Preview: Gangwon v Seoul E-Land

No matter how many times they move to get away from them, the Gangwon FC fans always track them down in the end

It's Children's Day on Thursday in Korea which means a national holiday for everyone and a full round of K-League fixtures in the hope that pester power might get a few more reluctant mums and dads to take Jr to the match. E-Land will be going on their holidays to Gangwon which, unlike last season, means a trip to deepest darkest Wonju rather than a jaunt to the seaside, and hoping that they can come back with more than a stick of a rock and a fridge magnet.

Previous Meetings:

Despite having a fairly poor season by their standards Gangwon turned into a bit of a bogey team for E-Land last season, scoring for fun against them in a number of games and generally being a pain in the backside. Let's hope that comes to an end tomorrow.

Seoul E-Land 2 - 4 Gangwon FC
Tarabai, Joo Min-kyu; Kim Yoon-ho, Han Suk-jong, Baek Jong-hwan, Choi Seung-in

Otherwise known as the all you can drink craft beer for 15,000 won game, I can just about remember this one being a bit of a bizarre 90 minutes as somehow Gangwon brought E-Land's good run of form to an end with a barrage of goals which made it look as if the E-Land defence might have been joining me at the bar for this one.

Gangwon 3 - 1 Gangwon FC
Henan(2), Belluso; Cho Won-hee

Henan made his debut for Gangwon and was made to look like Messi for fifteen minutes as he banged in a couple of early goals to put Gangwon on easy street.

Seoul E-Land 0 - 0 Gangwon FC

Somehow this one managed to end up scoreless despite the goalfests in all the other matches between the two sides. It must have been a fairly forgettable match as I seem to have completely forgotten it.

Gangwon FC 4 - 4 Seoul E-Land
Han Suk-jong(2), Choi Seung-in, Henan; Lee Jae-an, Cho Hyang-gi, Choi Yoo-sang, Joo Min-kyu)

As if to make up for the no-score draw in the last match both sides went a bit mad in this end of season match sharing a total of eight goals equally as E-Land gave some of the fringe players a run-out.

Selections:

Belusso should be back to face up against his old club but other than that I don't expect to see too many changes in the E-Land line-up. The only real questions are probably around which midfield combination Martin Rennie will plump for and whether Kim Dong-chul reverts to a holding midfielder again or stays at centre-half which would be my preference.

For Gangwon, Mexican international Pacheco has yet to be considered fit enough to get on the field but he seems to be getting closer having featured on the bench so this might be the one where he makes his debut. Shim Young-sung looks like the guy to keep an eye on up front with four goals in six games.

Prediction:

After last season the name Gangwon gives me a touch of the heebie-jeebies and this season they seem to be a much better team which doesn't bode well. They're sitting second in the table and so far are the only side to have beaten leaders Ansan. They're on a run of five straight wins and four clean sheets so all indications are that they should probably be favourites for this match. So far this season it seems that whenever I predict E-Land to win they don't so I'll see if I can double-bluff the fates by predicting a 2-1 Gangwon win.