Fashionably late roundup, few bits of interesting transfer info, let’s quickly get to it. Not a sexy weekend of results but there’s some hint of progress, particularly at Augsburg.
Speaking of which, today Dec 20 is a midweek fixture between BVB and Augsburg: 2pm US EST kickoff / US TV: FS1
–most likely Ji and Koo will start but Park Joo-Ho not likely for BVB but we’ll see…
Weekend Roundup 12.16-12.18
Ji Dong Won started as usual for Augsburg, but the good news of Koo Ja-Cheol returning to the starting XI was welcome return from injury recuperation. No goals between the two, but a good result as Augsburg defeated Borussia Monchengladbach 1:0 in spite of a surprise midseason managerial change (Manual Baum takes over as interim caretaker). With the win, the plucky bavarian side leapfrogs above M’Gladbach to 12th in the Bundesliga table.
Lee Chung-Yong started earlier last week but on Saturday benched and unused this weekend for Crystal Palace’s clash with table leading Chelsea. They dispatched CP 0:1 and hapless manager Alan Pardew seems to be heading one step further towards getting sacked.
Ki Sung-Yeung still out with toe injury – not sure when he will return but it couldn’t come soon enough as we witnessed an abysmal Swansea 3:0 loss to Middlesbrough. How long before the board will cut their losses with the Bob Bradley experiment?
Son Heung-Min came in the 72nd minute of Spurs win against Burnley. Son had a few decent chances at scoring (apologies as I didn’t get to watch this, but the twittersphere indicated ‘Son looked lively’. I’ll take their word for it). Spurs stay above Man U and just a point shy of Arsenal who hold the 4th spot on the EPL table.
Not 1st division football, but last week, Lee Seung-Woo scored a hattrick for Barcelona’s Juvenil A squad. Here’s a video recap, pretty outstanding quality finishes:
https://twitter.com/FCBmasia/status/809744911662624768
There’s strong signals coming from LaMasia coaches indicating Lee Seung-Woo will be promoted to Barca B next month. He’ll join Paik Seung-ho, who was in the 18 man roster over the weekend for Barca B’s last match of the month.
Other fixtures this past weekend: in Austria RB Salzburg vs Wolfsberger AC – Hwang Hee-Chan going 90 minutes and notching in the 6th minute an assist, providing the opportunity for Minamo to score. Salzburg would go on to win 3:0.
and in the 2.Bundelsliga St Pauli v Bochum would eventually end even 1:1, Choi Kyong-Rok going the full 90 minutes.
Some transfer news affecting 2 KPA LBs:
Free agent leftback Yun Suk-young, who recently left Brondby, has made an agreement in principle to join Japanese side Kashiwa Reysol.
— Steve Han (@RealSteveScores) December 19, 2016
Kim Jin-Su is in Korea at the moment, his grandmother is reportedly dying.
Jeonbuk are still waiting for Hoffenheim leftback Kim Jin-su to accept their offer, but the player remains reluctant to leave Europe.
— Steve Han (@RealSteveScores) December 17, 2016
Some rumors ( legit are indicating several teams including La Liga side Espanyol are considering dealing for Jeonbuk’s Lee Jae-Sung.
One transfer fear that’s been extinguished : Ki Sung-Yueng is not going to China and staying in Europe. I believe he mentioned the playing level not up to par. On that note, we get word that Chelsea’s Oscar and former Man U and Man City forward Tevez are both taking the Yuan and moving to the CSL. Daniel Taylor writing last week for the Guardian wrote about Oscar’s move in abject terms. As in, “he will pay a heavy price (career wise)” for taking easy money.
“Rooney’s advisers went on a fact‑finding mission to China last spring and reported back that the pitches were appalling, the standard as bad as everyone thought, and the referees even worse, in a league blackened by tales of match-fixing and bribery.”
But could the above observation be a hysterical western bias against the Chinese football?
Bear in mind, in the Club World Cup final, Kashima Antlers surprised Real Madrid and caught them off guard, taking the European giants to extra time with Ronaldo netting extra time goals to notch an uncomfortable 4-2 victory last weekend. Jeonbuk nearly pulled off an upset of their own playing against Club America earlier in the Club World Cup; they shocked the Mexican side as the Koreans looked quite dominant at times. The difference, however, is that the Asian clubs representing this year were J league and K league quality. No doubt CSL is catching up, but the assessment seems on point. The CSL at this stage of the game is relatively poor. Without being too harsh on the decision made by some Korean players that wander to China –by simply playing day in and day out in a subpar league, those players’ form does demonstrably suffer as a result.
Meanwhile in Korea, the coaches best of selection in the K-League:
#Kleague best XI as selected by the coaches pic.twitter.com/VcVWV70j9J
— Jae (이재혁) (@ArmchairRegista) December 19, 2016
Kwoun Suntae; Choi Chulsoon, Kim Gwangseok, Osmar, Hong Chul; Lopes, Lee Jaesung, Kim Bokyung, Leonardo; Adriano, Jung Jogook
— Jae (이재혁) (@ArmchairRegista) December 19, 2016
And the KFA announced the people’s online poll chose Son Heung-min’s Olympic group stage goal against Germany as their Goal of the Year. He was also named top attacker of the year in the poll.
U20 news:
Shin Tae-Yong unofficially debuted as team manager for a 0-3 exhibition loss to Busan IPark yesterday. They play again today. Future fixtures in January will include the Korean trio at La Masia.
Korea U20 will then start training camp in Portugal on 16 Jan when Barca's Lee Seung-woo, Paik Seung-ho & Jang are expected to join the team
— Steve Han (@RealSteveScores) December 18, 2016
A much more ‘normal’ looking U19 side beat Busan’s experimental side 3-1 in the second match. Han Chanhee was reportedly “quite lively” as they say.
Cool. Busan experimental side, would you describe that as a young-ish team fielded by Busan?
In Korean (K League) terms it’s a bit young (mainly university aged), but not in overall world football terms.