Yo, last weekend roundup result coming at you Tuesday since Ki and Swansea had a Monday night fixture with Stoke. How’s Bob Bradley’s Swans doing? Hmm…let’s change the subject and let me redirect you instead to Jinseok’s weekend roundup: Hwang Hee-Chan and Koo Ja-Cheol, both goalscorers for their respective clubs RB Salzburg and Augsburg. Fast forward to a few hours from now, Barcelona is at Man City in the Champions League – and in the alternate parallel universe of the UEFA Youth League, Lee Seung-Woo is in the 18 for Barca’s Juvenil A as they face their youth counterparts in Manchester. That kickoff is at 4pm EST/5am WED Korea Time. More after the jump…
Oh yeah, appears Koo had his 2nd child. Goal celebration in honor of that:
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Hwang Hee-Chan, he scored the lone and eventual game winning goal for RB Salzburg at home against Reid. Hwang has scored 3 goals in 2 matches and is starting to make a strong case that he may be the striker of the future for the KNT (check out the KNT call ups for the November WCQ). He should make the Europa League match with Nice on Thursday:
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Nov 3 – UEFA Europa League Group stage
 OGC Nice |
vs |
4:05 PM
Red Bull
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We go to Korean Footballers Abroad as we look to Wednesday’s Champions League clash at Wembley Stadium:
Wednesday
Son Heung Min — Tottenham host Leverkusen at 3:45 PM ET (Fox Sports 1 TV coverage in the US). With Tottenham struggling to generate consistent offense, Son’s performances go under greater scrutiny after his superb form before international break. So while his showing would have been a decent showing last season, it felt lacking against a tough Leicester side which gave all the attacking midfielders little room to attack. As is his habit when facing compact defenses, Son turns into too much of a playmaker vs. the occasionally reckless attacker he was during his good streak. Fortunately, he still seems confident with the ball so it is up to Son to take his good touches and be more risky in attack and assert himself even when things look tough.
He should start midweek but perhaps Pochettino might change things up with Tottenham continuing to run a bit flat.
and we rewind for Ki Sung-Yeung’s performance on Monday, Swans lost away to Stoke 3:1.
Ki Sung Yueng — Ki continued to show a lot of the class that seemed gone a while ago, with some really good dribbles, touches and passes. But such a terrible defensive performance from Swansea and Ki was a guilty party in that. Perhaps spoiled by having a Cork beside or Williams behind, but Ki too easily let his guy go free into the box. He seemed to find a bit more fight later in the match, such as chasing down a long counter well, but Ki and Fer was too soft a combo. Ki will need to step up on the defensive side if he wants to continue playing in a rough relegation fight.
Let’s go to Korea as it’s not only a wild time for the scandal plagued Blue House (with revelations of a rasputin-like figure Choi Soon-sil illegally calling the shots behind the scenes for president Park Geun-hye and may set the groundswell for impeachment –she’s being detained after returning from Germany), it’s an insane down to the wire finish for the K-League Classic and Challenge. Jae went over so many of the crazy permutations several days ago -and now finally here’s the results and we’ll briefly parse through them:
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Saturday, October 29
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Sunday, October 30
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Let’s go the table…
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#
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Team
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GP
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W
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D
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L
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GF
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GA
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GD
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PTS
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||
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1
|
|
36
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19
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16
|
1
|
67
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38
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29
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64
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||
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2
|
|
36
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19
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7
|
10
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64
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45
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19
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64
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||
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3
|
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36
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16
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7
|
13
|
68
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57
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11
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55
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||
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4
|
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36
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14
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10
|
12
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40
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46
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-6
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52
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||
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5
|
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36
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12
|
10
|
14
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42
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50
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-8
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46
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||
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6
|
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36
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12
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7
|
17
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53
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58
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-5
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43
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||
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7
|
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36
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11
|
12
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13
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39
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43
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-4
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45
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||
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8
|
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36
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9
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17
|
10
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52
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56
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-4
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44
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9
|
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36
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11
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10
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15
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46
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48
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-2
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43
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|
10
|
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36
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11
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9
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16
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41
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45
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-4
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42
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||
|
11
|
|
36
|
10
|
12
|
14
|
40
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48
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-8
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42
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12
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36
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9
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9
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18
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38
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56
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-18
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36
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- FC Seoul AND Jeonbuk weren’t able to get point separation, but Jeonbuk’s 5-0 win over Jeonnam gives them further goal difference edge. 64 points each, razor tight at the top with little room for error in the last final matches.
- With Suwon Bluewing’s dramatic comeback in the Suwon derby (2 goals in the final 10 minutes!), they pull away further from the bottom while Suwon FC seems doomed to relegation.
