K League Roundup (11-29/30)

Well, it wasn’t quite up to last season’s championship winning, last kick of the game type stuff, but there was plenty of drama on the K League’s final day.

K League Classic Results – Round 38

Championship Half

Jeonbuk Motors 1-1 Ulsan Hyundai
Jeju United 1-2 FC Seoul
Pohang Steelers 1-2 Suwon Samsung

Relegation Half

Seongnam FC 1-0 Busan IPark
Jeonnam Dragons 0-0 Incheon United
Sangju Sangmu 3-1 Gyeongnam FC

  • Seongnam needed a win to guarantee their place in next season’s top flight. The win duly came thanks to Kwak Hae-sung’s 58′ minute strike. Seongnam defeated Busan 1-0.
  • Jeonnam and Incheon were already safe and had nothing to play for. Slightly predictably the score ended 0-0.
  • Sangju was already relegated, the question was could they possibly take Gyeongnam win them. Gyeongnam needed to win in order to have a chance of avoiding the playoff place. Lee Jung-hyub opened the scoring for Sangju, only for Stojanovic to cancel it out just before the half. But two goals in quick succession, by Lee Jung-hyub and Seo Sang-min ensured that Gyeongnam will have to go to the playoffs.
  • The only thing of note in the “Hyundai derby” was that Jeonbuk unveiled their new kits for the 2015 season. Like this year’s kit, it’s a slightly unappealing green with lots of stuff of the front. Don’t buy it. Yoo Joon-su opened the scoring for Ulsan, but his goal was canceled out minutes later by Han Kyo-won.
  • Would the stars fall in line for Seoul to qualify for next season’s AFC Champions League? They needed to win and hope that archrivals Suwon would do them a favor and beat Pohang at the Steelyard. It didn’t start well for Seoul as Hwang Il-su gave Jeju a first half lead. Things improved for Seoul in the second half as Yoon Il-lok equalized and Jeju had Lee Yong sent off. Seoul continued to push for their second goal and it finally came right at the end. Some horrifically slack marking from Jeju allowed Osmar to find plenty of space right in the middle of the box to slot home the winner. Seoul though still needed some help . . .
  • And it would come down in Pohang. Like Jeju, Pohang took the early lead through Kim Gwang-seok, but two Suwon goals in a five minute span would see Suwon take the lead (Santos and Jung Tae-se the scorers). Pohang had one last chance to tie things up and finish third, but Kang Il-su got his close range header all wrong and missed the target right at the death.

K League Classic Final Table
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+ Teams qualified for 2015 AFC Champions League
* Team to play in relegation/promotion playoff
– Team relegated to 2015 K League Challenge

K League Classic Top Scorers
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K League Classic Top Assistors
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K League Challenge Playoff – Round 2

The second round of the playoffs were held in Ansan between the Police team (Ansan) and the Round 1 winner, Gwangju FC. The first half was a fairly dull affair with neither side creating too many clear chances. The second half was different, with Gwangju scoring three goals in six minutes (two by Fabio and one by Diego). Those goals were more than enough to see them through to the final playoff match.

Ansan Korea Police 0-3 Gwangju FC

Gwangju will face Gyeongnam in the final playoff round. The final round is a two-legged home and away round. The 1st leg is December 3 (Wednesday) in Gwangju. The 2nd leg is December 6 (Saturday) in Changwon.

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

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