Midweek Listing in Europe & Korea 10/18-10/19 Son & Spurs take on Leverkusen + more

A few matches to look at midweek, first go to Tim Lee’s preview of the Asian Champions League 2nd leg semi between FC Seoul and Jeonbuk.   Done? That’s tomorrow coffee & kickoff at 6:30 AM for US East Coasters / late soju cola & jeon-neok 7:30 PM in Korea.

Over in Germany, Spurs & Son Heung-Min brings his hot shooting form to Bayer Leverkusen and a awkward reunion of sorts with his former teammates.  Kickoff in a few hours: Tuesday 2:45 PM US EST / Wednesday 3:45 AM Korea. US TV: FS1

In yesterday’s press conference, this:

Son: "We want to make an impact. We go everywhere to get 3 points. It's an exciting game for me. It'll be special but I want to win." #COYS pic.twitter.com/90DORTWtoj

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 17, 2016

Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt on Son Heung-min's return to BayArena tomorrow pic.twitter.com/L09QHZABvG

— Steve Han • 한만성 (@realstevescores) October 17, 2016

Sonny says he can't wait to face his friends at @bayer04_en when we meet in the @ChampionsLeague tomorrow… #COYS pic.twitter.com/8Ie2Pk8Tau

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 17, 2016

Nice words from both sides.

This clash might lazily be billed as Chicharito vs Son – but this has all the earmarks of a scintillating mouthwatering Champions League matchup that will pit two sides who are employing similar on field strategies.

The Guardian published a story today about Son’s time at Leverkusen that both endeared him to the local community, and re: the nature of his rapid transfer to London in 2015 – may make his return to the Bay Arena far less than enthusiastic from his former supporters. Son also salutes the Germans at Hamburg who helped take Son in and build his confidence and playing abilities. At 18, he became the youngest player to score for Hamburg – this on his first game in uniform for the top squad. Interestingly, writer Dave Hytner points out that the Spurs organization seem very nervous behind the scenes about Son possibly returning to Korea to serve out his military duties, having failed along with the rest of the 2016 Rio Olympic squad to secure a medal and exemption last August.

As they should since Son has been nuclear hot, winning September’s Premier League player of the month (1st Asian to win the award) by scoring 5 goals and 2 assists in that short span, helping to catapult Spurs to their best start to a season since 1961. Hytner also alludes to the possibility that Spurs are trying to find a way to postpone Son’s military service should the effort to win exemption in 2018 with the Asian games fall short.   [Stay tuned to the Tavern as we’re going to repost very soon some interesting facts and the flowchart scenarios concerning Son’s situation with looming military service – including some surprising revelations that the British press don’t know about yet].

One more thing to note: Son’s Champions League record isn’t too shabby: 5 goals scored with Leverkusen, 1 goal scored a few weeks ago for Spurs when they faced CSKA Moscow -which turned out to be the eventual gamewinner. 6 CL goals bests Park Ji-Sung’s Champions League goal record and with that, Son is now the top scoring Korean in the Champions League (is he the overall top scoring Asian in the Champions League? Tavern Stat man – I haven’t called on you for some time now due to past incompetence. Get to work!)  Oh yeah, 3 goals in Europa League for Spurs. 9 goals in Europe total.  You’d have to think, as long as Spurs are in form and Son remains healthy, that tally will move higher.

Moving on…

Park Joo-Ho is in Lisbon with his teammates at BVB for their CL clash with Sporting.  He is ineligible to play but is training with them to prepare for Borussia Dortmund’s next league match on Saturday at Ingolstadt. LB Schmeltzer is out for a few weeks which means further opportunities for Park Joo-Ho who subbed in as a left wingback and did fairly well despite a little bit of understandable rust.

On Wednesday:

Barcelona is hosting Man City, and in parallel, Lee Seung-Woo and Juvenil A will face Manchester City’s youth team and you can see it streamed live at 11AM US EST / 12 midnight Korea Time:

Juvenil A – Manchester City [UEFA Youth League] will be streamed live on https://t.co/9xgetYvdr3 tomorrow at 16:00 CET.

— Jeffrey (@Jeffreyklz) October 18, 2016

It’s here we’ll transition to Korea, one Asian Champions League semifinal and K-League Challenge to wake up to:

The 2nd leg of the FC Seoul/ Jeonbuk ACL semi at 6:30AM EST/7:30 PM Korea. Maybe Jeonbuk will wrap things up with a 4-1 aggregate lead, but stranger things have happened.

and the K-League Challenge, a few fixtures to note (thanks Soccerway.com):

Anyang

07 : 00

Goyang Zaicro

Here’s how the table looks right now:

#		Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P	Last 5 matches	H2H
1		Ansan Mugunghwa	37	19	7	11	52	48	+4	64	LLDWW
2		Daegu	37	17	12	8	50	35	+15	63	LWWDW
3		Bucheon 1995	37	18	9	10	44	30	+14	63	WWLDL
4		Gangwon	37	18	8	11	44	30	+14	62	LWLWW
5		Busan I’Park	37	17	7	13	48	35	+13	58	WWWLW
6		Seoul E-Land	37	14	13	10	42	35	+7	55	WWWLD
7		Daejeon Citizen	38	15	9	14	54	49	+5	54	WWLLL
8		Gyeongnam	37	18	5	14	58	53	+5	49	WLWWW
9		Anyang	38	10	13	15	35	48	-13	43	LLLLL
10		Chungju	38	7	7	24	40	59	-19	28	WLLWL
11		Goyang Zaicro	37	2	10	25	18	63	-45	16	LLLWL
CORRECTIONS Gyeongnam: -10 points

Keep in mind: while 4th place is the promotion playoff cutoff – Ansan can not be promoted this season, so 5th place is in play. Daejeon, Seoul E-Land and Busan will all jostle for that until the end of the season -which by the way is rapidly closing. This midweek fixture is round 42 (of 44).  But who will then win auto-promotion to the K-League Classic? Daegu, Bucheon or Gangwon?  Long shot even is Busan, having won 4 of the last 5 games and 5 points below Daegu & Bucheon.

On Thursday, Europa League action and possibly Hwang Hee-Chan appearance for Red Bull Salzburg:

Red Bull		1:00 PM
OGC Nice