Augsburg Survives for Another Year

Last season, when Augsburg first returned to the Bundesliga they were a favorite to go straight back down. They didn’t, in part thanks to Koo Ja-Cheol’s winter arrival from Wolfsburg. This season, once again, many thought they would be relegated, and for a while it looked like they would. Koo wasn’t as influential this season due to a series of injuries, but his friend, Ji Dong-Won would prove to be influential in their survival. Ji arrived in similar circumstances as Koo had the year before, on-loan from a different team during the winter market. Neither Koo nor Ji are owned by Augsburg, but should the funds be available, one would imagine Augsburg would look to keep one or both of them. Augsburg defeated Gruether Furth 3-1 yesterday to overtake Fortuna Dusseldorf (who lost to Hannover 96 3-0) on the final day of the Bundesliga calendar. Congratulations to Augsburg, Ji Dong-Won, and Koo Ja-Cheol on a successful season.

Tavern note: Ji added the 3rd and final insurance goal that sealed it up for Augsburg in their grand escape from relegation. Much like his other 4 goals for the bavarian team, this one had a tremendous amount of style. Take a look – and was that his parents he high fived right after the goal?

Koo Ja-Cheol joined in the party, subbing in the 77th minute. Park Jung-Bin started for Greuther Furth and subbed out in the 43rd minute. Last note, as far as nail biting is concerned, Augsburg supporters had every reason to be nervous as their side had a few chances late in the season to escape relegation -but never was able to take that advantage. For this last final game of the season, the win brought them out of the drop zone —for the first time all season.

About Jae Chee 339 Articles
A football fan who got bit by the writing bug.

10 Comments

  1. Well done Augsburg!
    Ji superb!
    Does anybody know if Ji has a better goals/minute average than Son? I wouldn’t be surprised.

    • Just counting the Bundesliga, Son Heung-Min has scored 12 goals in 2702 minutes. Ji Dong-Won has scored 5 goals in 1495 minutes. Doing some quick math, that equals out to Son scoring a goal every 225 minutes (about every 2 1/2 games), and Ji scoring a goal every 299 minutes (once every third game). So, Son’s is a bit higher, but he’s also playing on a better team. So, you could argue that if they played on teams of the same caliber that Ji might score more often. Just as an interesting comparison, Park Chu-Young has scored 3 goals in 740 minutes this season which equals out to a goal every 245 minutes. Not very good, but it’s not too off from Son’s (and better than Ji’s). Yet Son is regarded as a future top striker while Park has been resigned to the rubbish heap (granted Park is an established player who should be doing much better than a couple 20 year olds). If we want to take it even further (to the top) Messi scores a goal every 57 minutes (46 goals in 2644 minutes).

      *all stats taken from Soccerway.com

      • Wow! thanks for finding all that out. Very informative.
        Keep in mind Park plays in a league that, at least to me is more competitive and harder to score in. Let’s hope he will move to a good team this summer.

        • BTW, I’ve always thought Park should have been called up against Qatar. Back then the only reason he didn’t play for Celta was because of Aspas and he has been a revelation this season. He was followed by the likes of Chelsea and Valencia and will probably make a big move this summer. If the coaching staff at the NT didn’t know who Aspas is they’re not doing their job.

          • I think most thought that Park should have been called for Qatar. I suspect Choi Kang-Hee has a bias against him though. While I hope it’s not true, I wouldn’t be surprised if the coaching staff didn’t really know much about Aspas, and just thought “hmmm, Park isn’t playing at a small Spanish club, he must not be doing well.” Yeah, I’m certain Aspas will leave even if Celta doesn’t get relegated.

          • There’s a quote from the Mets first manager, Casey Stengel -paraphrasing him, he said something like, ‘you don’t know the real score of the game by just looking at the final score.’ I think that could apply to current hapless KNT coach Choi Kang-Hee in not really assessing the real situation and potential with Park Chu-Young. I believe a real case can be made that CKH does have a bias against Park Chu-Young -that he simply looks at the superficial picture of Park’s time with both Arsenal and then this season at Celta Vigo. I will throw in my hat with people who say Park should have been called up to the Qatar game. The fact the KNT just barely scored with seconds remaining to advance against Qatar- a team they should have handily beaten – says way more than the final score.

          • I think that as much as people accused Cho Kwang-Rae of having a bias for European-based players, Choi Kang-Hee has a bias towards experienced K League players.

      • Jae! You’re making the official Tavern statistician nervous, what with all that awesome stats compilations you just put together -right on! [Tavern statistician: why couldn’t you have done quality work like this? You’re on notice!]

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