Koreans abroad weekend roundup 9.28-9.29

In some sense a quiet weekend, and yet it was a weekend of riveting upsets in the EPL. Left is right, up is down, dogs and cats living together— But before we go any further – to the Tavern roundup:

GERMANY

Bundesliga

Mainz D Park Joo-Ho: 90 min for 3-1 loss at Hertha Berlin

Augsburg D Hong Jeong-Ho: not in the 18 for 2-2 draw with Moenchengladbach

Bayer Leverkusen F Son Heung-Min: 83 min in 2-0 victory over Hannover

Wolfsburg MF Koo Ja-Cheol: 82 min in 0-1 loss at Bayern Munich

ENGLAND

Premier League

Sunderland MF Ki Sung-Yeung: 90 in 3-1 loss to Liverpool

Sunderland F Ji Dong-Won: unused sub in 3-1 loss to Liverpool

Cardiff MF Kim Bo-Kyung: 56 min in 2-1 win at Fulham

Arsenal F Park Chu-Young: not in 18 in 3-1 win at Swansea

Championship

Bolton MF Lee Chung-Yong: 54 min in 1-1 draw with Yeovil

QPR D Yun Suk-Young: not in 18  in 2-0 win over Middlesbrough

NETHERLANDS

Eredivisie

PSV Eindhoven MF Park Ji-Sung: 71 minutes in 1-2 loss at AZ

SPAIN

La Liga

Almeria F Kim Young-Kiu: not in 18 in 0-2 loss to Barcelona

 

Tavern points:

• Cardiff is doing pretty well since promotion, making lots of bookies across Europe who bet against them sweat. But doing ‘pretty well’ couldn’t possibly mean ending the weekend a notch about Manchester United in the table…or could it?  Don’t look now – remarkably Cardiff is in 11th place, one notch above Man U. Their epic 2-1 collapse at home to West Brom set up Moyes’ team in uncharted midtable territory. Perhaps this is that odd transition you might expect in the post-Fergie era.  CJay, our man in Cardiff was tweetered about this and he replied: “Currently I feel cautious optimism for the season. We have played well in every game and have given a good account of ourselves. Would like to see more attacking threat through the middle. But it’s brilliant, ahead of Champions (Manchester United) and Swansea!!!”  Speaking of doing pretty well, Kimbo had another decent game, but when he ran out of gas, his substitute, Mutch, got a bit of a wundergoal in the closing minutes of the game, giving the Bluebirds all 3 points.
• I didn’t see Koo Ja-Cheol play, but it appears he did fairly well on Saturday despite Wolfsburg going down 1-0 to Bayern Munich. Not 100% sure, I believe I heard Koo played a left wing position? Anyway, Wolfsburg has yet to win at Bayern Munich, but for the monsters that Bayern are, the 1-0 score was one of their less convincing wins.
• 6 wins in 7 games, Bayer Leverkusen has their best start in their history. Up next for Leverkusen: Bayern.
• Mainz’ Park Joo-Ho had a slip on the pitch, leading to a conceded goal to Hertha Berlin. Scheiße!
• Catching the Sunderland game against Liverpool (Sunderland’s first Premier League match in the post DiCanio era) caretaker Kevin Ball side was more competitive than the scoreline would suggest. And continuing the Blackcats hard luck this season, the first Liverpool goal was absolutely a handball from Sturridge -the video replays crystalized that in slow motion for the international viewing public. Ki Sung-Yeung had vital impact for the Blackcats, completing over 96% of his passes, helping to keep a good possession game for Sunderland, and setting up some excellent chances. His 25 yard strike didn’t get past Liverpool’s Mignolet, but it was hard enough that it bounced away from him, allowing Giacherrini to knock in the rebound to cut Liverpool’s lead in half. Sunderland looked extremely dangerous for most of the 2nd half, but just couldn’t find their way to the back of the net again. Ji Dong-Won, while not getting on the pitch, at least made it back to the bench- progress of a sort in the post DiCanio era. Yes, Sunderland is still in the basement, but supporters watching today’s performance should be encouraged that they are headed in the right direction despite the loss.
• While praise should go Ki’s way, his shooting leaves something to be desired. All his shots were low and…well…limp. Hopefully that’s not what she said. Not to worry, Ki will practice, his shots will improve and less cringing will result. Moving on…

• The Taeguk Warriors’s U16 squad has an important announcement. We go to Korea Football News:

South Korea qualified for the AFC U-16 Championship finals after beating Laos 4-0 yesterday. Barcelona youngster Lee Seung-Woo made 4 goals.

— Korea Football News (@KORFootballNews) September 29, 2013

Lee Seung-Woo may still be in a bit of FIFA limbo for Barca, but none of the rules disallows him from representing in international tournaments. Seeing Lee and the other youth players beasting it up at this tournament should be priceless.

New roster lineups have just been released by Hong Myong-Bo for the friendlies in October against Brazil and Mali. I’m looking forward to Jae parsing out the details and providing some analysis in the call ups. Until next time, chal-ga-yo!