Partners: GoodsFromJapan | JapanVisitor | PortugalVisitor

Korean K.League Soccer News - July 2005

John Duerden reports on the end of the K. League's first stage

The first stage of the K League is complete so it's time for Soccerphile's usual team-by-team summary.

Busan I'Park

The winners of the first stage fully deserved the mini-'title' and went about their business quietly and efficiently.

The emergence of Busan as a force in Korean football is a little surprising as the 2004 season was a mediocre one on the south coast and with three new foreigners moving to the port city during the close season, it was expected that 2005 would be a time for consolidation and settling in for the new boys.

It hasn't been that way at all. The first stage of the 2005 AFC Champions League was negotiated with six wins out of six and 25 goals without reply but with the opposition in the continental competition not being of the highest standard, the fact that Busan continued their fine form into the domestic league is an impressive achievement.

Kim Yong-dae, on the fringes of the national squad, has been solid between the sticks and will be thankful for the emergence of Bae Hyo-song in the centre of the defence. The 23-year-old has been compared to Tony Adams by boss Ian Porterfield and it is easy to see why.

Doh Hwa-seong has excelled in midfield and Brazilian Luciano contributed a creditable six goals in attack.

Porterfield pointed to the away victory at rivals Ulsan as the turning point of the season and the time when his players really started to believe they could win.

The team faces Qatar's Al-Sadd in the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League in September and have a real chance of going even further to become the champions of Asia.

Incheon United

It has been a fantastic first half of the season on the west coast. It's hard to believe that the club kicked off for the very first time in March 2004 and at the same stage last year were bottom and coach-less.

Jang Woe-ryong has done a fantastic job since taking over from the German Werner Lorant and his team made up of a bunch of hard-working Koreans and a smattering of Eastern Europeans came within a whisker of winning the stage that they led for so long. The locals in the grimy port city have responded well – the average attendance was over 20,000 and defender Lee Jong-soo has been rewarded with a call-up to the national squad.

Only a four game winless streak in June prevented United, who finished just a point below Busan, from guaranteeing their place in the end of season play-offs. A similarly impressive second stage will do just that.

Ulsan Hyundai Horangi

Third place is an increasingly disappointing for 'The Tigers' who never quite manage to finish first – home defeats by title and geographic rivals Pohang and Busan put paid to their chances of finishing first but don't be surprised to see them in the end of season play-off games.

Kim Jin-yong didn't impress quite as much in the K-League as he did in the pre-season Hauzen Cup but should be helped in the second stage by the return of national team winger Lee Chun-soo after his unsuccessful sojourn in Spain with Real Sociedad.

Leanardo Machado looks to be another useful acquisition for the south-eastern club making an immediate impact in the last three games of the stage with three goals.

Pohang Steelers

Going into the last game of the season the Steelers were still in with a chance of overhauling Busan in first place but a 4-1 defeat at Seoul's World Cup Stadium put paid to any chances of that happening.

With new Brazilian coach Sergio Farias in place, Pohang were always in the hunt but never really got into gear. Lee Dong-guk's much heralded return to the south-east after his two-year stint with military outfit Gwangju Sangmu has been disappointing as the striker hasn't been able to reproduce his international form, scoring only twice in the first half of the season.

On a brighter note for the Steelers, Brazilians Ittamar and Da Silva looked capable of giving Korean defences a few problems.

FC Seoul

A strange stage in the capital as fifth place wouldn't have been acceptable before the season started but only two wins in the last two games lifted the big-spending team into the top five.

However those two wins, 2-1 at Busan, the only defeat that the hosts suffered all season and a 4-1 thrashing of Pohang in front of 48,375 people, a K-League record ensures a certain amount of optimism for the next stage.

One reason for this is Park Chu-young. The youngster celebrated his 20th birthday by scoring an impressive hat-trick against Pohang. Those three goals followed his brace at Busan four days earlier. In fact, the Young Asian Player of the Year finished the first stage as the top scorer with eight goals. A feat that is all the more impressive when one remembers that he missed five games due to international duty.

Park's partner Kim Eun-jung quietly impressed with six goals and six assists but still can't get back into the national side. Another bonus for Seoul's supporters is the emergence of Ricardo as a genuine playmaker. The Portuguese wizard created five of his team's six goals in the last two games, most of them with the kind of pass not seen in Korea for many a year.

