Week listings and previews for our Korean Players Abroad December 9-11 + Jeonbuk v Club America at Club World Cup

Hello all,

Although half our KPA’s are currently sidelined by injuries or benched, our other half had a very good previous weekend. Great goals by Son Heung-Min, Ji Dong-Won and Hwang Hee-Chan. Hope we can see more goals this week too. Match to watch this week: Manchester United vs Spurs. 🙂

Don’t forget: Jeonbuk winning Asian Champions League means they are in the Club World Cup. Jeonbuk v Club America on Dec 11, 2AM US EST / 4pm Korea Time. More after the jump…

Day	Time (ET)	Player	Club	Opponent	TV
Friday	9:30AM	Kim Jin-Su	Hoffenheim	@Frankfurt	FOX Sports 2
Friday	12:00PM	Suk Hyun-Jun	@Trabzonspor	Adanaspor	Nil
Saturday	9:30AM	Ji Dong-Won	Augsburg	@Hamburg	FOX Soccer Plus
Saturday	9:30AM	Koo Ja-Cheol	Augsburg	@Hamburg	FOX Soccer Plus
Saturday	9:30AM	Park Joo-Ho	Borussia Dortmund	@Koln	FOX Sports 2
Saturday	10:00AM	Ki Sung-Yueng	@Swansea City	Sunderland	CNBC, NBC Sports APP
Saturday	10:00AM	Lee Chung-Yong	Crystal Palace	@Hull City	NBC Sports App
Sunday	9:15AM	Son Heung-Min	Tottenham Hotspur	@Manchester United	NBCSN

 

Kim Jin-Su hasn’t starting any league games and made no bench appearances this season. I expect it to be the same this week too. He should definitely think about a move in January.

Suk Hyun-Jun hasn’t started in the league in ages, although he started in the Cup game last week. Looks like Suk Hyun-Jun has been replaced by second choice striker Dame N’Doye. N’Doye has been scoring in crucial games and has been starting over Suk Hyun-Jun. I expect Suk to make bench against Adanaspor this week.

Ji Dong-Won scored the only goal for Augsburg last week. Good to see him on the score sheet. As a regular starter, he should start again against Hamburg this weekend. Check out Ji’s goal from last week’s game below.

Tavern Owner interrupting:

We mentioned Jeonbuk at the Club World Cup, the QF with Mexican side Club America will be on Sunday Dec 11 at 2AM US EST/4pm Korea time (US broadcast on FS1). Should they beat Club America, they advance to semis with Real Madrid on Dec 15. If they lose to Club America, there’s the 5th place match on Dec 14. Good luck to the green machine!
Meanwhile we revisit the Augsburg /Eintracht game last Sunday: Ji was robbed of what should’ve been the game winner – check out Heon’s highlight reel of Ji’s performance against Eintracht Frankfurt, starting at 2:28 -then check out a different camera angle at 2:40 and you can see how the refs got it wrong.

Ji still had a very strong Man of the Match performance, but both Ji and Augsburg have reason to be upset with the erroneous decision by the refs. Now back to Nicole…

 

Koo Ja-Cheol has returned to training, too early for him to start league games. He should be out for a couple more weeks.

First of all, congrats to Dortmund for topping their Champion’s League group and for breaking a new record of scoring the most goals in a UCL group stage (they scored a total of 21 goals). I don’t expect Park Joo-Ho to be included in the squad list this week too. There are reports of him searching for a new club. Hope he chooses a club where he gets a decent amount of playing time.

Ki Sung-Yueng is currently injured with a minor toe injury. He should be out for a couple of weeks too.

Lee Chung-Yong just returned from injury, he should make the bench this week against Hull City.

Son Heung-Min scored one goal and provided one assist last week against Swansea City last weekend. As a regular starter, he should start against Manchester United this weekend. Tough game for Spurs this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP-3bsXT_wQ

Extra Time: Tavern Owner here again to observe history in the making, Park Guen-hye impeached for the widening “Choi Soon-Sil gate” corruption scandal that has rocked Korea and sent millions into the streets to protest. From the Washington Post: A total of 234 lawmakers voted in favor of the impeachment motion Friday, well beyond the two-thirds majority, or 200 votes, that proponents of impeachment needed to oust the president…People who gathered in front of the National Assembly chanted, “We won, we won!” after the results were announced, while others danced and waved South Korean flags.

What’s next: Park Guen-hye relieved of her duties – Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, a former justice minister has temporarily taken over. The Constitutional Court will vote in , 6 out of 9 justices needed to uphold impeachment on constitutional grounds.

This represents a new day for Korean democracy – though trying to explain that to my 4 year old is an abstract bridge too far. I simply boiled it down to “Park Guen-hye was being naughty and needs to sit in time out.”