Daegu FC v Seoul E-Land FC: Preview

Tonight sees the battle of 2nd vs 3rd in the K-League Challenge as Seoul E-Land travel down to Daegu. It should be a good one as both teams are on a decent run of form, generally look to attack and score goals and play a fairly open and attractive brand of football. Expect goals then.

It's a hard one to predict. In recent games E-Land have never quite managed to find the flow that saw them regularly hitting 4 or 5 goals against the opposition for a spell. Wins at Anyang and Ansan were ground out rather than achieved in style and the game against Sangju showed that there are still weaknesses to be addressed in the team.

I have never managed to work out quite how suspensions operate in this league but my understanding is that Tarabai will miss this one having picked up one yellow too many and he will be a big loss to the team. His replacement won't be an easy call for Martin Rennie.

Ryan Johnson would be the obvious go-to guy but his role for sometime has been to come off the bench with 20 minutes to go and starting the match may not be the right thing for him. Particularly if it means either playing Johnson wide (as Tarabai has been playing of late) or moving Joo Min-kyu to accommodate him.

Other options may include Lee Jae-an (who has been posted missing lately) or perhaps a bit of a shake-up with either Kim Young-keun or Kim Jae-sung playing in the wide attacking role and a replacement found for defence or midfield.

For Daegu I expect to see the quartet of Brazilians starting the game and for the most part these guys are Daegu's biggest strength but also curiously their biggest weakness. On the ball, all four have quality, pace and skill in abundance and can shred defences given the chance. Off the ball, they tend to be spectators. Tackling back is not in their vocabulary. This generally means that Daegu defend with 7 men.

At Jamsil this fixture looked like it was going to end in E-Land's first ever win thanks to Hwang Do-yeon's headed goal but Daegu stole a point in the 94rd minute with a Noh Byung-jun finish. The game was pretty controversial thanks in no part to the incompetent ref who managed to send off Lee Jae-an for timewasting at a throw-in and find minutes of 'Fergie Time' that never existed. Let's hope he's not in the middle again tonight. If for no other reason than I don't want to get arrested and thrown into a Daegu jail.