Just when you thought things were going to get boring – after months and weeks of the Tavern calling for Kimbo’s release with #FreeKimbo campaign — surprise surprise, Kim Bo-Kyung was sprung from Cardiff purgatory on Saturday, getting the start and going the distance for the Bluebirds. How did he and the rest of the KPA’s do in European football this weekend?
[table “” not found /]*We haven’t posted Suk Hyun-Jun’s yet as CD Nacional plays on Monday. We’ll post on twitter his performance and will update this post if he does something significant.
European notes:
- We’ll get to Kimbo soon, but the outstanding result of the weekend has to go to QPR’s Yun Suk-Young. A deserved 2-0 victory despite going down to 10 men after Charlie Austin’s 2nd yellow – the win pushes QPR out of the relegation zone. For Yun, a very solid performance, much improved over his game with Swansea last Tuesday. Defensively he had his best performance yet this season, but it was his forward contribution that has the Tavern taking notice. We’ve noted that his crosses could’ve used more polish in his previous starts – but on Saturday, (rough estimate) 7 out of 9 crosses were brilliantly on target – and brought with it plenty of trouble for Burnley’s defense. Yun made decent runs up the left, and despite going down a man in the 2nd half, nearly made the score 3-0 at Loftus Road towards the end with a well executed 1-2 with Leroy Fer – his shot very close to notching his first Premier League goal – but an equally excellent save from Burnley’s Heaton prevented further damage.
*That* close to a goal for Yun Suk Young… pic.twitter.com/a55NuiiiwR
— Korean Footballers (@KoreaFootAbroad) December 6, 2014
- Son and Leverkusen had Bayern Munich on the ropes initially, but alas, we are dealing with a club that is in a league of their own. Ribery blasted in the only goal of the match – Son exited early – put in a good shift in the first half but both Son and Leverkusen ran out of gas against the defending Bundesliga champions.
- Kim Jin-Su – who earned universal plaudits in his first game back last weekend, wasn’t as sharp in defense against Borussia Dortmund. Klopp’s side were DESPERATE for points and they could’ve easily made it 4-0. The 1-0 result sees BVB out of the relegation zone, with Hoffenheim missing a chance to break back into the top 4.
- Ki, the hero of Swansea’s 2-0 win against QPR last Tuesday, may not have given his best in marking newly recovered Andy Caroll today. Suffice to say, Caroll’s freakish height won the day with 2 great headers (+1 header assist for the last goal) to give a surprisingly deft West Ham the 3-1 victory. Big Sam getting Alex Song on loan from Barcelona: genius. West Ham shockingly 3rd in the table. Swansea is still in 8th place and must dust themselves off for the Spurs next weekend. An interesting factoid: Swansea, like QPR, has struggled with away games, only winning 1 on the road at: Old Trafford. But unlike QPR, they at least have that 1 result, QPR has yet to get their first victory away from Loftus Road.
- So the long awaited start for Kimbo – how’d he do for Cardiff? Ermmm…not much as far as we can ascertain, but apparently the entire team struggled in a drab 90 minute affair against bottom dwelling Rotherham. He was installed to start apparently due to an injury to Anthony Pilkington…so perhaps the #FreeKimbo campaign isn’t dead after all? We will continue to monitor that one here at the Tavern.
- Update. While Lee Chung-Yong’s Bolton only managed a scoreless draw, a very good run of form for the Blue Dragon lead to this announcement on Monday:
AWARD: Lee Chung-Yong has been named as #BWFC‘s Player of the Month for November. More here: http://t.co/bgGAPl8OGU pic.twitter.com/eFd4WkTKnZ
— Bolton Wanderers FC (@OfficialBWFC) December 8, 2014
A bit extra: saw this in the BSK forum, Son’s passes were really on target in the first half vs Bayern Munich. Take a look at Son’s first half summary:
Semi-quick note on FIFA’s ridiculous attempts to pave over overwhelming concerns about Russia and Qatar hosting the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively, the New York Times reported that Russian sporting officials criticized UEFA for banning Crimean football clubs from participating in the Russian leagues. If one remembers FIFA rules, it clearly prohibits governing political heads from mucking around with their domestic football organizations. After Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, A taped conversation leaked of top Russian Premier League owners anguished over a ‘request’ by Putin to absorb recently annexed Crimean football clubs into the Russian leagues: they feared FIFA would take away the World Cup, however feared Putin even more. But this is Sepp Blatter’s FIFA we’re talking about – and just when you think FIFA couldn’t sink any lower in credibility: FIFA declared that Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea wouldn’t derail awarding Russia the 2018 World Cup (Crimean football clubs? What Crimean clubs?) Never mind that Russia ‘accidentally’ deleted all conversations, emails and correspondence regarding any possibly corruption/bribery in connection to said hosting rights in a recent FIFA led investigation. Now that Putin has directly interfered with Russia’s football heads concerning the Crimean clubs – FIFA clearly is looking the other way despite it’s very own rules prohibiting the very actions Russia is trying to circumvent. UEFA, to their credit, is giving Russia a firm ‘Nyet,’ leaving political football junkies to wonder- just how will this World Cup hosting clusterf*ck end?
