Sunderland in League Cup semifinal against Manchester United today / U22 AFC semifinals Korea vs Iraq

League Cup semifinals 2nd leg today will determine who faces off at Wembley Stadium for the trophy against Manchester City (winning 9-0 aggregate against West Ham yesteday). Ki Sung-Yeung is likely in the starting XI for the Blackcats as they bring a 1-0 aggregate lead to Old Trafford today at 2:45 pm EST/4:45am Korea Time. TV coverage in the US: BeInSport.  Manchester United’s Moyes is under pressure, having fallen further in the Premiership table. The Blackcats are still in the relegation zone, but are looking to strengthen their season’s bona fides with an up tick in momentum under Gus Poyet. Should be a hot time at Old Trafford tonight…

Meanwhile, the Tavern has completely forgotten to cover the AFC U22 championship. The Taeguk Warriors advanced out of their group a little shaky, a 1-1 draw with Jordan good enough to advance from Group A as runner ups. In the quarterfinals, Group C runner ups Japan lost 1-0 to Iraq, Group C leader Australia lost 1-2 to Saudi Arabia, while Korea beat Syria 2-1 (the one lone Syria goal in stoppage time should have been called back on what should have been a fair play ball back to Korea after an injury on the field -the Syrian coach apologizing afterwards). Moon Chang-jin, Yun Ill-Rok and Baek Sung Dong have all scored so far in the tournament.

Korea advances to the semifinals, Korea and Iraq clash set for Thursday January 23, 8am EST / 5 pm Oman / 10 pm Korea Time in Muscat, Oman. The other semifinal, Jordan and Saudi Arabia takes place later on Thursday.

 

Earlier in January, I missed this news but it’s still worth posting at the Tavern, I got word that Ton Du Chatinier, a Dutch coach who managed FC Utrecht (2008-201) was hired by Hong Myong-bo. He becomes the newest assistant coach for Korea, and reunites with Hong, who worked beside him as a fellow assistant coach under Guus Hiddink last season while they were at Anzhi Makhachkala. Ton has some inside knowledge on European football, particularly Russian football from his time with Anzhi last season. Thanks to Lionel Lee for that link. 

Need to go and fix up the physical Tavern space, but I did see someone in the comment section for the previous Tavern post asking about when the 2014 World Cup kits comes out for Korea. I wouldn’t go strictly on this information, but at a local (codeswitch alert) soccer supply store in Maryland, they got a faint signal from Nike that they will be released sometime in February.

 

UPDATE: whoa, I didn’t realize that Barcelona’s Cadete A team was still playing the Al Kass Cup. Barca vs Manchester City in a consolation match – It’s on right as I’m typing this (11:10 am EST) here.  Lee Seung-Woo has already scored a goal and assisted in 2 so far. Jang scored in their last game. Barca are up 5-1 in the 67th minute…

Update 2: 78th minute Lee released – latched on brilliantly in the area and brought down by Man City. Penalty awarded – but Lee is immediately pulled (presumably non-tactical). He was reluctant to go, but he had a great game:

Update 3: and Lee wins man of the match, a $1000 check presented to the 16 year old. We’ll see about finding a video summary of the match shortly. Going back to the last match to set up this 5th place game, Jang scored the 2nd goal against Aspire Qatar, Barca eventually winning that one 3-1. Here’s a video replay

About Roy Ghim 454 Articles
The old Tavern Owner

3 Comments

  1. Ki sung yong provided assist for Phil Bardsley! Ki also scored his penalty in the penalty shootout! I’m so glad Sunderland won it. Finally some bad results for the glory hunters.

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