K-League 2014: Preview July 12-13th

It’s the 3rd game in a week for many K-League Classic sides, returning from their World Cup break. This weekend will bring the famous Seoul-Suwon derby and a clash of last year’s “Final” when defending champs Pohang Steelers welcome Ulsan Hyundai Tigers.

K-League Classic Standings
Here are the standings in the K-League Classic prior to Round 15 action this weekend.

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K-League Classic Fixtures Round 15
Saturday, July 12th, 2014

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It’s the second “Super Match” of the year in this heated derby that often draws season record-breaking attendances. FC Seoul took the first game 1-0 back in April but it was a rare success for a Seoul side sitting just one point above the relegation playoff zone. Suwon on the other hand sit one point back of AFC Champions League playoff zone and have been firing on all cylinders this season, with forwards Bae Ki-Jong, Jong Tae-Se and Santos Junior all netting 3 goals for the Bluewings. If there’s ever a match to wake up early for on the east coast, it’s this crowd-attracting derby.

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The Army side gets to work as they continue their quest to reach the top half – and standing in their way this week are the Jeonnam Dragons. These two sides have already met this season, back in May, and it was a goalfest – a 4-3 victory for Jeonnam. The Dragons are enjoying unprecedented success – at least, in comparison to last year. Led by league-leading goalscorer Lee Jong-Ho, Jeonnam currently sit in 3rd place.

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In a rematch of last year’s “final”, Hwang Sun-Hong’s Pohang travel to Munsu Football Stadium to take on the Ulsan Hyundai “Horangi”, or in English, the Tigers. The defending champions, the Steelers, currently lead the league with Kim Seung-Dae and Lee Myeong-Ju being their main goalscorers. (EDIT: Thanks Jae. Forgot that Lee Myeong-Ju has moved to a club in the middle east.) Ulsan have had to rely on tall KNT striker Kim Shin-Wook while hoping for a little help from their KNT keeper Kim Seung-Gyu.

Sunday, July 13th, 2014

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Both sides head into this matchup having drawn their last two games. Seongnam have had goalscoring woes, with just 8 goals in 14 games, but luckily their defense have been very hard to break down this season, conceding just 9. Jeju haven’t lost a league game in their last 6 and average just about a goal per game so far.

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Currently sitting in the relegation playoff zone, Gyeongnam FC don’t have an easy opponent this week. They will host He-Who-Must-Never-Ever-Be-Named(Oh fine Choi Kang-Hee)’s Jeonbuk. Having conceded 22 goals this season, Gyeongnam have the worst defense in the league, while Jeonbuk’s star players include former 2010 World Cup forward Lee Dong-Gook and Australian 2014 World Cup defender Alex Wilkinson.

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Two teams currently in the heat of the relegation race (reminder: we’re only about 35% of the season in) clash. the two sides fought to a goalless draw early in April. Incheon simply can’t find the back of the net this season with only 6 goals to show for their efforts and a single win while Busan haven’t scored since returning from the World Cup break.

K-League Challenge Round 15

Here’s just a quick list of the fixtures down in the second tier:

Gangwon FC v Goyang Hi (Saturday 6am/7pm)
Suwon City v Chungju Hummel (Saturday 6am/7pm)
Ansan Police v Gwangju FC (Saturday 6:30am/7:30pm)
Daejeon Citizen v Anyang FC (Sunday 6am/7pm)
Bucheon 1995 v Daegu FC (Sunday 6am/7pm)

My personal “Fixture of the Week” for the second tier? (And this isn’t because I’m biased.) Daejeon and Anyang collide – the top two teams in the league. The Citizen are actually winning games (winning?! they never did that in the first tier! what is this “winning” word?!) while Anyang, despite being 15 points back, are looking to make a dash for top spot – or, if anything, at least stay in promotion playoff position (2nd to 4th place). I’m a big Citizen fan so there’s no doubt who I’m rooting for…

All in all, should be an interesting week for the K-League! Don’t miss it!

Oh and the K-League All-Star Game News…
On July 25th, 8pm KST, 7am EDT, the 2014 K-League All-Star Game will be played in Seoul World Cup Stadium. The fixture has had many different formats over the years – in the old days, a simple “Blue v White” showdown, which then turned into a “South v Central” match. The K-League also had “Koreans v Foreigners”, and a “Team 2012 v Team 2002” game too. One year the All-Stars even tackled FC Barcelona. After last seasons’ “K-League Classic v K-League Challenge” game, this year’s idea will likely be more attractive to the Korean footy fan. The K-League All-Stars, managed by Hwang Sun-Hong, will do battle with Park Ji-Sung’s XI, with who else but Guus Hiddink at the helm. While “Three Lung Park” will choose his team, we the fans of the K-League can choose the Starting XI of the All-Star team. Voting closes July 13th.

Preliminary results so far shows top vote-getter Kim Seung-Gyu firmly in the lead by nearly 84,000 votes for the goalkeeper position. Shin Hwa-Yong is in second while Jung Sung-Ryong is way back at 3rd place. Definitely the netizens sending a message to Jung. Current defenders are (in order of 1st to 4th) “The Chaminator” Cha Du-Ri, Australian international Alex Wilkinson, Kim Jin-Kyu and Hong Chul. Midfielders are Yoon Bit-Garam, Lee Seung-Gi, Kim Doo-Hyun and Yeom Ki-Hun. Forwards look pretty much locked in, Kim Shin-Wook and Lee Keun-Ho.

