Koreans Abroad: Midweek Schedule & Weekend Recap

(Image via fifa.com)

Championship and Europa action midweek and the biggest question is if Son is ready to return to action.

Tuesday
Yun Suk Young and QPR go to Derby County. For once, Yun may have a chance of making the squad with a bunch of injuries. Perhaps he even gets the start as it sounds as though Konchesky had a poor match. I'm expecting bench for now though. 2:45 PM ET. No TV.

Thursday

Park Joo Ho and Dortmund host FK Gabala at 1 PM ET. Since PJH started on the weekend, I expect him to be on the bench for this match, though perhaps Tuchel might want to save Schmelzer for weekend derby instead of the bottom team of the group so far. It will be on Fox Sports 2.

Koo Ja Cheol / Ji Dong Won / Hong Jeong Ho and Augsburg host AZ Alkmaar at 3:05 PM ET. I'm really uncertain who Wienzierl will want to use given their relegation fight. We can rule out HJH with injury, and I think Koo gets a rest at least on the bench and maybe totally out of the squad again. Ji should get a chance to play, and quite probably from the start midweek instead of weekend. Only on Fox Soccer 2 Go.

Son Heung Min and Tottenham host Anderlecht at 3:05 PM ET. Stielike said that Son has a chance of returning to action for this match as he explained Son's selection to KNT WCQ squad in a couple weeks. Hard to tell right now so fingers crossed that there are no setbacks. It will be on Fox Sports 1.

Weekend Recap March 30th

A bit more action than anticipated which was the good news, with Ji, HJH, KJS and PJH all getting starts. Unfortunately, a bit of bad news between injuries to HJH/LCY and mixed performances from some.

Yun Suk Young -- Didn't make squad.

Hong Jeong Ho -- I didn't get to watch the whole match yet but a pretty awful day as his dilly-dallying resulted in a Mainz goal and gave them another chance. And then he went down with an ankle injury and had to be take out after 75 minutes. Weinzierl originally said that he feared the worst (e.g. broken bone or surgery) but it appears that he'll be out for several weeks for a severe ankle sprain.

Ji Dong Won -- He started off strongly, with an almost identical opportunity that he had in the cup but could not quite beat the GK. Unfortunately, he was in and out of the rest of the match during which I saw and pulled after 72 minutes.

Koo Ja Cheol -- A few sloppy moments but he ran hard throughout the match, covering the most distance, and provided a ton of fluidity to Augsburg's passing from all over the pitch. And then he scored a nice goal which leveled the score. A very good performance from Koo, but while Augsburg would go on to go ahead later in the match, a late goal leaves them still struggling at the bottom of the table.

Park Joo Ho -- Park Joo Ho got a start, but I'm not sure what's going on with him as he still looks far from the player he was at Mainz. He did look a lot more fluid in attack even though he still looks a bit tentative. But on defense, he looked quite soft, getting beaten fairly easily several times.

Kim Jin Su -- Easily the best performance from him probably since his concussion last season. He got the semi-surprise start from the new manager. Unfortunately, at the start, he made a huge mistake, getting beaten easily from a dangerous spot. Once he got through that bump in the road, though, he looked a lot more like the player that was so exciting last year. He looked fast going forward (though final third productivity still lacking) and intercepted a number of passes intelligently. His positioning, which was a huge problem under Gisdol, looked improved. It seems his tendency to hover far too up the pitch may have been part of Gisdol's over-aggressive approach rather than something intrinsic to his play. We will see how he handles more dangerous opponents but it was a huge step in the right direction and good to see Hoffenheim get a clean sheet, even if there were lots of bad misses by opposition.

Lee Chung Yong -- He made the bench with all the injuries, but given tight, battling affair, he was an unused sub. With Crystal Palace out of the cup, he'll have to wait for more injuries and drops in form from players ahead of him. He ended up playing a reserve match Tuesday where he suffered an injury and had to be taken off. We'll see how severe the injury is but it doesn't sound good.

Ki Sung Yueng -- A very sharp performance from Ki in a loss to Arsenal that was not as bad as the scoreline looked. I thought Ki could have been a bit sharper in defense, but he played his role well and had a number of positive impacts on the attacking end when he asserted himself more. I do with though that he'd play a bit more like last year where the ratio in venturing forward in attack was 45% Ki / 55% Shelvey rather than what has been 10% Ki / 90% Shelvey this year. As I've said before, Ki is best when he has freedom to attack even if he doesn't use it as often as a more attacking player.

Ryu Seung Woo -- Not to be seen.

Suk Hyun Jun -- He started and played 90. Reports said that he had a few good chances at goal but it sounded like a tough draw.

Son Heung Min -- Remained out with injury but Spurs stay on good form. Rumors are that he might return this week.