Just when you thought Yun was practically forgotten by Harry Redknapp and practically invisible at Loftus Road for a good part of the winter, Yun Suk-Young started for QPR and turned in a brilliant performance to help the Rangers secure a 1-3 win at Middlesbrough. That’s not all, Yun wound up winning Man of the Match. Quite a turn of fortune, both for Redknapp (pre-match murmurings of a sacking) and Yun, as the Rangers came from behind to snatch 3 points in their fight for promotion. Yun came in for a suspended Richard Dunne halfway through Tuesday’s loss to Sheffield Wednesday, part of 6 changes Redknapp made to overhaul the starting XI. The first start for Yun since (September?) saw the left back effectively hustle both halves of the field, in particular containing Middlesbrough’s Adomah on their wing. Offensively he provided some proficient crosses for the R’s, forcing a number of corners, some of which he took himself (in the right corner). In the 26th minute, he latched onto a ball, drove into the box and was about to pull the trigger when Varga in the nick of time tackled the ball away from him. Yun seemed to make a strong case to be the left back of choice for QPR. And as the Tavern writers speculated earlier in the month in the Tavern hangout sessions, by virtue of Yun getting significant playing time, he may well have secured his ticket to Brazil. The question that now emerges: depending on the rest of the season, will Yun overtake Kim Jin-Su for the left back position for the World Cup ?
BTW: thank you to Adam Hulme, QPR media officer. I nearly missed his email to me that contained the video summary of Yun’s game, it originally went straight into the spam inbox. Thank goodness I checked it this morning!
Roundup in Europe
[table “” not found /]We’ll try to have more updates on this weekend’s action soon. better late than never, he’s a video replaying Park’s assist. Even old people can be productive (I kid! Hey, if Park’s considered old, then I’m elderly).
- Park Chu-Young still out injured this past weekend. Theigh injury rather than knee injury? I guess the KNT doctors diagnosed the problem wrong after the friendly victory over Greece. Watford has another game midweek against Blackburn- Park Chu-Young time?
- Some chatter about Ki coming out before halftime during their absymal loss to Norwich. The fight to avoid relegation just got more diffcult. Still, as I had mentioned in the Tavern comment section earlier, Ki usually has decent performances despite the travails of the Blackcats this season. This might not have been his best performance, but I think it was just a one off game for him.
- I didn’t see the match, but Mainz actually took the game to Bayern Munich and came close to either drawing or taking the match. The halftime score was 0-0 before eventually losing 0-2. Park Joo-Ho reportedly had a decent match…
In the meantime, do check out Jae’s roundup of action in the K-League this weekend. Jae’s Busan IPark got the away upset at FC Seoul (could they be relegation candidates this year? Perhaps too early to tell at this point in the season).
Yun Suk Young needs to be called up to the national team if he starts like this more often. No doubt.
If he keeps playing then I wouldn’t be shocked if he overtook Kim JS for the starting spot (but Kim JS would still go as the backup).
Seoul isn’t relegation threatened (despite being in 11th now). Still 35 games to go. They were like this last year and ended up 4th by a whisker. Imagine this year will be similar.
Agreed, waaaay too early to even suggest relegation. Their squad is much too good for that, and teams like Gyeongnam and Sangju are much much more likely to drop down in the long run.
It’s only a game but a good one at that. Let’s see what he can do and if he plays more (say, more than PJY) then I think he could be in there for the first LB spot, because KJS has had a string of poor NT games, and YSY looked sharp in the QPR game. But you never know what Hong’s thinking.
Still wondering about Cha though. Dat experience… going to be tough for Hong for the last couple fringe spots.
I’d still say Park Jooho over Yun sukyoung…. For the left back position
Oh yeah, there’s PJH too…Hong’s got some options here…KJS, YSY, PJH…now I don’t know, but I’m starting to think it’ll be a battle maybe b/w PJH and YSY. May the best man win
To be honest, I don’t fully understand the thinking that Park Joo-Ho is on the verge of making the 23 man roster, let alone the starting XI. Since Hong has taken over, Park JH has only appeared twice for the NT (against Haiti and Russia), and has not since he hit his good run of form for Mainz (the Greece match). With little time to integrate him into the backline, I’d be shocked if he started the World Cup (barring injuries). You could say the same thing about Yoon, but Hong seems much, much higher on Yoon than he does Park (who Hong doesn’t seem to rate). Given that Yoon was back on the bench for QPR last night (despite a solid showing on the weekend), I suspect that the LB spot is still firmly Kim JS (who should in theory round into better form now that the JLeague is back), and that Yoon’s sudden re-appearance puts him in the running for back up spot. FYI, Hong recently said that his 30-man preliminary list is 90% done.
Yeah I understand what you’re saying but surely a player who’s pretty much secured his position and playing generally really well in a European big league deserves that sort of chance and particularly after Hong gave a chance to park chuyoung after one substitute appearance!
Even though we don’t generally have a problem with a wing back compared to strikers I don’t think it’s very logical leaving that type of player out of the side which in many aspects still lacks flare.
The Park Chu-Young call actually illustrates exactly why I feel he isn’t that close. If Hong was running a true meritocracy Park wouldn’t be anywhere near the squad regardless of his past deeds with the NT. Hong has consistently said that every position has been up for grabs and that whoever deserves the spot will get it. Park shows that’s not completely true.
Park Joo-Ho certainly deserves a call like you said, but I don’t get the feeling that he’ll get it. Hong isn’t a flair coach, and for the backline he’ll certainly prefer his fullbacks to offer more defensive solidarity than attacking flair, hence why Yoon SY is still in the picture.
Also, completely random question but does anyone know where to get a long sleeve korea jersey online or somewhere reliable? I’ve looked on eBay and that’s about it.
If you can try the Korean sites like GMarket. You can also contact Nike directly. A rep told me that they are able to find Nike products that are not listed on the site as long as you have a merchandise number or picture. I think the KFA also has a shop, but it’s likely limited to Korea.
Hmmm okay ill have to try people in Korea, I’m in australia, so its a massive shipping fee usually to get a korea kit.