Park Chu-Young: first goal is a game winner for Celta Vigo (and other firsts)

Sept 22, 2012

I’m still trying to catch my breath, hours after the stadiums shut their gates, Park Chu-Young caps off an epic day for Taeguk Warriors seeing significant action in European football today. Park made instant impact after subbing in and with less than 2 minutes on the pitch, used his first touch to create an absolute stunner of a goal – leaping with a midair scissor kick to connect with a Krohn-Dehli cross near the far post. He was incredibly close to scoring again several minutes later. Celta Vigo defeated Getafe at home in Balaidos stadium to earn a desperately needed 3 points. KBS was on hand to cover the event for South Koreans staying up for a late weekend match. Both audiences were not left disappointed.

On hand at the game, Santiago Perez covered the event for his unique Celta Vigo/Park Chu-Young blog, Blog @truespain about Park Chu Young-Rainmaker, and tweeted this when Park scored:

Park scored!!!!!!! The dream came true

— Rainmaker-18 (@truespain) September 22, 2012

 

Santiago tried to coin a new phrase: Parkmania. I can only imagine the Balaidos was shaking to it after his magnificent goal. Do check out his first hand match report over on his blog here.

• Lots of firsts: Park Chu-Young‘s first touch is his first goal of the season, his first for his club, first in La Liga, but not his first game winner since going on-loan from Arsenal – that would be his you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it goal against Japan in last summer’s Olympic Bronze medal match. [update sept 25:] Another impressive first: Park Chu Young becomes the first Korean to score in La Liga.  What to look out for next?  Perhaps he’ll be the first Korean to score a hat trick.  With PCY unleashed, me thinks he’ll be able to provide some fireworks for Celta Vigo.
• Son Heung-Min‘s first brace for the year at Hamburg SV, and he records this season’s first game winner for his Bundesliga side. [update sept 26:] The Washington Post/AP reports that Borussia Dortmund’s 31 win streak was snapped by Hamburg. You can trace that remarkable win streak all the way back to September 2011. Coincidentally, Borussia Dortmund’s defeat preserves the longest win streak in Bundesliga history -which belongs to, wait for it…Hamburg!  Their win streak of 36 lasted from 1982 to 1983.  More on that on ESPN Soccernet.
• Ki Sung-Yeung‘s first start for Swansea and despite a 3-0 loss to Everton, Ki at least put in a world class performance.  When Swansea went down 10 men early in the 2nd half, Ki was shifted from attacking midfield to center back – possibly the first Korean to serve (temporarily) as center back  in the Premier League. I’ll have to check back with the Tavern’s statisticians and get back to you on that.

A weekend recap is in order. Let’s see what Park Ji-Sung can do when QPR faces Tottenham v2.0 tomorrow at 11 am EST.  Tavern out.