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Korean K.League Soccer News - May 2005

John Duerden reports on the K. League's opening day

Opening Day

Buddha's birthday also heralded the opening day of the 2005 K-League season. As the big man celebrated on a warm day, around 110,000 football fans filed into six different stadiums dotted around the country.

One of the best of those arenas is Daejeon World Cup Stadium; a compact English-style ground where the fans are close to the action. The place may be more familiar to fans around the world as it went down in World Cup history when Ahn Jung-hwan rose above Paolo Maldini in the second-round of the 2002 World Cup, to score the golden goal that sent the Italians home and South Korea into the quarter-finals.

The 42,000 fans that witnessed that famous strike poured out onto the streets of South Korea's scientific city. Any eggheads who wish to take a break from the books and the labs are within easy reach of all parts of the country from their base in this centrally located city, which will unveil its new subway system in 2006, making the surburban stadium much easier to get to.

Those that did make it were rewarded with a solid performance from Daejeon Citizen, who held defending champions Suwon Samsung Bluewings to a 1-1 draw. The hosts are one of the K-League clubs not backed by a major corporation; instead they are owned by the city and enjoy close ties with the locals.

A good number of those locals support the club loyally and continued to do so in a dismal 2004 campaign that saw the team become a permanent fixture at the wrong end of the table.

Consequently, not much is expected for the new season but as the game progressed with, an admittedly understrength, Suwon, the home team looked more likely to score. New Brazilian striker Leandro bears a passing resemblance to Rivaldo and while the lean, tall red-booted attacker may not have the same talent as his compatriot, he caused the Suwon defence a number of problems.

None more so than a minute after half-time when the hitman was left unmarked at the far post to poke the ball past Lee Woon-jae in the Suwon goal. The strike woke up the three-time champions and twenty minutes later, defender Kwak Hee-joo, blasted the ball home from close range.

In the last quarter of the game, both sides had chances to win the game but it ended as a draw, which was a fair result.

Elsewhere on the opening day, former Steaua Bucharest striker, Adrian Constantine Naega scored a hat-trick that sent Chunnam Dragons to the top of the table with a 4-1 victory over Daegu FC. Ulsan Hyundai Horangi triumphed over fellow title hopefuls FC Seoul with young striker Kim Jin-yong celebrating his call-up to the national squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers with the only goal of the game.

Guus Hiddink's former assistant Jong Hae-seong saw his side, Bucheon SK make a bright start to 2005 after enduring two terrible seasons with a valuable 1-0 victory at the home of military outfit Gwangju Sangmu.
Incheon United triumphed over last season's runners-up Pohang Steelers. 1-0 was also the scoreline as Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma beat Chonbuk Hyundai Motors.

World Cup Qualifiers

After three games played with three remaining, South Korea lie on top of Group A in the final stage of Asian World Cup qualifiers and look to be set for a place in what would be their seventh consecutive World Cup finals. The pair of games in Uzbekistan and Kuwait on June 3rd and June 8th respectively, will go a long way to deciding which two teams from the group will qualify automatically for the tournament.

Coach Jo Bonfrere seemingly bowed to the inevitable and called up media superstar Park Chu-young. The calls for the 19-year-old to play for the national team intensified when the striker finished as the Hauzen Cup's joint top scorer, along with Ulsan's Kim Jin-yong.

June could be a busy time for the 2004 Asian Young Player of the Year as he intends to lead his country in the World Youth Championships in Holland in June as well as adapting to the K-League.

AFC Champions League

South Korean teams are flying high on the continent with Busan I'Park already booking a place in the last eight of the AFC Champions League. The south coast team have scored 21 goals in the five group games so far without conceding a goal. The standard of opponents will be higher in the knockout stage but the four-time K-League champions will fancy their chances of lifting the trophy and earning a place in the World Club Championship in Japan.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings will have to wait until the final game before knowing if they will finish top of Group E and clinch a quarter-final tie. The Asian Club Champions of 2001 and 2002 have thirteen points from five games, three points more than second-placed Shenzhen Jianlibao.

The Chinese champions crashed to their first defeat in Asia at the hands of Jubilo Iwata. The J-League giants, already out of contention, did the Bluewings a favour with a 3-0 victory which leaves Shenzhen needing to beat Suwon when the two meet on May 25th.

At the moment, such a result looks unlikely with the Chinese team in disarray domestically, sitting rock-bottom of the Super League with no wins and only two goals from the first nine games.

John Duerden

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