Good people of the Tavern, we will open our doors later today in about 6 hours for our next LIVE EVENT: Tavern Hangout with Jae, Jinseok and your truly, old Tavern owner. We will start at 5pm EST in the US : translates to 6 am in Korea. Hangout duration time: 1 hour. Get your drink orders ready. Here’s the youtube link:
We already have some questions submitted – but it’s not too late to ask questions with the comment section in this post. And if you want to interact and comment in real time with the Tavern writers during the live event, send it via twitter to me at @taeguk_warrior OR to Jae at @BusanIParkEng. IF you miss the event live, we’ll have the event archived on youtube, which you can see in this post or you can access via the Podcast/Hangout section tab.
…….and that’s a wrap. After a few minutes late start, the Hangout started by discussing the Asian Cup draw (and we even revisited the site of the old stadium in Seoul that hosted the 1960 Asian Cup, the very last time Korea won the damn tournament. It’s still there in it’s dilapidated glory (now the home of Seoul United, a fourth tier team).
The whole session was a bit lengthy, so to help navigate the Hangout and allow you to choose your own adventure: the first 25 minutes roughly was about the Asia Cup draw, possible opponents in the knockout stage and about which tournament is more important, the Asia Games (September 2014) or the Asia Cup (January 2015). One could win team members military exemption but the other could win glory, European transfers for individual players and a trip to the Confederations Cup…
Part 2 centered on Korean players mostly in Europe (and Nam Tae-Hee). That session lasted from around the 25 minutes to the 60 minute mark. Lots of interesting developments, including Yun Suk-Young’s re-emergence, Ki and Son’s performances of late and much more. Oh yeah, Jae posed an interesting question: with the possibility of Sunderland getting relegated, would A. Ki return to Swansea B. Stay at Sunderland C. Move to another club —and if so – which one? Our discussion led us to muse about Liverpool. Tune in to find out our reasoning why. Brenden Rodgers – if you’re reading – let me put a bug in your ear about Ki…
The 3rd and final segment from about the 60 minute mark on toward the end focused on recent happenings in the K-League, including current and potential players that could make the World Cup squad. We also mused on the rumours (probably far fetched) that Park Ji-Sung could play out the final years of his career in the K-League (which team could he potentially play for? Tune in to find out). At the very least, Ji-Sung moving to Korea could spark a resurgence of interest from Koreans in their own domestic league – much like David Beckham did by moving to the MLS in 2007. Other than that, could there be a way to move the masses into turning out for meagerly attended K-League games and away from yagu (baseball) stadium? We discuss this and more on this edition of the Tavern Hangout…
And one more simple question for you all: Who will win the Asian Cup, 10 months out? I know we’re all focusing on the World Cup, obviously, but Korea are serious contenders in the Asian Cup so why not make a bold prediction! 🙂
Sorry, this question wasn’t seen before we did the hangout. Jinseok made his bold prediction though. I won’t though. Sorry, 10 months is too far. So much can happen then. But Korea should at least be at the finals.
Just wanted to thank you guys about the work you put into this site; I am MUCH more informed about the korean soccer scene now because of all your efforts, thanks a lot.
You are more than welcome, but really thanks goes to Jae (waking up at 6 AM in Korea!!) and Jinseok -they’ve been tremendous. I just serve the drinks and try to keep everyone positive and happy…