Seongnam Stroll To Seventh Success

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma have been crowned K-League champions for the seventh time after a 3-1 aggregate win over Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the two-legged championship play-off decider.

It was a deserved win for the team that inhabits the affluent southern Seoul suburb of Bundang as they took the first leg at home 1-0 and shocked Suwon with a fairly comfortable 2-1 win in the second match.

The first leg was a tight affair –even more so for the fans squeezed into Seongnam’s Stadium as the attendance given was 21,000 – 5,000 more than the official capacity of the airy arena.

K-League spokespeople mumbled something about a temporary increase in capacity. It may not be too important but anyone familiar with Korean football knows that if Korean teams were as creative on the pitch as officials are when announcing attendance figures then the K-League would be a much better place.

One thing is for sure; at least half of those in attendance were sporting blue shirts after making the short trek east from Suwon.

They had little to shout about. Seongnam controlled the game for long periods without looking especially dangerous against a well-drilled Suwon back-four. With the visitors failing to create anything of note, the game was heading for a goalless draw.

That was until the 88th minute. Park Jin-seob launched a long cross from the right and K-League top scorer Woo Sung-yong was allowed to sneak in at the far post between two defenders and head the ball past the flat-footed Park Hyo-jin in the Suwon goal.

It was a deserved win on the day and left things nicely poised for the second leg with Suwon going for a fourth title and their second in three years in front of their own fans.

Those supporters turned out in force though the official 38,500 attendance was surprisingly swelled by the presence of over 5,000 yellow-shirted away fans at the ‘Big Bird'. The Seongnam fans took advantage of free travel to give the K-League’s most successful but worst supported team some vocal backing in the second leg.

Suwon boss Cha Bum-keun gave those critics who believe that he may have been a great player but he ain’t a great coach extra fuel by sticking playmaker Lee Kwan-woo on the right wing and drafting in Park Ju-song in defence. The 22 year-old had just returned from his two year military spell with Gwangju Sangmu and looked lost.

He was put out of his misery at half-time but by then the damage was done as Seongnam have something that Suwon lack – strikers that don’t need asking twice to put the ball into the net.

2004 K-League top scorer Mota has not had the best season at Seongnam – a broken ankle is responsible for that – but he showed all his predatory instincts after 26 minutes as he flicked the ball into the Suwon net from close range, despite the attentions of a blue-shirted defender.

From that moment, the hosts’ hopes of a quartet of titles looked doomed. Suwon were short of ideas, movement and perhaps most worryingly, motivation.

It didn’t improve much in the second half. The introduction of a disappointing Da Silva and young striker Seo Dong-hyun looked lightweight compared to Seongnam’s substitutions which brought the K-League’s top scorer Woo Sung-yong and international star Kim Sang-sik onto the pitch.

It wasn’t until Mota, left unmarked at the near post, scored his second and Seongnam’s third of the fixture midway through the second half that Suwon roused themselves to finally trouble Kim Yong-dae in the Seongnam goal.

Da Silva lifted his barrel-chest into the air with 14 minutes left to head home and hand the hosts a lifeline though with two goals still required, it was a tenuous one. So it proved and it was all over with three minutes remaining when striker Seo dragged a shot wide of the post with only ‘keeper Kim to beat.

It was very much a case of too little, too late from the Bluewings who can console themselves with the FA Cup final against Chunnam Dragons on December 3.

Seongnam rejoiced with a seventh title and a crack at the 2007 Asian Champions League when their line-up may contain a certain Mr. Ahn Jung-hwan.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile

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Kim Hak-Bom: Coach Of Korea's Winning Machine

In Korean, ‘Chunma’ is a Pegasus - the creature that in Greek legend had the ability to fly above the rest of the herd. Seongnam Ilwha Chunma has been doing just that in the K-League since 1993 when the team won the first of, to date, six titles.

The air may be thinner at the top, but the pressure to maintain high standards is intense and unyielding.

"There's a lot of pressure," Head Coach Kim Hak-bom told Soccerphile. "Our goal is always to win the championship and other competitions too. Just maintaining our position as one of the top teams is tough by itself."

It may be tough at the top, but that is where Seongnam is and plans to stay. The last league trophy resided in the trophy cabinet just to the south of Seoul in 2003. Kim took over at the beginning of 2005 and in the first half of 2006 he steered the team to the K-League first stage title -- by a margin of ten points -- earning a place in the end of season championship playoffs.

