Get your games in now before most of Europe goes into their winter break. This weekend there’s plenty of Premier League matches as well as Bundesliga, La Liga, and everywhere else. Plus Korean media previews Korea’s Group H at the World Cup, and some other tidbits.
U.S. Listings (all times EST)
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*Yoon Suk-Young is recovering from injury. He is unlikely to appear for Doncaster.
*beINn Sports will air Almeria-Espanyol on delay at 8:30AM
Korea Listings (all times KST)
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*SBS ESPN will broadcast the Cardiff City-West Brom match on delay at 2:00AM on Sunday
*Daum will stream the Cardiff City-West Brom match on delay at 2:00AM on Sunday
Watching this Weekend
Arsenal-Manchester City certainly catches the eye, but with Park Chu-Young extremely unlikely to feature, it loses a bit of luster from a Korean standpoint.
2. West Ham vs Sunderland
It’s a battle at the bottom for these two. Sunderland remain rooted at the foot of the table, and look increasingly sure of relegation each passing week. Gus Poyet’s arrival has helped a bit, but the manager’s slight “eccentricities” continue to baffle at times. Ki Sung-Yueng has become a mainstay for the Black Cats, but they continue to drop points. A win at West Ham would certainly help, as the Hammers are only above the relegation zone on goal difference. West Ham struggles a bit in the goal department (13 scored), and of their recognized strikers, only Carlton Cole has scored, and he just one. Former future United wonderkid Ravel Morrison leads the team with three goals.
1. Guangzhou Evergrande vs Al Ahly
There’s only one Korean here, Kim Young-Gwon, and they’re playing an Egyptian team, but I will be closely watching Guangzhou at this tournament. Not just to see how Kim Young-Gwon copes with the “best” in the world, but also to see if an Asian team can really make waves in world football. Guangzhou has been off since they won the AFC Champions League last month, so it will be interesting to see if there’s any rust there.
Jeju United Loans Ryu Seung-Woo to Bayer Leverkusen
Fresh off his signing with K League side Jeju United, highly touted youngster Ryu Seung-Woo has been loaned to German side Bayer Leverkusen for a year. Ryu will depart for Germany next week. The move, while potentially beneficial for Ryu, is strange to say the least. Given how he rejected a move to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid Castilla in the summer, for him to suddenly get a loan move right after signing was certainly a surprise.
Midweek Round-Up
We already did a more in-depth review of Son Heung-Min and Bayer Leverkusen’s game against Real Sociedad, but in case you missed it, Bayer defeated Sociedad 1-0. That coupled with United’s 1-0 win over Donetsk allow Bayer to advance in the second position to the knock out stages.
Down in the Europa League, Park Ji-Sung and PSV unfortunately had the opposite happen. Narrowly ahead of opponents, Chronomorets going into the final match, PSV lost to the Ukrainian side 1-0 to be eliminated from the competition. Park once again came off the bench for the Dutch team, but he wasn’t able to help them turn things around.
Joongang Ilbo/Ilgan Sports Previews Group H
Over the past week Ilgan Sports (and the Joongang Ilbo) has been speaking with Korean pundits and former players about Korea’s Group H opposition. You can read each section here:
Russia – Kim Dong-Jin, Oh Beom-Suk
Algeria – Jang Ji-Hyun, Han Jun-Hee
Belgium – Seol Ki-Hyun
If you don’t want to read through the whole thing the general trends: Russia is key, Algeria has a weak defense, but potentially threatening offense, and that Belgium is not as bad as people think.
A Late Mini-Analysis of Korea at the EACC
On the latest edition of “Beyond the Pitch“, Anto spoke with Gary White who is the coach of Guam. But besides that Mr. White is highly regarded within the AFC, and the EACC appointed him to their technical staff for the last tournament. There he wrote the technical write up of the tournament for the EACC. He shared a few thoughts about what he saw there, and he had some kind words for Korea. In short, he thought that Korea was very good in their build up play, physical, and competitive. Nothing new really, but it was nice too hear that there are non-Koreans and non-Korea fans, who can see that Korea isn’t garbage like many people in the west think.
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2981826
RYU SEUNG WOO IS LOANED TO LEVERKUSEN!!!!!!
Yes omg I just read about that online now. I was so surprised and glad!
Ryu is only 1 year younger than Son.
Do you think he will start from the bench?
I think he’ll start in the reserve team and be very lucky if he sees any first team pitch this season. You can’t compare Son and Ryu. Son may be only a year older, but he’s been in Germany since he was 16. He’s played in the Bundesliga since 2010 and has been a key figure for another top flight team. He’s proven himself capable. Ryu just signed his FIRST professional contract ever. He’s never played on a professional club team. Bayer is, theoretically, still fighting on three fronts for the Bundesliga, German Cup, and Champions League. I can’t imagine that Hyypia would risk playing an unproven youngster in those circumstances unless he absolutely had to.
I suspect that this was a pre-planned move by Ryu and Jeju. That he would sign with the club so he avoids the domestic five-year ban, but then would immediately go to Europe. I can’t imagine Jeju, who ended up in the relegation half last season, would be willing to let their prize signing go without having played a single game for them.
Watching City vs Arsenal this morning made me a bit sad for Park CY. I couldn’t help thinking about what he was doing and thinking right at that moment.
Never mind his physical state, he has to be in the worst mental state right now.
I hope Kim SW realizes he really needs to step it up a couple.
Kim Shin Wook only scored 2 goals in 22 appearances for Korea lol.