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Korean K.League Soccer News - Sept 14 2004

John Duerden reports from Seoul

It is two months since the Pohang Steelers clinched the first stage title of the K League's 2004 Season. The second stage is now underway with the Steelers guaranteed a place in the championship play-offs in November. Which three teams will join them has yet to be decided. The winner of the second stage will be one and the other two will be made up of the two teams who have amassed the most points in both stages combined.

Pohang Steelers

The rest of the league will be desperate to stop Pohang becoming automatic champions but will have their work cut out as the Steelers are hard to beat and were adept at nicking victories in the first stage. Choi Soon-ho was one of the few managers not to take part in July's foreign player transfer merry-go-round, maybe the young coach is satisfied with his squad. The first stage champs scored a relatively healthy sixteen goals in the first stage but have only managed one in their first two games, a penalty at that, against Chunnam Dragons. However, Choi won't be overly concerned, as his defence, ominously for the rest of the league, has yet to concede.

Seongnam

The biggest movers and shakers in the summer months, a measure of the disappointment felt just south of Seoul at a dismal first stage. Coach Cha Kyung-bok knows that the only chance Seongnam have of a fourth straight title is to win the second stage outright. The defending champions got rid of Ireneu to lowly Bucheon and two other South Americans, Castillo and Adhemar, who only joined the club in January. Cha will be hoping that the trio's replacements will help the club to put a disappointing first stage behind them.
Former Russian international winger Andrei Solamatin will be joined by the Brazilian pair of striker Marcelo Macedo on a year loan and fellow striker and Brazilian Dudu who a had a successful season for Cruzerio. However, one point from the first two games was not the start that Cha and the team's fickle fans were looking for.

Busan I-cons

Ian Porterfield will be happier than before. During the first stage, the Scot's Busan team drew eight, scoring only seven goals in the process. In a bid to score more, Porterfield released his Brazilian striker Gaucho and replaced him with Adriano Bizarro Melo. The Busan fans will be hoping that their new Brazilian striker from Villa Nova will take some goalscoring pressure off Andy Cooke. Australian international winger, Ahmad Elrich who was signed from Parramatta Power in July, will be supplying the ammunition for Busan's Anglo-Brazilian strikeforce.

A goalless draw at Ulsan in the opening game suggested that not much had changed on the south coast but a much-welcomed 2-1 victory over Deagu will have given the club and its Scottish coach some optimism. If the team can score goals, its defence is miserly enough to push the team to a top four finish.

FC Seoul

It may be early days but the team at the top are FC Seoul. The most unpopular team in Korea (not because they are good but because they controversially relocated from Anyang before the season started) opened with a 2-2 draw at Deagu and followed that with a 2-0 victory at home to Seongnam. Seoul are another team who drew too many and scored too few in the first stage. In order to rectify this problem, the team from the capital followed the trend and bagged a couple of Brazilians in Santana and Fumagalli. Seoul, who finished fifth last year could be a good bet for one of the 'other two' teams to feature in the play-offs.

Chonbuk Motors

Perhaps the best bet though would be Chonbuk Motors. Veteran striker Edmilson left to be replaced by Paola Rink from Vitesse Arnhem. The 31-year old former Bayer Leverkusen hot-shot played for Germany thirteen times at the turn of the century and scored five goals in the process. He has yet to score in the K-League though and so have his team-mates with two goalless draws being all the FA Cup holders have to show so far.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

Suwon finished the first stage strongly and have started the second very poorly, losing both opening games. Coach Cha Bum-keum also lost international midfielder Cho Jae-jin to Shimizu S-Pulse of Japan. Argentinian defender Musa was brought in to tighten Suwon's leaky defence but defeats at the hands of two of the K-League's weaker teams Daejeon and Gwangju will have left even the most optimistic of Suwon's passionate following doubting that 2004 will be their year.

Incheon United

The K-League's newest team will be hoping to put a terrible first stage behind them. However, they will have to do it without the services of Werner Lorant. The former coach of 1860 Munich and Fenerbache has returned to his native Germany to be with his ill wife. The white-haired German will be disappointed with his record in Korea especially with the relatively large amount of cash that was spent.
The German's penchant for Serbs was demonstrated before he left with the capture of striker Manic Radivoje and midfielder Dragan Stojisavljevic. Striker Radivoje, signed from Napredak Krusevac in the Serbian second division, is a direct replacement for fellow Serb Miodrag Andjelkovic who headed in the opposite direction to his former coach, going eastwards to Japan.
Assistant Coach Jang Woe-ryong has taken over until the club find a permanent replacement, and was rewarded with a pleasing 1-0 away win at fellow strugglers Daejeon.