Even after such a statement of superiority, Seongnam was busy in the summer. US$1 million was enough to tempt ex-Romanian international striker Adrian Naega from Chunnam Dragons to link up with a strike force that is already one of the strongest among the league's 14 teams.

An added bonus to Naega's undoubted predatory skills was the fact, apart from his European experience, that he had already spent a year in Korea. According to Kim, buying players is a lottery.

"The chance of success is 50-50," the 46 year-old says. "Brazilians have mild characters and are good buys. They are technically very good. On the whole, good European players won't come to Korea but in Brazil they have two groups of players -- one goes to Europe, the others go to other countries."

"Sometimes I can find players in China or Southeast Asia but their level is not so high; we can find these types of players in Korea too. In China and Southeast Asia the players are a little expensive and they are a little lazy."

In this increasing age of globalization, coaches across the world are faced with the problem of blending players of different nationalities into a coherent and hard-working team. Kim has an advantage in the particularly potent brand of firewater that all Koreans know and not a few love.

"Soju is one way!" He laughs and adds, "With Soju they can talk heart to heart."

Perhaps the rice-based spirit could be made freely available in the stadium to tempt fans to the small stadium near Bundang station. Seongnam may be the country's most successful team, but they also attract the lowest crowds.

The team, Ilhwa Chunma, moved to Seongnam from Chonan in 2000 and it wasn't warmly welcomed by the sizeable Christian population in the city. The protestors objected to the fact that the club is owned by the controversial Unification Church. The church was founded by Reverend Moon Sung-myong, a name that gave rise to the nickname, widely used in the Western press, of "The Moonies".

Kim cares only about his team but is at a loss to explain why Seongnam have few followers.

"I just don't know," he says as he lights a cigarette. "As a coach, I am not happy with the situation. We do well but the fans don't come. It could be religious reasons or regional reasons, In the K-League, the regional feeling is weak. Seongnam people have no feeling for their city team.

"All we can do is play and perform well and then the supporters will know that and hopefully come back. The club officials are always trying to think of ways to attract fans. I hope to be like Manchester United where the tickets are already sold out."

Kim has been in the job around 18 months but before he answered Seongnam's call, he spent two years sitting on the Korean Football Association's Technical Committee, the body that is responsible for the national team.

The coach believes that the team over-achieved in 2002 and its natural level is just between the first and second rounds.

"It wasn't bad," he says "but we could have done better. The formation of the team was too defensive. Everyone agrees with this, including professional analysts, the media and the fans. Against Togo ... we should have been more attacking; they were a man down. If we have one more goal then we have a much better chance of reaching the second round."

"Look at Hiddink; did you think that Korea would beat Italy? But he said that 'this is Korea so we have no problem.' Advocaat is a top-class coach but he needed a big goal and then needed to develop a plan towards that. Hiddink did so and gave the players leadership and confidence to do so. Advocaat didn't."

Despite his criticisms of Advocaat, Kim holds the Dutchman in high regard, unlike his two predecessors Humberto Coelho and Jo Bonfrere. He urged the new coach, Pim Verbeek, to watch as many Korean games as possible in a bid to find the stars of the future.

"I was a member of the KFA technical committee with Coelho and Bonfrere. They used to say that there are no players in Korea. We said 'Hey, you are supposed to be high-level coaches. You say there are no players?' At the time we said to them 'we pay you lots of money to find players, you have to look.'"

With his national team experience, if Kim can achieve consistent success with Seongnam, then he could become a prime candidate for the national coaching job.

"It's good to learn from skilful foreign coaches. Someday Korean coaches have to take a role in the national team. It's hard to say if I will do but if a Korean person has experience and skill then they should have the opportunity."


Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com

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Summer Sales In Korea

After the excitement of the World Cup, it is back to business in the Land of the Morning Calm though the K-League doesn’t restart until August 23rd.

Instead fans are treated to the ‘K League Cup’ – a 13-game competition in a league format that separates two 13-game stages of the K-League - a rather pointless exercise but it’s football nonetheless.

FC Seoul are about to win the thing and only need a point from their last two games in order to do so. They should get that at Suwon on Wednesday night as the Bluewings have been in foul form in 2006.

All has not been too well at the Big Bird Stadium recently. After a disappointing first stage to the K-League, Suwon coach Cha Bum-keun decided to leave his team to fend for itself in the early stages of the cup by heading to Germany to commentate on the World Cup. He was joined in the commentary box (I saw him often in Germany and it is a desk not a box) by son Cha Du-ri the now FC Mainz star who was excluded from Advocaat’s final list of 23.

