Weekend Recap 9/30-10/1 and looking ahead to KNT trip to Europe

What up, late recap (but better late than never). Dealing with a death in the family. Just hug your loved ones and appreciate every goddamn moment you have with them, it’s the only time you and I have.

 

To Korean Footballers Abroad:

International break coming up. A bit more action than anticipated.

Son Heung Min — Came on in final minutes of match but did have a good move when he got the opportunity, dribbling well and feeding a good pass that would lead to a goal.

Ji Dong Won — As things go well for Augsburg, Ji remains left out even if the attacking options for Augsburg haven’t been fully convincing. Hopefully he gets a chance sooner or later.

Koo Ja Cheol — After suffering a concussion last weekend, he apparently recovered enough to make the bench, and when Khedira went out with injury, Koo came on late in the first half. I haven’t gotten to watch all of his minutes but he looked good in the parts I saw. The major error was a shirt grab that  was called for a PK on VAR which was dubious.

Lee Chung Yong — Made the bench. Wasn’t involved in the huge beating that Crystal Palace suffered.

Ki Sung Yueng — He played an hour with the reserves. He started off pretty sluggishly but started to find some rhythm towards the end of the first half (I didn’t watch his last 15 min).

Kwon Chang Hoon — Came on as a late sub but had a good impact, knocking in a good cross for a goal. Unfortunately, Dijon managed to concede in final minute.

Lee Seung Woo — An unused sub. Verona did waste a sub on an injury but it was surprising he didn’t come on despite them getting beaten down again. If you’re gonna lose bad, you’d think that you’d play your kids to give them time to develop. Hopefully he takes advantage of international break to earn a bigger role going forward.

Suk Hyun Jun — Was a starter… but then was taken off after 30 minutes when Troyes picked up a red card and needed a tactical substitution. But a positive sign as Suk seems to be progressing in his integration.

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/VideosCDL1/status/914213212647772161

Extra note: Suk Hyun-Jun first start – not too shabby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=219&v=LfQYIxFt1FY

 

Moving on, Shin Tae-Yong announced that overseas Korean footballers will get the call ups for the international break friendlies Oct 7 Russia v KNT and Oct 10 Morocco v Korea. The K-League players will get a break from traveling to Europe as the league had given Shin an extra couple of days and a postponed league matchday for the last WCQ matches back in September. That matchday will be made up this upcoming weekend.  But by overseas, Shin included players in J-League, CSL and Middle East.

 

남자 국가대표팀 친선경기 배번 공개!

대한민국🇰🇷️ vs.🇷🇺️러시아
10월 7일 (토) 밤 11시 – SBS중계 📺
대한민국🇰🇷️ vs.🇲🇦️모로코
10월 10일 (화) 밤 10시 30분 – MBC중계 📺#대한민국국가대표팀 #러시아전 #모로코전 pic.twitter.com/RS0qaaR8Ku

— theKFA (@theKFA) October 5, 2017

We’ll have a proper preview coming up. We’re on the run but I leave you with this stunning view from a stadium hacked to fit FIFA standards in Russia for the 2018 WC

MUST SEE: Stadium in Russia, in order to be compliant for the 2018 World Cup, has, um, added more seats. pic.twitter.com/7aT69bU3rP

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 4, 2017

From what we’re told, the view is not ideal -understatement of the year candidate.  That said, K-League is in many respects suffering from “World Cup-itis” in that the aftermath of 2002, World Cup stadiums in Korea are simply too big to accommodate the needs of the local football communities for a proper environment/atmosphere. Now, 15 years later, nearly empty stadiums = lack of revenue, bad optics for TV, which viciously spirals into other consequences for domestic football such as negative TV revenue, and so on.  From South Africa to Brazil – that story is repeating itself in underutilized stadiums too big for the local football communities. That said, this temporary solution shown above goes to the heart of why FIFA’s corrupt awarding 2018’s World Cup hosting rights to Russia is bonkers.