Ulsan Hyundai Horangi

The solid team from the industrial city on the South-East coast will be expecting to be in the play-offs. More goals will be needed however as Dodo hasn't yet managed to recapture his 2003 goalscoring form. To have a chance, his team-mates need to chip in, especially new Brazilian striker Carlos. However, a drab goalless draw against Busan in the opening game shows why the Tigers don't yet have the quality to finish in the top spot.

Daejeon Citizen

Daejeon Citizen Fans

A disappointing first stage for the Citizen resulted in a busy summer for manager Choi Yoon-kyeom. Out went the two Brazilans Tiago and Alan to be replaced by two of their countrymen; experienced defender Flamarian from the Portuguese outfit FC Maia and young striker Luciano from the Brazilian second level team Mogi Mirim. Daejeon's loyal fans hope that the 23-year old will settle in this modern city in middle of Korea as despite his tender years, Daejeon are his fourth club.
A good win away at Suwon in the opening game provided some hope for the second stage before this was dashed by a home defeat at the hands of first stage whipping boys Incheon.

Daegu

Daegu like to score and concede and coach Park Chong-hwan wisely decided to do something about the latter bringing in 24-year-old Brazilian defender Santiago from Vasco de Gama. A creditable 2-2 draw at the opening day against Seoul was followed by a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of Busan has given hope to the neutrals that Daegu's defensive problems still exist and that the K-League's most excting team will still be worth watching.

Gwangju

The military team would have been delighted to finish seventh in the first stage but will always be at a disadvantage as they can't sign new players. However, four points from two tricky games at Chonbuk and at home to Suwon show that the team from deepest Cholla in South-west Korea will be a handful for most sides. Asian Cup hero Lee Dong-guk will finish his military stint before the beginning of next season and his bosses will hope that he can reproduce his national form domestically before he returns to Pohang.

Bucheon

2003's wooden spooners will have been quietly happy to finish off the bottom spot and have signed midfielder Ricardo Irineu from Seongnam. Maybe the well-travelled Brazilian will help to turn some draws into wins. The fact that the second stage has started with two more draws to bring the total for 2004 to ten ties in fourteen games will not have bothered coach Jung Hae-sung too much, coming as they did against last year's champs Seongnam and the first stage winners, Pohang.

Chunnam Dragons

Lee Jang-soo will not have been the only one who was surprised with the Dragon's sixth place finish in the first stage but he will have been the most disappointed. Despite his much-fancied team's poor performances, Lee resisted making any changes in the two-month break. If striker Mota, who finished the leading scorer of the first stage with nine goals, can find some support then Chunnam may yet extend their season beyond the scheduled twelve games. They will have to get going soon though as no goals and one point from the first two games gives the South-westerners a lot to do.

Seol To Wolves

Probably the biggest Korean move of the summer was that of international striker Seol Ki-Hyeon, who joined English Championship side, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Rumours have been flying around in Korea that the powerful left-footer had interested Tottenham and Southampton, so the move to recently relegated Wolves came as somewhat of a surprise.
The 25-year-old had spent three years with Belgian giants Anderlecht and had performed reasonably without ever having a settled place in the side due to injuries and international commitments.
Seol, with the ambiguous accolade of being the Most Tackled Player of the 2002 World Cup which should prepare him well for life in the old Nationwide, has oft-stated his desire to leave Anderlecht for England and obviously believes that his $2 million move will set him on the way to the Premiership. Seol has the talent to succeed in England but much will depend on his determination.

Korean Players Abroad

Park Ji-sung - PSV Eindhoven

The pocket-sized attacking midfielder was one of the stars of the 2002 World Cup, capping off his performances with a great goal against Portugal. Guus Hiddink wasted no time in whipping the former Kyoto Purple Sanga player to PSV. When the 23-year-old isn't making cringeworthy commercials for Korean TV, starring alongside his boss, he is gradually making himself indispensable to the Dutch powerhouse, after only forty-two league appearances for the 2004 Dutch runners-up.
A goal in the Champions League qualifying game against Red Star Belgrade was followed by a creditable performance in a recent narrow 1-0 defeat at Highbury showing how far Park has come and how far he can still go. He has played in all this season's six games which have seen PSV drop only two points from the first eighteen.