Seongnam Ilhwa

Seongnam spent much of the season at the wrong end of the table but a late spurt of three wins lifted them upto a sixth place that really isn't good enough.

The bright spot for the team was the goals from Dudu who has settled in well during his second season in Korea. Nam Ki-il also looked impressive in attack from time to time. After the departure of the club's talisman Shin Tae-young for sunnier climes in Australia, the team lacks inspiration and the team's most talented player, Lee Seong-nam, formerly known as Denis Laktionov, seems to be growing more frustrated with his team-mates in each passing game.

Bucheon SK

After spending the last two years at the bottom of the K-League a seventh place finish and mid-table mediocrity is a splendid achievement for the Bucheon boys.

Hiddink's former assistant Jong Hae-seong has done a sterling job in the million-strong city since taking over last season.

He has started with the defence and it was no surprise that the star of that unit, the young Kim Han-yoon earned a call-up to the national team. As a result there haven't been many goals for the fans to enjoy, ten scored and ten conceded, but compared to what they have seen in the past, it's a good start.

Daejeon Citizen

The loyal fans of Daejeon will also be happy with the first stage if the season as the team only lost twice – the same number of defeats as second-placed Incheon. That statistic would be more impressive if they hadn't drawn eight games. Still, the Citizen have become a hard to beat outfit with Brazilian striker Leandro proving to be a tricky customer.

Without more investment, something that is unlikely to happen for the publicly owned team, there isn't much chance of Daejeon challenging the top clubs.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

The first stage was an unmitigated disaster for the champions and only a couple of late wins moved them up to their highest place of the season but their lowest finish in history.

This was supposed to be the season that Suwon demonstrated their dominance over the rest of the K-League with a series of high-profile and big money transfers.

To be fair, the team has suffered much through injuries – to Kim Nam-il, Nadson, Song Chong-guk, Park Keon-ha to name just a few – and a number of international call-ups.

Still, there should have been enough strength in depth for a top half finish but as it stands now, the only way that Suwon can successfully defend the title is by winning the second stage outright.

Chunnam Dragons

It all started so well back in the middle of May with an emphatic 4-1 opening day victory over Daegu. New signing Adrian Neaga scored a hat-trick and looked to be a class act. Unfortunately on the south-west coast, the Romanian picked up an injury and is believed to be on the verge of joining newly-promoted Premier League club, Wigan Athletic.

With the loss of influential international midfielder Kim Nam-il to Suwon and last season's top scorer Mota to Sporting Lisbon, the Dragons were never likely to win a first title but a tenth palace finish is hugely disappointing.

Chonbuk Hyundai Motors

If Chunnam's stage was disappointing, then fellow Jeolla Province team Chonbuk's season was a total disaster as most of it was spent in bottom place.

It was only last November that the Motors were moments away from appearing in the AFC Champions League final and the 2003 FA Cup winners were one of the favourites to appear in the end of season play-offs but 2005 saw the Jeonju outfit start badly and then fall away.

The poor form cost coach Jo Yoon-hwan his job and he was replaced by former national team coaching staff member Choi Kang-hee. In his two games in charge Choi inspired his team to a mini-revival as four points were collected but there will be an awful lot more to do in the second half of the year.

Daegu FC

It is a measure of how far Daegu has come since its inception in 2003 that the fans are disappointed at such a lowly finish. Hopes were high in the south-east that the club could establish itself as a mid-level K-League member.

The loss of strikers Nonato and Feijiao were offset somewhat by the capture of the impressive Sandro Hiroshi. The Japanese-Brazilian found the net six times but with the defence conceding 25 goals in the 12 games, his efforts weren't enough to prevent Daegu from losing two-thirds of their games.

Gwangju Sangmu

The league's military outfit tasted victory only the once but what a victory it was – a 5-3 win in FC Seoul's home stadium in which Korea's golden boy Park Chu-young scored a hat-trick but still ended up on the losing side.

After those heights that were hit in the second game, it was downhill for Gwangju all the way to the bottom of the league and a last day defeat at Daegu was the icing on the cake.

John Duerden

"The Onside In-Site" Copyright © From 2000. All rights reserved. Soccerphile Ltd.