Seoul E-Land v Chungju Hummel: Preview

Seoul E-Land have moved this fixture from a 2pm slot to a 6pm to accommodate fans who complained about the hot weather in the Bucheon fixture. It's another scorcher today so that's probably been a good idea, but whether the team will be too hot for Chungju remains to be seen.

The wheels came off the E-Land bogey midweek with an unexpected 4-2 loss to Gangwon but they have the chance to make amends against perennial bottom-dogs Chungju straight away. The Hummel as absolutely no-one is calling them may not be prepared to lay down and die quite as easily as may have been expected though - at least not if their last two results are anything to go by.

Good wins against Gangwon and Gyeongnam have catapulted them into the heights of, well, second bottom but for Chungju that's not bad going. Fellow writer James Edrupt reported on the Gyeongnam match that the man to watch for Chungju is the Brazilian Marcinho who sports the famous number 27 shirt made famous by ... erm... that guy... the one who wore 27.

For Seoul it's hard to single out exactly who will be the key man. Partly because there are so many potential game changers in the side and partly because you never quite know whether the attack or defence will be key on the night. One guy I am excited to see again is Joo Min-kyu. He's pulled some spectacular stuff out of his bag of tricks in recent weeks and it'll be interesting to see what he has lined up for us this evening.

I'm starting the campaign to get him capped right here. Given Korea's dearth of goal-scorers Uli Stielike could do worse than give him a cheeky run-out rather than the inevitable recall of the over-30s which will no doubt be in the offing.

Another man to watch today will be Ryan Johnson who has been on the verge of something in his last couple of substitute appearances. I just have a sneaky feeling he might break his league duck tonight.

Key Man: Joo Min-kyu is getting all the plaudits of late and well deserved they are too. Some of his stuff recently has been absolutely sublime and I wouldn't bet against him getting on the scoresheet against Chungju.