Busan 0 Jeonnam 2: Recap

Photo via dragons.co.kr

The Dragons pick up their first road win of the season on a wet and ugly Sunday in Busan. 

The reported attendance was 1,598, but there seemed to be far fewer than that on hand to see Jeonnam pick up a much needed road win. After being utterly dismantled by Pohang 4-1 in a midweek fixture, the Dragons needed a big response and they got it against a still winless Busan side. Statistically speaking, the game was almost dead even on a soggy and nasty day. While Busan had 5 shots on target to Jeonnam's 2, the Dragons got em when they mattered and Kim Byung-Ji had a nice day between the sticks to preserve Jeonnam's third clean sheet in five matches.

Busan came out strong and had a decent shot in the 6th minute when former Dragon Weslley drilled one from distance, but Kim Byung-Ji easily tipped it over the bar. Though Jeonnam owned the majority of possession in the first half, Weslley would factor into the game again in the 24th minute. Attempting to capitalize on a defensive mistake, Weslley did well to strip the ball from Lim Jong Eun, pass it over, and get it back immediately, but went down far too easily outside of the box on a clean tackle from Kim Dong Cheol. Had he simply hopped Kim instead the ball was there to have a clean shot on net. Flailing for the free kick outside of the box squandered one of IPark's better chances in the half.

Stevica Ristić had a tremendous ball played through the middle of the field to him in the 40th minute, but he couldn't quite catch up to it before the alert Lee Chang-Geun cleared the danger. Seven minutes later, at the very end of stoppage time, Busan had a free kick within striking distance of the Jeonnam net. Joo Se Jong drilled one towards the far post, but again Kim Byung-Ji came up with the save to keep it scoreless at the half. Here's how things broke down at that point:

#JDFC with more of the possession and fewer shorts. Sounds about right. #KLeague pic.twitter.com/PKlNBbiWfC
— Ryan Walters (@MrRyanWalters) April 19, 2015

The Dragons began the second half playing well on the counter. After having the majority of possession in the first, Jeonnam was slightly on the back foot to a pushing Busan. Then in the 67th minute Lee Jong Ho made a fantastic run down the right side on a pretty give and go with Leandro Lima, slid to make the pass inside the six yard box and found a waiting Ristić who put it home for his second of the season. As pretty as the play was, the arm-in-arm Slip 'N Slide celebration between Lee and Ristić was almost better... almost.

Jeonnam got on the board again in the 86th minute when Ahn Yong Woo took advantage of a poor clearance from Busan's No Haeng Seok. The 23-year-old got possession inside the box, calmly settled the ball, and curled a left-footer by Lee Chang-Geun to ice the game. The goal was Ahn's first of the season and the first of what we Dragons fans hope to be many. If Jeonnam's to start getting more games out of the draw column and into wins, he and Ristić are going to have to continue to show like they did in this game.

Getting the full three points helped see the Dragons back into the top half of the table heading into Sunday's showdown with the undefeated league leaders, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Look for a full preview for that game later this week.

As always, any comments or reactions from the game are welcome in the comments below!