We will try to update this post with Mid East KPA results. In the meantime, Doa-bo-jjah!
Just FYI Roy, the “correct” romanization of 또 보자 is ‘ddo boja’
DOH!!!!
How will this clusterfck end? Blatter will get what he wants and that’s it, point blank.
Lol. So apparently, Hong Myung Bo made his first public appearance since stepping down as coach:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/culturesports/2014/12/08/41/0702000000AEN20141208005700315F.html
And from that, I found out that his annual “Share the Dream” Football match will happen this Saturday. It’s a charity football event that raises money for treating young cancer patients.
A little info about it, if you’re at all interested:
It seems like Share the Dream features up and coming korean footballers mostly from the K-League.
Here’s the list of players who are involved (all written in Korean on this FB page): https://www.facebook.com/pages/SHARE-THE-DREAM-FOOTBALL-MATCH/168377123252283
The first team is “Team Love” and Ahn Jung Hwan is coaching it. The folks I recognize from this first squad are: Kim Seung Gyu / Jung Sung Ryong / Kim Seung Dae / Kang Su-il / Yun Il Lok / Jong Tae-Se
The 2nd is “Team Hope” and Kim Byung Ji is both coaching + playing as the goalkeeper… which is odd! This team has women footballers I recognize: Ji So Yun and Shim So Yeon (she captained the women’s squad at the Asian Games) Kim Jin Hyeon is on that list, along with Jang Hyunsoo / Park Jong Woo / Kim Minwoo and Ha Daesung (he’s been off my radar since the WC)
Yeah, ‘Team Love’ is a K League team (also has a couple of women players). ‘Team Hope’ is a overseas players + Kim Byung-ji/Lee Jong-ho.
http://iamkoream.com/mixed-korean-american-joins-korean-national-soccer-team/
An interesting article about one of the KNT callups, Kang Su-il. Didn’t even know about this guy until I read this.
Thanks for this. Im always amazed mixed race Koreans want to even represent Korea (Benson Henderson-UFC, Hines Ward-NFL) considering what these guys go through growing up or being exposed to life in Korea.
same could be said of any non-White in the US or a Euro nation in my opinion.
No WAY. Look at the number of mixed race athletes in those countries. Look at the number in Korea. Impossible to compare. Do you really think mixed race kids have the same abysmal number of opportunities in sports in the US as they do in Korea?
Please don’t get me wrong.. I’m not bashing Korea; it’s still largely homogenous, and the US definitely is not. It, like many countries, are not used to mixed races. It’s not a fair comparison, and I’m not trying to badmouth Korea. But… there’s a reason that Benson Henderson and Hines Ward were able to succeed… they grew up in the US. If they had grown up in Korea, I’m not sure they would have become famous for anything (obviously their sports are not as big in Korea, but I mean for ANYTHING). I can’t count on two hands (barely one) the number mixed race Koreans who are famous for any reason (sports, entertainment, politics, etc).
And you bet your ass I’m pulling for Kang Su-Il to make the cut. Largely for the above reasons I said.
Yeah mixed-race kids get a lot of sh*t, but it just depends on their mentality. Some will grow up to hate Korea and Koreans, others will become determined to show they’re just as “Korean” as those with two Korean parents. I’m super pleased for Kang Su-il as he’s one of my favorite players in the league. Don’t think he’ll make the final cut for the AC, but hopefully he’ll get to play in some friendlies/qualifiers in the coming years.