With Team Korea facing Paraguay with Uli Stielike’s first game in charge on Friday AND the U19 AFC Championship getting underway (Korea v Vietnam) on Thursday, there’s a bit going on to ‘chum-bee’ at the Tavern, but first – there’s been a bit of news/confusion surrounding Park Chu-Young transfer. Recently Park finally found a new club to relaunch his career with a move to Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab -only to hear in the French media about a possible January transfer to Ligue2’s Le Havre…as if Chu-Young’s career wasn’t strange enough -what in Buddha’s name is going on?
Korean Footballers Abroad’s Skimmilk first caught sight of this bit of info:
In fairly weird news, Park Chu Young linked with Jan move to L2 Le Havre (who coulda signed him last week instead): http://t.co/S0ehVRLp1N
— Korean Footballers (@KoreaFootAbroad) October 3, 2014
Park Chu-Young apparently was the target of the french club -but question was: why couldn’t he have signed last week with them instead of Al Shabab? According to Paris Normandy the owners of the Ligue2 club is working out the financials in order to upgrade the team -which they anticipate could take until the January transfer window. Translation: they don’t have the francs now, but might in a few months. Thus if everything works as they envision it, Park would get some playing time and shed rust in Saudi Arabia, then join during January transfer window as they make their final push to promotion. Currently in the Ligue2 table, Le Havre is in 7th place, but within striking distance of the promotion spots (2 points from the top 3, 5 points from 1st place Dijion). Le bien?
Quick K-League Classic fixture update: Ulsan v FC Seoul match is being made up very soon (Wednesday on US West Coast 10pm PST/ Thursday 1 am EST / 2pm Korea Time) Originally postponed due to semifinal Asian Champions League fixture (which FC Seoul were knocked out by Western Sydney), this important game may determine who will end up on either side of the split table.
We should be getting up a post soon about the much ballyhooed U19 Korea squad -their AFC Championship in Burma adventure begins tomorrow, with top spots granting admission to the U20 World Cup next year. The AFC issued their own preview of Group C (Korea, Vietnam, China, Japan). JInsoek will have a post up about this squad, which includes a pretty strong lineup with Barcelona’s Paik Seung-Ho, Almeria’s Kim Young-‘Kiu’, and Lyon’s Kim Shin among other bright prospects.
Group C fixtures
Korea vs Vietnam Thursday October 9 at 5am EST / 6pm Korea Time
China vs Korea Saturday October 11 at 8am EST / 9pm Korea Time
Korea vs Japan Monday October 13 at 5am EST/ 6pm Korea Time
Speaking of the U19’s, Lyon posted an interview in English regarding Kim Shin, who scored a hat trick against Paris’ U19 in a friendly in August, and that was just his first appearance. Not too shabby, you can read that interview here.
…one more about the U19 squad, there’s a player of mystery: Kim Seung-Ju -as far as anyone can tell – he’s the only Korean professional playing in the US – a midfielder for Orange County Blues, a USL Pro division (there’s some discussion whether they are a 2nd or 3rd tier league). The KFA website interviewed some of the squad and included this quote from him: “I was going to enter into a domestic university but the situation wasn’t good so I went to challenge the American stage after getting help from someone close. There are areas with stadiums that have natural turf and it helps to pass play which I like. I am apart from my family and live by myself so I am lonely, but because I can play I am happy. And like this I am selected to the national team so I am happy.” [Thanks to Jitvera for the translation on BSK].
Note: some Tavern goers actually sent comments earlier about tangentially knowing Kim and his presence at OC Blues. We’d love to hear more from our West Coast Tavern goers on Kim and his playing performance in the US.
This Friday and Tuesday next week there’s Korea vs Paraguay AND Korea v Costa Rica respectively to look forward to. We’ll have previews, player ratings and recaps of course. Here’s something about the KNT in training:
We’re about to end the kickaround but didn’t want to forget to include Ji So-Yun. She returned to England after winning bronze with the South Korean Women’s team in the Asian Games and played 83 minutes for Chelsea Ladies in a comprehensive 5-2 victory over Everton. Chelsea Ladies is currently tops in the FAWSL table and could win the championship if they win against Manchester City this Sunday.
Hello Taeguk Tavern Crew,
I have a question: I read on twitter from @KORFootballNews that Kim Shinwook is out for the rest of the reason at Ulsan Hyundai, because of the calf injury he got during South Korea’s AG match against Saudi Arabia. Was his injury severe enough for him to be out for the season? I’m just confused about that decision, because Lee Kwang Jong allowed him to play at the tail end of the AG gold medal match. Some clarification would be greatly appreciated!
I don’t know where he got that info (he didn’t source it), but I haven’t read/heard anything about his injury being season-ending. Kim Shin-wook left a video message for Ulsan fans via the team’s Twitter account, and he apologized for returning injured, but didn’t (from my recollection) say he was done for the year. I suspect that his injury is one of those that isn’t serious in terms of the damage (physically), but it may require a long time to fully heal. It strikes me that Lee KJ tried not to use Kim SW unless he felt it was absolutely necessary, and late in the gold medal game felt like that.