Lee Young-pyo - PSV Eindhoven

The 27-year-old wingback followed his compatriot to the Netherlands and has proved to be a solid acquisition for PSV. Guus Hiddink saw Lee's qualities many times at first hand and has not been disappointed with his performances in any of the 54 games he has played in Holland so far. He has been ever-present so far in this campaign.
Lee again had a good game in defence in his team's vital win in the Champions League against Greek side Panathinaikos. A win and a clean sheet are all defenders hope for and have given PSV a real chance of progressing through the group stage.

Lee Chun-soo - Numancia

The pocket-sized winger with a big mouth has joined newly-promoted Numancia on a season's loan from Real Sociedad. Lee spent most of his time in northern Spain on the bench with no goals to show in his thirteen appearances. The team as a whole didn't fare much better fighting against relegation for most of the season.
The former Ulsan tiger will be looking to make more appearances for the team based in north central Spain in the small city of Soria. By the end of September Lee had made four appearances for his new team and has still to score his first goal in Spanish football. However, Numancia haven't made a terrible start with five points from the first five games.

LA Galaxy - Hong-Myung-bo

One of the legends of South Korean football has not made the impact he would have liked on America's West Coast. That said, after leading his team to the last four of the semi-finals of the World Cup and earning himself the 'bronze boot' in the process, any move by the 35-year-old is likely to be something of an anti-climax.
The central defender, with 135 caps for his country, played only 12 games for his new employers in 2003 and has played nine so far this season, out of 27 as his team scrap for a play-off berth in the Major League's Western berth. Carrying the Olympic torch through LA's huge Koreatown would have been some consolation however.
Rumour has it that Hong is aiming to carry on in football on the administration side.

Seol Ki-hyeon - Wolves

Although the former Anderlecht player has only just started his English career, the verdict so far must be; good player, shame about the team. Despite an initial run of form that coincided with the new addition's arrival, the Black Country outfit are languishing in the Coca-Cola Championship.
Seol Ki-hyeon has performed pretty well with three assists and one goal in his first four games.

Lee Eul-yong - Trabszonspor

The left midfielder is enjoying his second spell in Turkey and is performing rather well too. His team lie second in the Turkish Super League with Lee topping the assists table with five so far.

Song Chung-gug - Feyenoord

One of a number of Koreans to be linked with Southampton after the World Cup but instead chose another port city, that of Rotterdam. So far the full-back has played 53 games for the Dutch team, helping them qualify for the UEFA Cup in the 2003/2004 season and achieve a bright start so far this season. After six games, Feyenoord lie in third place with thirteen points, three behind leaders PSV.

Cha Doo-ri - Eintracht Frankfurt

The tall striker may be in his third German season but is in the second German division. The son of the Korean and German legend, Cha Bum-keun, was signed by his father's old club, Bayer Leverkusen, in 2002. However he soon went out on loan to German yo-yo club Arminia Bielefeld before joining Frankfurt in 2003. Cha played 32 games in that season but a return of a solitary goal is one of the reasons why the 1960 European Cup runners-up were relegated.
Life in division two may be easier for Cha and on 22nd September he equalled last season's tally with a goal in the cup against fellow second division side SpVgg Greuther Fürth

Ahn Jung-hwan - Yokohama F Marinos

The most famous Korean footballer is enjoying his second season in the J-League and his first with Yokohama Marinos. The striker scored four goals in the last four games of the league's first stage, enabling his team to clinch it.
By the end of September, Ahn has scored 12 goals for the defending champions and is currently the fourth top scorer in the league.

Cho Jae jin- Shimizu

Many Suwon Bluewings fans were up in arms when coach Cha Bum-keun sold this young left midfielder to S-Pulse.
After only four games, inhabitants of Shimizu, Japan's 'soccer city' can see why, with the Korean scoring four goals.
Cho was a vital member of the Olympic team and, if his form continues, will be in line to cement a place in the senior squad. Followers of his current team will be hoping that he doesn't go the way of Ahn Jung-hwan who enjoyed a successful season in the port city before moving onto bigger and better things with Yokohama.

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