The father and son act was a huge hit during the competition in Germany and broadcasters MBC were left smiling as rival networks KBS and SBS were left standing.

Suwon fans weren’t quite so happy as the team continued to struggle and questions were naturally asked why their coach would spend a month overseas when there was obvious work to be done just south of Seoul. Only in the tenth game of the cup did the Bluewings manage a win and if matters don’t improve in the second half of the league, Cha’s head will roll.

However, things are looking up as the three-time champions have recently signed FC Seoul’s international midfielder Baek Ji-hoon – whose boy band-like features have earned him the nickname ‘Flower Handsome Guy’. Baek is a promising midfielder with 12 caps to his name. The $1.5 million signing had a seat on the plane to Germany but continued to sit on the bench for Korea’s three games.

Baek will be joined by ‘The Outstanding Technician’ – Lee Kwan-woo of Daejeon Citizen who cost a similar amount of money. Suwon have always had problems defeating Daejeon so have taken the Citizen’s talisman and best player in order to try and end the jinx. Lee, 28, is a skilful playmaker and impressed Advocaat the first time he saw Daejeon play - though not enough to feature in any of the squads.

Always in the reckoning was one of Advocaat’s favourite players, Kim Dong-jin of FC Seoul. As the Dutchman left his home of eight months in north-west Seoul, he took the wing-back with him to Zenit St. Petersburg. To soften the blow for Seoul fans, the LG-backed team recruited one of his international team-mates.

Midfielder Lee Eul-yong spent the last two years in Turkey with Trabzonspor but the 30 year-old has decided to come home. His stated reasons were that his wife was ready to leave the Black Sea port and he was concerned about his son’s education though the more cynical of reporters mutter that a lack of interest from England were the reasons he returned home. There had been rumours that West Ham and Wigan were interested in the tough-tackling Turkish Warrior but the reality is that he is back in the Korean capital and was introduced to the crowd before Seoul’s clash with Incheon United.




United have struggled in the cup but claim that they are focusing on the resumption of the league. In contrast to most K-League teams who go Brazilian when they look for outside talent, last season’s runners-up have connections in the Balkans and have added a couple of new players from that region.

Dragan Mladenovic is a former Serbian international who Rangers fans may want to forget as he failed to impress in Glasgow. After joining the Scottish giants in the summer of 2004, he was loaned out to Real Sociedad just six months later. However, if the tall ex-Red Star Belgrade midfielder settles on the west coast of Korea, he may find the K-League more to his liking. Even more so if he can become friends with the headline writer’s dream that is Blaze Ilioski – a 21 year-old Macedonian international striker.

Champions Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I have seen a few changes but unfortunately for fans of the Tigers, they have not been welcome ones. The exciting title-winning team is slowly being stripped of its talent.

The midfield has gone. Hyun Young-min left for Zenit St.Petersburg long before Advocaat did but he has now been joined on the banks of the Neva by national team star Lee Ho – another of the Dutchman’s favourites. That followed the departure of Kim Jung-woo who went to Japan and Nagoya Grampus Eight at the start of the year.

To make matters worse, 2005 K-League MVP Lee Chun-soo is planning to return to Europe in August. The scorer of Korea’s first goal against Togo in the World Cup claims that Ajax have approached him as well as two unnamed “medium level” Premier League teams- a term that has nicely described Aston Villa and Manchester City who, according to the Korean media, are the interested parties.

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma are the favourites to take Ulsan’s crown after winning the first stage at a canter. So it is bad news for the league’s other teams that the six-time champions splashed out a million dollars to pry former Romanian international Adrian Naega from Chunnam Dragons’ claws. The ex-Steaua Bucharest star impressed last season on the south coast but has found goals a little harder to come by this season – however, he is still a quality act.

It is unfortunate for Seongnam fans, though perhaps not for the others, that he will not be able to link up with Brazilian striking sensation Mota, who will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle.

Jeju United couldn’t find the net in the first stage of the league so they have signed Bosian international defender Nikola Vasiljevic who recently in Korea. He played the last three minutes in the Seoul friendly between Korea and Bosnia the day before the Asian team left for Europe.

Copyright © John Duerden and Soccerphile.com

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Park Ji Sung

Busan I’Park are just two points away from clinching the first stage title in the 2005 K-League season.

The FA Cup holders remain unbeaten after ten games and with two games remaining are in the enviable position of sitting five points above second-placed Ulsan Hyundai Horangi.

Coach Ian Porterfield has turned I’Park into an impressive, effective machine who in 2005 seem to effortlessly pick up points wherever they go. In sixteen games in the K-League and AFC Champions League the south-coast outfit have won thirteen and drawn three.

