Jeonnam 2-0 Seoul: A Postmortem

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I will let Ryan write about the game since his team won.  However, I will put in my thoughts about the game and the goals. I had a bad feeling, but I thought that Seoul would get a point at least.

Yet, after not losing in nine games, Seoul was finally defeated and quite frankly the result was a fair one.  It comes at an inopportune time, but it is not a complete surprise.  I have said before that Seoul was quite lucky to get some of their results, although I thought they had turned the corner a bit after being eliminated by Gamba Osaka in the AFC last month.  This proves the former, rather than the later, is true.

I was thinking of attending this match, but my friend did not want to go, so I decided to give it a miss.  I am really glad that I did.  From watching the highlights, Seoul was outplayed, outclassed, and probably were lucky to only lose by two goals.

Seoul was absolutely dominated first half.  From the opening kick off Jeonnam took the game at them and Seoul had no reply whatsoever.  Outside of a Jung Jo-gook shot that went wide left, nothing was offered besides a shit sandwich.

On their asses from the beginning.

Jeonnam could have been up before the first goal if Ristic's shot had been on target in the third minute.  They had a great header off a cross go wide around 17 minutes as well.  However, the first goal eventually did arrive.  It was off a corner and Yun Sang-hun came out to clear the ball.  His punch out landed outside the box at Orisic's feet, who delivered a wonderful cross back into the box for Lim Jong-eun to put a bullet header into the back of the net.  It was a bit unlucky but not unexpected though.  Jeonnam thoroughly deserved to be winning.

However, Seoul had no one but themselves to blame for the second goal two minutes later.  Osmar was dispossessed of the ball while trying to go past a Jeonnam player on the dribble.  Lee Jong-ho (I love this guy in FIFA 15- he is a real gem if you play a season with a lower league club such as Cambridge United) picked the ball, skirted Kim Dong-woo's woeful attempt at a tackle put in a glorious cross for Orisic to put in the back of the net.  The cross was great, but so was the header, which looped into the far right corner.

That was the game pretty much right there.  Choi Soo-yong probably ranted and raved at the team, but it fell on deaf ears.  Sure, Seoul had some chances in the second half but that is only because Jeonnam chose to sit back and defend.  However, there is nothing of note for me to write about with regards to the second half.

Right now, I am quite envious of the talent that Jeonnam has.  If they ever get some consistency, I think it is not out of the realm for them to challenge for the title.  They have an exciting squad.  Right now, I would say that on paper, they have the better talent than Seoul, at least attacking wise.  Orisic looks like a great player in the making.  Jeonnam probably should begin to make their contingency plans for when Orisic leaves to the Chinese Super League.

From Facebook Seoul Page

After all the praise I had for Seoul these last two weeks, it all comes crashing down.  What an inopportune time to lose the momentum as well.  Questions will be asked all week and these are not the sort of questions one wants to answer before the exalted Super Match on Sunday.  Hopefully Seoul will bring their A-game and decide to go at a team rather than sit back and hope to make it to 0-0 at halftime.  If Choi chooses to employ this strategy again, he will have to explain why his team has lost two in a row.