- Incheon’s 3 points critical in their efforts to stay just a notch ahead of auto relegation, 3-2 at home against Pohang – the Steelers are sweating bullets, even on points for the playoff/relegation position with Incheon.
Thus Wednesday’s midweek K-League Classic fixtures are absolutely critical with only 2 more rounds to go:
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Wednesday, November 2
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In the Challenge, it was a Super Sunday end of the season, with multiple teams fighting for the title and playoff positioning.
From soccerway.com:
Here’s the final look at the table:
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | D | P | Last 5 matches | H2H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ansan Mugunghwa | 40 | 21 | 7 | 12 | 57 | 55 | +2 | 70 | WLWLL | ||
| 2 | Daegu | 40 | 19 | 13 | 8 | 53 | 36 | +17 | 70 | WWDLW | ||
| 3 | Bucheon 1995 | 40 | 19 | 10 | 11 | 49 | 33 | +16 | 67 | WLDWW | ||
| 4 | Gangwon | 40 | 19 | 9 | 12 | 50 | 33 | +17 | 66 | DWLLW | ||
| 5 | Busan I’Park | 40 | 19 | 7 | 14 | 52 | 39 | +13 | 64 | LWWWW | ||
| 6 |  |
Seoul E-Land | 40 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 47 | 35 | +12 | 64 | WWWWW | |
| 7 | |
Daejeon Citizen | 40 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 56 | 52 | +4 | 55 | LDWWL | |
| 8 |  |
Gyeongnam | 40 | 18 | 6 | 16 | 61 | 58 | +3 | 50 | DLLWL | |
| 9 | Anyang | 40 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 40 | 53 | -13 | 46 | LWLLL | ||
| 10 | Chungju | 40 | 7 | 8 | 25 | 42 | 62 | -20 | 29 | DLWLL | ||
| 11 | Goyang Zaicro | 40 | 2 | 10 | 28 | 21 | 72 | -51 | 16 | LLLLL |
Ansan wins the title but can’t promote to the Classic. That means Daegu returns to the top flight after 3 years in the Challenge wilderness!
Seoul E-Land victory vs Busan wasn’t enough to slip into the playoffs -so despite Seoul’s 2-0 win, Busan manages to “fall back into the playoffs” by goal difference! Incredible. Bucheon, Gangwon and Busan will now prepare for the promotion playoff.
Extra time: as we said before, wild times in Korea right now. If you’re still catching up on the Park Geun-hye scandal, check out Ask a Korean blog’s excellent summary). Too early to speculate, but should there be a change of political power at the Blue House, the Korean football community may wonder if the political left can take the levers of power -and if so- can they amend mandatory military conscription to allow reasonable flexibility and allow the likes of Son Heung-Min to remain as a football ambassador in London for the Spurs as they pursue the EPL and Champions League titles?
Lee Seung-Woo has no future in Europe. He was little more than a sub for Barca.
Ki also maybe done in Europe once Swansea sinks. That club is done.
I know it’s your pet issue Roy, but the military issue will not come up with a government change (and it’s unlikely PGH will get impeached). While there is a connection, any change in the military conscription law will likely happen as the older (conservative) generation dies out and the the current younger ones get older. There was a recent – albeit unscientific poll – that showed a pretty clear split between the younger and older generations in terms of their view on mandatory military service. It could possibly change between now and the next election, but I also wouldn’t hold my breath on Korea’s liberal parties taking the Blue House. They seem far too split between the center-left and ‘far’ left, as seen in the last election with Moon Jae-in and Ahn Chul-soo. It remains to be seen if he’ll run, but the last polls I saw showed Ban Ki-moon well clear (I’m 99% sure Ban is a member of the conservative Saenuri party).
But wasn’t Ban appointed by Roh Moohyeon? And it takes a strange kind of Korean conservative to support gay marriage and abortion rights as UN Secretary General…
I’m assuming you’re referring to when he was Foreign Minister? Admittedly I’m not a close follower of Ban’s political positions, and yes I’d agree that it is unusual for a conservative in Korea to support gay marriage and abortion rights. That being said, my point was more that Roy’s comments seemed to indicate hope/belief that Korea was ready for a broad move to the left and was ready to elect a liberal president, and from what I read/hear/see that’s just not the case. Now if the two liberal parties can really pull together and put a strong unified front then maybe they’ll challenge.
Huh. Interesting. You’d think people would be cozying up to the centre left after a major scandal on the right. Korean politics are strange…
Not really. See the US election. People are too set in their political beliefs and affiliations. Plus it’s not like the left is entirely without scandal. Admittedly that last polling I saw was before all the recent mess, so who knows?