Voting closes July 13th… and I’m not sure if the voting is for Korean residents only. Regardless here’s the link: http://www.kleague.com/vote_allstar2014/allStar2014.asp

That’s really it for me in this ridiculously long K-League post. Jalgayo!

About Tim Lee 321 Articles
The maple syrup guzzling kimchijjigae craving Korean-Canadian, eh?

16 Comments

  1. Lee Myeong-Joo has already left Pohang for the Middle East.

    If you want to vote for the K League XI and are overseas, try the one thru Naver Mobile (sorry can’t find link right now) as it didn’t ask for a phone number like Tim’s link does. But, the way the votes are coming in, the XI is locked in as they have big leads in every spot.

  2. Jae, you’re killing me with this FC Seoul suggestion. But, as a Cubs fan, I strangely welcome this misery… I shouldn’t complain though since you are a Busan I’Park guy.

    • They’re in the AFC CL quarterfinals, and have every chance of beating Pohang to make the semis. Also there is at least hope they can make a buy or two and get better. Busan? Sigh . . .

    • Hmm. Long answer time. Bear with me.

      First off, you’re in the US, I’m in Canada, honestly, it’s not a big difference in this context. So with that aside…

      Totally 100% positively legally? Don’t think so. But most murky online sport stream sites aren’t legal anyhow?

      I’m going to share how I watch Korean footy. These views are my own and I can’t “represent” the Tavern here.

      0) First of all, if SPOTV’s youtube (google it) will air the game, problem solved. Go there, click on the game and boom. Legal too! But no guarantee. Which is why I always check SPOTV an hour before. They don’t usually air soccer and do baseball instead. Still, it’s a special game so give it a go.

      1) If SPOTV doesn’t… Download a VPN switcher. SoftEther VPN Client Manager is perfect. I’ll have the link on my twitter account @korfan12.

      2) There you can go to “VPN Gate Public VPN Relay Servers”. Click on one from “South Korea”.

      3) At which point, you should be connected to South Korean internet thus you can access everything that is geo-blocked to us.

      4) Because streaming is excellent in Korea, you can go to Naver or Daum (if you can read Korean it’s perfect), find a link to the game and there you go. Or you can download Korean Daum PotPlayer. Link on my twitter.

      5) We’ve never really shared any streaming tips at the Tavern so I’m not sure if we’re supposed to or not lol… if I’m not supposed to, a writer can edit this post to leave just this message:


      I wrote stuff on my twitter @korfan12.

      Whoa. Umm. Breaktime! Hope that was helpful. I’ll wake up early for the game (7am where I live and that’s scandalous by my standards.) so you can contact me on twitter or on a seperate post. 🙂

        • I’m not sure, but I think none of what Tim mentioned will work (sorry). The all-star game will be broadcast (I believe) on KBS2. So, I suspect that Naver/Daum/Afreeca will not stream it (similar to when the national team plays). Currently, Naver is showing they will stream the baseball all-star game this weekend, but they are not showing the K League one on their calendar. That might change as it gets closer, but maybe not. IF KBS has rights to the game I can’t imagine SPOTV will stream it on their youtube channel either.

          • Huh. I’ve always had National Team Games on Daum PatPlayer. Their schedule isn’t showing anything for the moment but they aren’t showing anythng but news for the weekends either and they always show KBO/KLG.

            Evelyn, best way I guess is to just try and see what happens. Hopefully us out here in NA can watch the game,

          • I don’t often use Daum, so I may be wrong about that one. Who knows? But for anyone looking to watch the game, wait until this weekend/early next week and more information should be available. Broadcast schedules (TV and internet) usually are available a week in advance.

      • Sharing information about ILLEGAL streams is a legal gray area. Roy and I have yet to determine if it’s something that WordPress’ legal team would come down on the Tavern for. We’ve always tended towards the cautious side because writing about it could be construed as promoting illegal activities. Now, our site is relatively small (big picture wise) so it’s doubtful that WordPress would pay any attention to us, but you never know.

        Just as a separate note Tim, I suspect that saying “these views are my own” wouldn’t shield the Tavern from any legal liabilities. You are an administrator on the site, so what you say represents the Tavern as a whole (in a legal sense). But, watching on SPOTV’s You Tube site and using VPNs aren’t illegal. Just be careful about promoting streams that individuals are re-broadcasting from other “legitimate” sources.

        • Things I learned from this post
          -Wordpress has a legal team
          -These views are my own doesn’t always work 🙂
          -VPN’s aren’t illegal (yay!)
          -Caution noted.

          So as for what I should say/shouldn’t say, illegal shifty streams, no, VPNs, yes. Got it! 🙂

  3. Thanks for the info everyone, and thanks for the tip, Tim! By the way, you mentioned that you’ll have a link to the SoftEther VPN Client Manager on your twitter page. Will you have that link up on your page the morning of the match? (I checked at the beginning of this week and couldn’t find the link, so I’m asking when you plan to have that up.)

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