Weekend Roundup March 8-10 / Tavern Kickaround

Before we get to the weekend roundup, we saw this tweet about the very tall forward, Kim Shin-Wook:

Ulsan Hyundai manager Kim Ho-Gon has confirmed Kim Shin-Wook will leave the team for Europe in this summer.

— Korea Football News (@KORFootballNews) March 11, 2013

Well well well, the Wookie is set to join a European team…wait, which European team? If January’s late transfer rejection of QPR’s bid for his services was any indication, his team choices might not be too bad of an option. To be continued…

Another item before the weekend roundup: the K-League, otherwise known as the new 2nd division of Korean professional football, changed it’s name right before the league was about to get underway. They will now be known as the ‘K-League Challenge’. The rationale made by organizers: calling the 2nd division ‘the K-League’ could add to people’s confusion, as that was the name the 1st division went by for many years. This season, the new 1st division is now the ‘K-League Classic,’ which has been heavily panned by the Tavern along with most other bloggers. Actually, the Tavern has an interesting insight to this name change, one that for now we won’t disclose until later this week. We like throwing a little intrigue and mystery every now and then…

Wait wait, one last item before the roundup begins:

Weekend Roundup

Germany

Bundesliga

Augsburg  M  Ji Dong-Won: 82 minutes in a 1-2 loss to Nurnberg

Augsburg  M  Koo Ja-Cheol: 90minutes in a 1-2 loss to Nurnberg

Greuther Furth  F  Park Jung-Bin: 90 minutes in a 0-3 loss to Hoffenheim  *Park’s first start and first full game for Greuther Furth. Showed flashes of promise despite not scoring.

Hamburg  F  Son Heung-Min: last 20 minutes in a 0-1 victory at Stuttgart.

2.Bundesliga 

Sandhausen  F  Yun Ju-Tae: last 17 minutes in 0-1 loss to TSV 1860 Munich

SPAIN

La Liga

Celta Vigo  F  Park Chu-Young: last 10 minutes in a 1-2 loss to Real Madrid. Jae wrote up his observations of the match in an earlier post — incredibly heartbreaking on Sunday as Park was SO CLOSE to scoring against Real Madrid yet again. Park’s 89th minute header from a Pranjic cross looked certain to get into the top of the net, having already beaten keeper Diego Lopez -instead it crashed against the center crossbar. So incredibly unlucky. Except for his first nervous touch, Park looked dynamic for Celta and did everything but score in the few minutes out there against Real Madrid. If Park manages to keep his chin up and not get too discouraged, his performance should convince coach Abel Resino to give him additional playing time for Celta.

ENGLAND

Premier League

Swansea  M  Ki Sung-Yeung: 90 minutes in a 1-2 loss at West Bromich Albion. Controversy with a disputed offsides call against Lamah prevented what could have been the equalizer for the Swans.

QPR  D  Yun Suk-Young: not in 18 man roster in QPR’s 0-3 win at Sunderland.

QPR  M  Park Ji-Sung: 90 minutes in a 0-3 victory at Sunderland. It was Park Ji-Sung’s 150th EPL appearance, representing 7 + years, mostly with Manchester United. Park for his part earned praise from Rednapp who apparently ‘gambled’ with repositioning Park in the center of the midfield along with Stephane Mbia. The Rangers, who only a few weeks ago looked hopelessly adrift at the bottom of the table, still are at the bottom -with a caveat: their 2 wins in a row (first Premier League back to back wins since 1995) they are a mere 2 potential points from reaching the shores of safety. Take a look at the bottom of the table:

15		Sunderland																					30
16		Southampton																					28
17		Aston Villa																					27
18		Wigan Athletic																					24
19		Reading																					23
20		Queens Park Rangers																					23

One last note: my local Washington Post newspaper has sparse football coverage. It’s the United States after all, where ‘football’ is known by the brain damaging variety. The Post did mention the Celta Vigo / Real Madrid match, however it gave only a few brief sentences about it, highlighting Cristian Ronaldo’s 2 goals. In the name-game that sometime is all important in world of international football, it was Park Chu-Young’s that was missing – a name that could’ve been etched in ink here in Washington DC -had he scored the glorious equalizer. This damn game comes down to mere centimeters – so close, yet so far away. Of all of his close chances at scoring this season, a few of those opportunities came from his 3 encounters with Real Madrid. If any of them had converted, who knows in what way that could’ve changed destiny and fortune, both for Park and for Celta – a rip in the space/time continuum if you will. The season is not over, and despite some setback recently for Park’s progress within the team (as well as negative press coverage in the Spanish press for his lack of goals scored -unfairly not taken into account his lack of minutes given), those 10 minutes Park was on the pitch against Real Madrid represented something tangible and positive. This match will be long forgotten, but if coach Abel did indeed see the game that everyone in the Balidos and around the football televised world witnessed, we haven’t seen the last of Park yet, nor of the possible role he could play to help the team overcome the obstacles to stay up in La Liga.