Such consistency is based on a tight defence, well-supported by international understudy Kim Yong-dae in goal but the Busan success story is one of some unsung heroes of Korean football – Lim Kwan-shik, Lee Jong-hyo, Park Seong-bae and Doh Hwa-seong. These players can’t be seen at the national level, which is not something that will overly concern their Scottish boss, but have produced a number of impressive performances that will, barring disaster, give Busan the first-stage ‘title’.

Another plus point for I’Park is the performances of new foreign signings, Brazilians Luciano and Bobo who have slowly but surely settled in well and made important contributions to the team’s success.

A 1-0 victory at the home of Chunnam Dragons, courtesy of a Lim Kwan-shik strike has put the AFC Champions League quarter-finalists within a win of the top spot and a place in the end of season championship play-offs.

With both remaining games to be played at the Busan World Cup Stadium, not many would bet against the leaders staying in pole position.

Even if the required two points are not forthcoming both Ulsan and Incheon United would have to collect the maximum return to overhaul the leaders. Such a feat seems to be beyond United who are going through a rough patch at a bad time and have collected just two points from the last four games, leaving the sophomore club sliding down the table.

Still, United will be more than happy with the first stage in only their second season in existence and the performance of Jang Woe-ryong at the helm of the club bodes well for the future of the west coast club.

As Incheon have slipped, Seongnam Ilhwa have found their form with three wins in a row that have lifted the six-time champions into fifth place. It is much too late for Ilhwa to challenge Busan but the improvement means that the 2003 champions can look forward to the second stage.

The 2004 champions, Suwon will be looking forward to the next stage also but for different reasons as the opening phase has been a nightmare for the Bluewings who finally managed a second win of the season at the home of bottom club Gwangju Sangmu.

Coach Cha Bum-keun will need to win the second stage to have any chance of defending the title he won in his first season back in his native land; failure to do so will increase the pressure of the former Bundesliga star.

It is a similar story for FC Seoul, tipped by many to be Suwon’s challengers for the title. Injuries to the highly-rated Nonato and international duty for Park Chu-young have interfered with the capital club’s much-vaunted dream strike force and it has been Kim Eun-jung who has taken on the goalscoring burden for the LG-backed outfit. The team, formerly known as the Anyang Cheetahs, are yet another one under a lot of pressure to produce a dramatically improved second half of the season.

The same can be said, only more so, for Chonbuk Hyundai Motors, who only a few months ago were unluckily losing the AFC Champions League semi-final to eventual champions Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

The Motors have spent much of the season rooted to the bottom spot, a dismal record that cost Jo Yoon-hwan his job as coach. His replacement Choi kang-hee has a wealth of experience with the national squad but will have his work cut out restoring confidence to a decent team – though the 2-1 win at Incheon United will help.

Park Ji-sung to United

The protracted transfer of South Korea’s star midfielder was finally settled with the English club paying a reported $7.4 million for the PSV Eindhoven midfielder.

The Dutch champions did their best to hang on to the 24 year-old but the lure of becoming the first Korean to play in the Premiership and for one of the world’s biggest clubs was too much for the former Kyoto Purple Sanga star to resist.

Park returned to his native Suwon to open a new road named in his honour and admitted that his first challenge was to break into the star-studded side.
“ I welcome the challenge and know that I have to prove myself,” the versatile midfielder told reporters “But playing at PSV gave me confidence and I believe that I can do well in Manchester, too.’’
The 2002 World Cup star has much to do to displace players such as Giggs, Keane, Scholes or Ronaldo but the player will be happy just to play.
``I don’t care much about my position. What is more important for me is whether I can play in the game or not,’’ he said.
Park’s determination, engine and no little skill should endear him to the Old Trafford faithful as well as the manager and the Korean hopes to win them over.
``I don’t think I will become a big star like David Beckham just yet. Maybe I can if I was more handsome,’’ he joked. ``But I strive constantly to improve my game to become a better player, so I don’t think it is impossible to become a player like Beckham.’’
The Suwon-born star has come a long way since being turned down by his hometown club, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and is excited about playing for the two-time European champions.
“The facilities, the stadium, everything show why people call them the best club in the world. I felt so happy to be there,” he also had the opportunity to briefly speak to new boss Sir Alex Ferguson by phone. “It was a short conversation but he welcomed me to Manchester and said that he expected much of me.
The same could be said of his countrymen who will be watching his every move in the north-west of England.

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