Just A Few Things - Ulsan Hyundai Vs. FC Seoul

Credit: Naver

Which Dragon Prevailed?

When news broke out that Ki Sung-yueng would be in Seoul’s matchday squad, the buildup to this match was focused towards the ‘Double Dragons’ consisting of Ki & Lee Chung-yong as the name ‘Yong/Yeung’ means ‘dragon’. Both of these players were an influential pair when they started out in FC Seoul so there was a lot of intrigue between these players now standing in opposing sides. Despite that fact, a picture was taken of the two just chilling out on the bench with smiles on their faces as they reconnect before the match.

So you can imagine what the feeling was when one of them just had to be on the scoresheet. A corner swung in and Junior Negrao’s header went to Lee Chung-yong who was just in front of goal, who then turned & scored the game’s opener. Chung-yong was then credited with the assist for the second goal. Lee Chung-yong was my pick for the man of the match after a great display on the pitch as he prevailed over his old club and winning the ‘Dragon Derby’ in the process.

But how about Seoul's own dragon Ki Sung-yeung? Maybe it isn’t fair to compare how these two players played as Ki Sung-yueng started from the bench. He eventually came on 66 minutes and he made some sort of impact. After being fouled a couple of times just minutes after he came on, he settled in quickly as he showed his qualities as a regista. Staying deep, occasionally deployed as a half-back to form a back three giving Seoul’s full-back license to go forward and play incisive passes (Long and short) that broke through Ulsan’s low line of engagement. There was some sort of calmness in the Seoul camp when Ki was on the pitch. It’s good to see Ki Sung-yeung back to where he started and his presence can relieve some creative burden on attacking midfielder Han Seung-gyu too.

Ulsan’s Approach

Seoul captain Ko Kwang-min did well to fortify the left side of Seoul defence, showing composure to defend that side while doing well going forward to where he even had a decent chance at goal. But the same couldn’t be said about Seoul’s right side of defence. Ulsan usually find themselves in great positions to attack down on the left side, especially around the half-space, with Koh Myong-jin and Junior having decent chances that perhaps could’ve been taken better.

It was almost the entire left side that Ulsan attacked during the first half, but they changed up the approach in the second half as they went down the middle before playing it down either wing. As time went on, Ulsan was content to drop deep and let Seoul have the possession considering they had a two goal lead at the time. They did however attack on the counter and that’s how they got their third goal into stoppage time thanks to late substitute Jung Sung-hoon who opted to go for himself and got the goal. All in all, a great day out for the Horangi.

Can He Do It?

Ulsan’s Brazilian hotshot Junior Negrao has now taken his goal tally to 21 goals in 18 league games after scoring from a yard out following another corner kick. The record for most goals scored in one season is held by K League legend Dejan Damjanovic when he was with FC Seoul, scoring 31 goals in the 2012 season. To compare how many goals these two strikers scored at the same stage in their respective seasons, Damjanovic only got 10 goals after 18 games before holding the record. That is twice the amount Junior has at this stage.

Putting that into perspective, it’s scary how lethal Junior has been this year. If this season goes about as normal on 38 games, no doubt Junior will be the new record holder. But no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the season has shortened to 27 games. So Junior only has 9 games if he wants to break that record and he has to score an average of 1.2 goals per game to do so. It will be a massive shame if Junior fails to get the magic number of 32 goals after such an impressive season.

A Difference In Quality

Later on though, Seoul finally got some grip into the match coinciding with Ulsan’s content to defend along with Ki Sung-yeung’s introduction. They went on to attack but when they do have the chance, the final product or final pass eventually let them down. Despite having a clear sight on goal Yun Ju-tae’s effort going agonizingly wide and Han Seung-gyu’s sliced snapshot with so much space to work sums up Seoul’s offence in this match.

Ulsan on the other hand almost never put a foot wrong with the way they approached the Seoul final third with their direct passes and clever movement, even though two out of their three goals came from set-pieces. Nevertheless, it is nothing short of what Ulsan deserved after they carried out their usual attacking exploits and they could’ve had one or two more.

To further put this in perspective, Ulsan had 15 shots with 11 on target while FC Seoul had 11 shots and only 3 on target, basically giving Ulsan keeper Jo Hyeon-woo a somewhat easy night. A stark difference on how potent up front comparing these both sides perfectly reflected to where they are in the league table now.