Weekend listings and previews for our Korean Players Abroad. Congratulations to Park Joo-Ho and Borussia Dortmund for making the finals of the DFB Pokal. They won Hertha Berlin 3-0 in the Semi Finals and will be facing Bayern Munich in the finals in Berlin. Hopefully Borussia Dortmund can carry a trophy this year. Unfortunately, Park Joo-Ho didn’t play today as he was excluded from the squad list. Like Jinseok, I have given up on this season too. Last season (2014-15) was incredible I just wish this season will end quickly. Apart from Son Heung-Min and Lee Chung-Yong all our players are playing away games this week. Match to watch this week: FC Porto vs Academica. What will you be watching this week?
| Day | Time (ET) | Player | Club | Opponent |
| Saturday | 9:30 AM | Park Joo-Ho | Borussia Dortmund | @Stuttgart |
| Saturday | 9:30 AM | Koo Ja-Cheol | Augsburg | @Wolfsburg |
| Saturday | 9:30 AM | Ji Dong-Won | Augsburg | @Wolfsburg |
| Saturday | 9:30 AM | Hong Jeong-Ho | Augsburg | @Wolfsburg |
| Saturday | 7:15 PM | Suk Hyun-Jun | FC Porto | @Academica |
| Sunday | 9:30 AM | Kim Jin-Su | Hoffenheim | @Borussia Monchengladbach |
| Sunday | 11:00 AM | Lee Chung-Yong | Crystal Palace | Watford (FA Cup Semi-Final) |
| Sunday | 11:15 AM | Ki Sung-Yueng | Swansea City | @Leicester City |
| Monday | 3:00 PM | Son Heung-Min | Tottenham Hotspur | West Brom |
Park Joo-Ho was excluded from the squad list today against Hertha Berlin but was in the reserves last week against Hamburg. I expect him to make a bench appearance this week against Stuttgart. Maybe he will get subbed on later as I expect Borussia Dortmund to make a lot of rotations to rest their players.
Koo Ja-Cheol was the only Korean Players Abroad who played full 90 minutes last week. Kind of surprising that he was the only player who played a full league game. I expect him to start again against Wolfsburg. Augsburg really needs a win to stay out of the relegation zone.
Ji Dong-Won is still injured.
I don’t know why Hong Jeong-Ho was benched last week. He was subbed on later in the game but only played for 5 minutes. I expect him to start or make bench this week against Wolfsburg.
As Suk Hyun-Jun is the second striker at Porto he hasn’t been getting enough minutes which demonstrates his declining form. He was a unused sub last week. I expect him to make the reserves again this week.
Kim Jin-Su is currently suffering from a thigh injury, this is why he has been missing training and only participating in individual training. I expect him to either be out of the squad list this week or make the reserves.
Lee Chung-Yong started today against Manchester United but was subbed out early. I expect him to make a bench appearance in the FA Cup Semi Final’s against Watford this week.
Son Heung-Min was subbed on in injury time last week against Stoke City. He should make bench this week.
What we have to remember is that we can’t constantly expect all of our players to be regular starters. Especially the ones who haven’t grown up in a European style team background.
Sonny is young, and needs to grow and learn his way in the EPL, it may well take him a bit over one season to do that, we know him and we know he will eventually earn his spot, he hasn’t done bad this season in my opinion.
Kim Jin Su’s unfortunate demise is purely bad luck in a declining Hoffenheim team, managers won’t use players in positions that often get exploited. Same goes with Jooho, he’s playing in a team that (in my opinion) is still one of the best in the world on it’s day.
Only because of their drop and transfers, people seem to quickly forget that Porto are also a world class team, and the Portuguese ligue is highly competitive and the quality is up there with the big four leagues, so of course Suk HJ will not be a regular starter mid way through the season(when he transferred)!
To me, Ki is the real disappointment purely for the fact that he seems pretty stubborn, and with changing managers, you often have to change your tactics to benefit the team, something he struggles to do often. It seems he takes a style, sticks with it for a few years, and when it’s no longer useful it takes him another year or so to rebound.
Chungy is really misfortunate me thinks, Pardew takes him for granted but then he has a wealth of talent so, in a managers point of view, why would he choose Chungy? We don’t know how they train, and maybe our KPA’s just aren’t pushing hard enough to warrant a starting spot?
Let’s not give up on them because they haven’t been playing, they’ll bounce back guys 🙂