Asian Champions League Final - Al Ittihad v Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma

John Duerden reports on the Asian Champions League final

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma are not an especially popular team in South Korea, they are not even very popular in Seongnam. ‘Ilhwa' is the name of a company that is owned by ‘The Moonies', the religious cult headed by Korean Moon Sun-myong counts Seongnam football team among many of its business interests.

It is difficult to see the billionaire making too much money from the team as attendances in this city of over 1 million on the edge of Seoul are poor, to say the least.

One reason for this is that Korean Christians (an enthusiastic bunch, who constitute over 25% of the population in the south) don't like the Moonies or their football team. The Chunma's arrival in Seongnam from Cheonan in 2000 was met with mass protests from local Christians.

The newly named Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma did their best to win over the local population with three consecutive K-League titles in 2001, 2002 and 2003. All good things come to an end, and in 2004; the team found themselves struggling around mid-table. However, an amazing run in the 2004 Asian Champions League meant that there was still a good chance to put a trophy in Seongnam City Sport Complex's cabinet.

The opponents in the final were Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia. The team from Jeddah had come back from two goals down against Chonbuk Motors in the semis so wouldn't have been too worried about facing another Korean side in the final.

Korean National Team Shirts From Korea

If coach Tomolsav Ivic wasn't worried before the first leg in Jeddah on November 24th, he certainly was after, as those 90 minutes cost the 71-year-old his job. The Croat, like his team, can feel a little hard done by, as the home side had plenty of the ball but conceded three times to a Seongnam side that sat back but was lively on the break. The 3-1 defeat left most Saudis with little hope of victory.

What hope there was must have looked even more forlorn when the Saudis checked Seongnam's home record. In five Champions League matches in Seongnam's stadium, not far from the city's famous (or infamous) dog markets, the Koreans had only conceded one goal - a 76th minute winner by Yokohama Marinos' Ryuji Kawai.

However, coach Cha Kyung-bok had no room for complacency as his team, more than most, knew that records are there to be broken.

In Tashkent in the semi-final, Seongnam had destroyed an even more impressive champions league statistic when, after ten straight home wins in the competition, Uzbek champions, Pakhtakor were finally beaten 2-0 by the Korean team.

Still, the feeling in the press, both Korean and Saudi, was that the second leg was pretty much a foregone conclusion and despite his confident comments in public, new coach, Dragan Talajic must have known his team's chances were small.

Small is also the word for Seongnam's usual attendances but on the return leg, on a cold night in North-East Asia, the home players wearing their usual yellow and blue, trotted out to be greeted with the unusual sight of a full stadium.

The large crowd, which seemed to be largely made up of local sports teams, the military and school children, were treated to a lively Seongnam opening. Al Ittihad didn't come out all goals blazing as expected but were on the back foot for the first quarter of the game, spending most of the time in their own half.

The opening spell was as good as it got for the home team, as in the 27th minute, Redha Tukar, Ittihad's central defender headed home a corner, gaining a little personal revenge over Korea as his previous club, Al-Shabab was defeated by Suwon Bluewings in the 2001 Asian Super Cup final.

The goal shocked the hosts but it seemed to be just a blip as the six-time Korean champions continued to put pressure on the six-time Saudi champions, with Lee ki-hyung hitting the post in the 40th minute.

Cha pointed to that piece of bad luck coupled with the Saudi second five minutes later as the turning point of the tie. Hamza Idris took advantage of some lax defending to bundle the ball past reserve keeper Yang Young-min on the stroke of half-time.

They say that scoring just before half-time is a great time to score and although it may be a cliché, some clichés become so because they are true. The visitors were noticeably upbeat when walking off and back onto the pitch, desperate for the second half to start.

When it did start, matters soon became worse for the Koreans as the Saudis took the lead with a lovely simple move which saw a Seongnam attack broken up before the white shirts streamed forward, it ended with a low cross, across the face of goal for captain Mohammed Noor to ghost in at the far post to knock it home.

The crowd was as shocked as the players and perhaps a little too desperately the Koreans surged forward to find an equalizer. It never came as the Saudis defended resolutely and counter-attacked effectively, with two more goals coming in the 78th and 90th minute respectively.

At the beginning of the game, some of the crowd felt that the players were too conservative but the problem wasn't so much that the home team defended too much, in fact, in the second half they threw all caution to the wind, rather they defended badly and lacked creativity going forward. The Saudis managed the opposite and the score line while unexpected, wasn't too flattering.

The defeat brings an end to a poor season for the defending champions and could turn out to be the last in Cha Kyung-bok's career. The K-League's oldest coach was at a loss to explain what happened, "my players froze," the 67-year-old lamented. "They didn't follow my instructions."

It's difficult to say if the 2004 season will mark a permanent stepping down for the K-League club but its fair to say that in a roller-coaster season, the last drop was the steepest.

ACL Final Preview

John Duerden

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