-sik, Kim Young-chul and Kim Yong-dae, there is a solid spine to Seongnam.

Key Player: Kim Doo-hyun
Last Season: Champions
Next Season: Third

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

Runners-up last season, Suwon are hoping to go one better this time around. The biggest transfer story of the winter was the decision of Ahn Jung-hwan to abandon, for the moment at least, his dream of playing in England or Spain. Much depends on the form and attitude of the Lord of the Ring, a player who always seems to have his mind on his next destination.

Suwon’s midfield is a stellar one with Kim Nam-il, Baek Ji-hoon and Lee Kwan-woo spending the second half of last season becoming a formidable unit. With a strong defence, the forward line was the weak link and if Ahn can find his scoring from of the last time he was in the K-League prior to his move to Italy in 2000 then Suwon could be in line for a fourth title.

Key Player: Ahn Jung-hwan
Last Season: Runners-up
Next Season: Runners-up


Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i

The Tigers were toothless in 2006 and a repeat of such a boring season will be unacceptable. It is unlikely however as Kim Jung-nam has been very active in the transfer market.

$2 million seems a lot to secure the services of national team goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang from Chunnam Dragons but Ulsan suffered from goalkeeping problems in 2006.

The midfield has a much stronger look about it this time around. Oh Jang-eun was one of the stars of 2006 for Daegu and if he can repeat his aggressive midfield play this time around then Ulsan will be delighted – he will be helped by the return of the much-under-rated 2005 captain Hyun Yong-min who spent last season in Russia with Zenit St Petersburg.

Choi Sung-kuk’s skill may be missed but Woo Sung-young knows where the goal is – if can teach his new team-mates, a good season should be in store.

Want-away winger Lee Chun-soo is still seething after his proposed move to England and Wigan fell through in January. The 25 year-old is desperate to move in the summer but if he shines before then, Ulsan fans could be smiling especially as another talented winger Chung Kyung-ho has returned from military service.

Key Player: Oh Jang-eun
Last season: 5th
Next Season: Champions

Chunnam Dragons

Could this be the year for Chunnam – a first title for Jeolla Province? The team has been busy in the transfer market and if the new signings gel then the 2006 FA Cup winners could finally make an impact in the league.

Chunnam couldn’t stop drawing last season and if the team can start to convert such results into wins then they will not be far away from the top as they don’t lose many.

Goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang has gone but the club has spent the money well. Kim Chi-woo is one of the best left-sided players in Korea and Incheon United may regret letting him go. Fellow international Kim Jin-kyu returns to his old club after a two-year spell in Japan with Jubilo Iwata.

It is in attack that the club could struggle. Sandro Hiroshi was injured for much of last season but the Japanese-Brazilian is a competent poacher.

Key Player: Sandro Hiroshi
Last Season: Sixth
Next Season: Fourth

Pohang Steelers

Pohang are in serious danger of taking over the “nearly men” tag that Ulsan had to bear until their 2005 title triumph. Only four previous titles stops the Steelers from doing so but two play-off defeats in the past three years – both at the hands of Suwon -suggests that the team is lacking something.

It probably isn’t Lee Dong-guk. The Middlesbrough striker’s contribution to the Pohang cause over the past few years has been peripheral. Without the Lion King, players such as Tavares, Hwang Jin-sung, Oh Beom-seok and Koh Ki-goo have the chance to shine.

Coach Sergio Farias is starting his third season in South Korea and has a solid base but the team still lacks the little something extra to challenge the likes of Seongnam and Suwon.

Key Player: Oh Beom-seok
Last Season: play-offs
Next Season: Fifth

FC Seoul

It will be interesting to see how Seoul perform under new coach Senol Gunes. There are some good players in the capital, not least the under-rated Kim Eun-jung. The Turk has yet to make the expected signings but perhaps he intends to develop the young talent that the club is becoming renowned for.

He will have a honeymoon period of sorts. A top six place is expected and is within reach. First though, he needs to show the fans that the team is capable of playing some entertaining football.

Much depends on the form of Park Chu-young. If the striker, still only 21, can put a difficult second season behind him (though he still managed seven goals) then Seoul have a chance.

Key Player: Park Chu-young
Last season: Play-offs
Next Season: Sixth

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors

It is debatable just how much the club’s march to the Asian Champions League title cost them in the domestic arena. 2006 was a dreadful one at home but there are no excuses this time around. As champions of Asia, the Motors have a bye into the quarter-finals of the 2007 competition.

After the money earned from the competition win and subsequent participation in FIFA’s Club World Championship, coach Choi Kang-hee talked of strengthening for the 2006 season.

After Botti left for Japan, the signings have been solid rather than spectacular - Kim Han-won from Incheon as well as Jeju pair Choi Chul-woo and Byun Jae-sub are decent players but perhaps fans in the south-west expected a little more. Still, there are some good players at the club and if the likes of Kim Hyeung-bom, Yeom Ki-hoon and Ze Carlo can show their continental form in the K-League then there could be some domestic happiness in Jeonju.

The capture of the top scorer of the Macedonian league Stevica Ristic is an interesting one and if he links up well with Ze Carlo then a good season could lie ahead.

Key Player: Kim Hyeung-beom
Last season: 11th
Next Season: Seventh

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile