First Impressions - Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Vs. Suwon Samsung Bluewings

The climate of life forced football (and a lot of other things) to sit at the backseat of a car that is now driven forward by health frontliners to contain the Coronavirus pandemic. There are some countries that have dealt with the coronavirus effectively while there are others whose efforts just doesn’t work (That is putting it lightly). Therefore, life came to a standstill. The amazing efforts of one of those countries have lead to restrictions being eased and in turn, the return of sports in their backyard. The football world are taking their seats and watching. Ladies and gentleman of world football, now premiering: South Korea’s K. League 1.

First, a little bit of a preview of the league works this year. Because the pandemic took a huge chunk of time this year, the K. League (One & Two) will only see them playing 27 games in contrast to their usual 38 games in a season. For the K. League 1, teams will be playing the normal the home-and-away format for 22 games. Once every team reaches that threshold, teams will play their final five games against other teams who are in the same half of the league table as they are. Another thing you and I might not be used to is that the league uses the number of goals scored for the tiebreaker ahead of goal difference and head-to-head. Strange, right? This proved to be crucial in deciding last year’s league champions, in which we will go into later.

Similar to how the Malaysia Super League organized their first match of the new season, the K. League also have their defending league champions to pit against the domestic cup winners for the opening match. However, there is no Piala Sumbangsih trophy on the line. But it does create the hype for the opener. This year, the opener will see teams that went through contrasting fortunes last season.

If I have to choose which team is the Johor Darul Takzim of the K. League, I would choose Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Jeonbuk has won an impressive five out of the last six league championships where they were mostly under the guidance of Choi Kang-Hee. Current manager Jose Morais, who happens to be one of Jose Mourinho’s former assistants, continued the great work when he took over in his first season last year. But they just barely retained the title only winning it by scoring just ONE goal more than runners-up Ulsan Hyundai that saw them overtake the Horangi to first on the final matchday (Another story for another time). Even so, I expect Jeonbuk to have another go at the title, especially following a good transfer market by resigning talismanic midfielder Kim Bo-Kyung, permanently signing defender Hong Jeung-ho after being here on loan and recruiting the likes of ex-Gyeongnam midfielder, Takahiro Kunimoto (Who scored against JDT last year in the AFC Champions League on the final group matchday), South African striker Lars Veldwijk from Sparta Rotterdam & young striker Cho Kyu-Seong from K. League 2 side FC Anyang. But questions have to be asked on how they keep their discipline in check where they have a total of three red cards so far in their first two AFC Champions League matches.

However, their opponents are going through a rough patch for quite some time. Malaysian football fans are perhaps more familiar with Suwon Samsung Bluewings as they recently visited Johor for an AFC Champions League match, which saw the JDT stunningly victorious over their South Korean visitors with a 2-1 win. While there was joy for Suwon in lifting the Korean FA Cup last year in I can see was a crazy tournament (Again, another story for another time), they finished an alarming eighth place in the league. It could’ve been a whole lot worse had it not been for their star striker, Australian international Adam Taggart, who scored 20 goals to finish as the league’s top scorer. However, it appears there have been problems lingering on and off-the-pitch for quite some time now at Suwon. Such examples have been inconsistency according to K. League United’s editor-in-chief, Ryan Walters who spoke to The Asian Game podcast about Suwon and ownership changes & budget cuts, according to Steve Han, who is the South Korean football writer for Goal. Suwon is managed by Lee Lim-Saeng, who was a former head coach of Home United (Now known as Lion City Sailors) in Singapore from 2010-2014. Lim-Saeng has his work cut out for him to deliver this season. But the way they started off in the AFC Champions League, I just don’t see it.

Having said almost everything about these two teams, Jeonbuk is expected to dispatch Suwon in the opener provided they don’t implode like they did in their Champions League campaign so far. However, they do have history on their side as Steve Han pointed out that Jeonbuk are undefeated in opening games since 2013. But just like life, you’ll never know what will happen in football. Now… Let’s get the season opener underway!

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors

As expected, Kim Bo-Kyung leads the midfield with Son Jun-Ho & Lee Sueng-Gi alongside him with Takahiro Kunimoto fit enough for the bench after being a doubt. Cho Kyu-Seong is chosen as the striker ahead Lee Dong-Gook. Dong-Gook though is on the bench while Veldwijk is not in the squad due to injury. With Dong-Gook on the bench, defender Choi Bo-Kyung will be the captain, partnering Hong Jeung-Ho at defence.

Jeonbuk though looked far more creative effectively, they were limited to shots from long range due to Suwon piling bodies inside their own box. As time went on, they were getting more and more creative as they found Murilo & Cho Kyu-Seong in promising positions inside the Suwon box, only for them to fluff their lines.

Jeonbuk continued where they left off in the second half and looked to get it going from the restart. Chances by Kim Jin-su & Han Kyo-won and a promising free-kick delivery by Murilo were all spurned within a space of ten minutes. On the hour mark, Jeonbuk made a double change as they brought out offensive reinforcements: Lee Dong-gook & Takahiro Kunimoto for Murilo & Cho Kyu-Seong.

The changes proved to be crucial as 41-year old Dong-gook headed in a corner near post for the match-winner. Jeonbuk will surely feel they deserve that after they spent 95% of the match (In my view) attacking and holding the ball.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

Ok, before we get to how Suwon did: Yes, the title said ‘First Impressions’, but having already seen Suwon in action against JDT, I would say this would be a ‘second’ impression of them. My first time watching them left me unimpressed. Other than Terry Antonis’ wonder strike, Suwon just looked labored and don’t look that much threatening that time.

They made two changes from that defeat to JDT. Terry Antonis & Park Dae-won comes in, replacing Choi Sung-keun & Min Sang-gi where neither of them making the bench too.

The defence though did well to give some trouble for the Jeonbuk attackers to penetrate the final third as they transition smoothly from a three-man defence to a five-man defence when out of possession while looking to close down the wings when the ball makes their way there. Doneil Henry has definitely been such a rock-solid player in keeping that defence teak along with having some idea in playing the long ball.

When it comes to attack, Suwon looked far more urgent compared to their match in Johor as they tried to break through the Jeonbuk defence with neat passing. Problem was they do not have a lot of possession during the first half. So they were still not as threatening as they would like

They continue to keep their defensive approach, but they couldn’t keep possession for more than a minute except for one spell. But all their plans went out of the window after Antonis got sent for a horrible challenge on Son Jun-ho with 15 minutes to go. And their worst fears were realized when they conceded with less than six minutes to go.

Overall:

It’s clear that Jeonbuk have creative juice within them. Even against a tough Suwon defence, they had a few times to make that breakthrough, but just couldn’t sort out the killer finish in time. Kim Bo-kyung will definitely be the key player to lead the attacks. Their starting front three of Murilo, Kyu-seung and Han Kyo-won though looked labored if they face a defence like this so hopefully this will be one of those days. However, Lee Dong-gook, who has been with club since 2009, has shown that despite his age, he can be counted upon. Although, we’ll have to see what Song Bum-Keun and the Jeonbuk defence can do for another time as they were largely untroubled.

As for Suwon, I can see the urgency going forward (Provided they do get the ball) and I can see the impressive defensive discipline as Doneil Henry is proving to be a great signing so far. It’s clear what Lim-Saeng was trying to do here, but of course, they can’t do this all the time, especially when their hitman, Taggart (No pun intended) looked like a passenger when he doesn’t want to be one. Overall, defensively, they are good. Attacking, well… not that good here.

Before I finish, I just want to say a huge thanks to Mr. Ryan Walters and his team of the K League United website along with Tavern Of The Taegeuk Warriors and Steve Han for providing the info and resources to prepare for the season opener.

Azri FirmanMay 8, 2020K-League