The #KleagueFM17 Challenges: Challenge Champs [March '16]

After an up and down
pre-season, Steve Waddell is ready to kick-off the season proper. There are a
few tricky fixtures coming up starting with a season opener away to newly
relegated Busan. Can he keep his job beyond Easter or will Choi Tae-uk stage a
coup?
If you haven't been following you might want to start off at Part One
The pre-season fun is over now and it’s time to buckle down
for the real action. Our scout has actually heard of Busan for a change but his
preparatory report is fairly thin and short on any solid recommendations. I try
to find him to get some more depth on his report but he’s busy watching old VHS
copies of the A-Team on a black and white TV in his office and doesn’t seem to
want to be disturbed.
Busan have a few guys that worry me. Willian Popp is
everyone’s tip to be the league top scorer. Milos Stojanovic knows where the
goal is and overweight Brazilian riveter Wagner Querino may have a point to
prove after our last interaction. On the plus side Ko Kyung-min seems to be
injured and they don’t appear to have a first-choice keeper. I’m torn between
being cautious and trying to keep their frontmen at bay or exploiting their
possible defensive weaknesses by trying to outscore them.
I’ve got 35 first teamers to choose from and they are more
or less all fit so I’m not short of options. Decisions, decisions. Every
position has at least a couple of options. Even goalie isn’t straightforward as
Kim Young-kwang has missed most of pre-season and Lee Sang-ki has impressed in
his absence. In the end experience gets the nod at the back. Joomes and Jae-sung
will be the middle two and Ahn and Seo take the wide spots. Controversially I
start Kim Heung-il ahead of Tarabai, he’s not going to be happy about that.
Then it’s a toss of a coin to decide whether we play Sin Il-soo sitting or Lee
Seung-woo behind the striker. Lee wins it. My first Challenge teamsheet is
filled in and distributed to the lads. Fingers crossed.
I bat my way through the pre-match press conference in a
largely non-committal but positive mood. I don’t want to give my opponents
anything to get a hold of but I want to make sure my team knows I believe in
them.
By the time kick-off rolls around I’m almost bouncing off
the walls. Good thing I tucked a hip-flask of soju into my suit jacket pocket
to take the edge off. Luckily I haven’t over-indulged by the time I’m grabbed
for a tunnel interview by a TV reporter. Again, I try to be uncontroversial but
upbeat.
The Busan lineup is a 4-4-2 as expected. Popp and Milos are
the preferred front pairing. Nilson starts in midfield and they have an Aussie
defender in the lineup as well. Overweight Brazilian ironmonger Wagner hasn’t
made the cut it’s good to see. The team need to get in about this lot for
ninety minutes so I send them out as fired up as I can muster.
We definitely look the better team in the first half. We are dominating possession and creating the
better chances but can’t quite find the net. Busan’s closest thing to an effort
on goal is a wild forty-yard shot from Popp that goes miles wide. I’m enjoying
the game so far. At half-time though it still remains 0-0. I’ve still got Tarabai in
reserve and his time is edging closer.
I pull the trigger on our Lord of the Pants at the 55 minute
mark. To be honest, Kim Heung-il has looked a bit rubbish. 5 minutes later we
are ahead! Kim Jae-sung bangs in a shot from the edge of the box and finally we
have a goal.
Another 5 minutes later Tarabai is rubbing his groin. He’s either injured
or embarrassing himself in front of everyone so either way he has to come off.
Since we’re ahead I’ll shore up the midfield by bringing on Sin Il-soo. Another
injury strikes shortly after with Lee Seung-woo going down. He has to come off
and it’s another reshuffle upfront. Ahn Seong-bin is now the fourth player to
play centre-forward today. All my subs are spent so I hope for no more
injuries.
Busan keep up their rough-housing tactics though. Kim
Jae-sung heads to the sideline with a back strain and Joo Min-kyu has to get a
bandage on a head gash. Both should really come off but they will have to see
out the last few minutes as best they can. The fourth official holds up a board
saying 5 additional minutes of stoppage time and Dan Harris has to hold me back
from telling him where to stick it. Joo and Kim are liabilities now but all we
need to do is pass the ball around until full-time. Just. Keep. The. Ball.
And finally! The ref blows his whistle and we’ve done it.
1-0! The bullies of Busan have been defeated. The physios are going to be busy
this week. I hope we don’t have a midweek fixture lined up.
We have absolutely dominated this match according to the
stats and surprised quite a few people with our quality of play. Busan were
limited to just one shot on target in the whole ninety minutes. Lee Seung-woo was
the youngest player in K-League Challenge history and picks up the man of the
match award despite only managing an hour or so on the park. Our heat map looks
like a ball of fire heading for the Busan goal and we’ve had nearly 60%
possession. A cracker of a performance to start the season.
Sadly, as expected, it looks like Seung-woo, Jae-sung and
Tarabai will be out for weeks. I make my view known on dirty, dirty Busan after
the match. Those are some significant losses. Just to rub salt into the wounds
Glory and Mitchell are off on international duty and will miss the Anyang game.
5 players down out of my starting eleven for our home opener.
I do my best to piece together a team that I’m happy with
making the minimum number of changes possible. It’s not ideal but we’ll just
have to do our best.
Anyang don’t have any big names in their side and lost their
opening game to Chungju so that gives me a bit of confidence that we can get a
win. They line up in a 4-4-2 just like Busan did so a repeat of the same result
would be nice. Still it’s going to be a tricky one so we will need to be at our
best.

The first 45 don’t do much for either team and it’s 0-0 at
half-time. I take off the anchor man and push Joo-mes up behind the striker to
see if we can create some more attacking threat. Despite some more changes up
front we create no real chances in the second half either and it finishes 0-0.
2 clean sheets from 2 games is promising but this kind of display will do
nothing to get the fans in. I might have to look out Dalshabet’s number again.
Next up is an away trip to Gangwon. They’ve drawn their
first two games 0-0 while we have managed a 0-0 and a 1-0. Something tells me
this isn’t going to be a classic. Glory and Mitchell come back in to the side
and I tinker a little bit elsewhere to see if it makes any difference. Ahn
Seong-bin starts up front for this one. I need to find someone to score goals
pretty soon.
In the last training session before the match Glory picks up
another knock meaning it’ll be Lee Sang-ki between the sticks against his former
club.
Gangwon have filled the team with a selection of journeymen
imports with Maranhao, Pacheco, Samuel and Silva all making the team. Pacheco
even starts the game carrying an injury. They look eminently beatable but Gangwon have been E-Land’s
bogey team in the past and our record in Gangwon is shocking.
After initially looking promising
we are really struggling to cope with Gangwon. Their front players are causing
us all sorts of problem and we seem to be resorting to giving away fouls around
our box. The woodwork keeps us in it, as does a good stop from our keeper but
eventually we succumb to a shot from overweight Brazilian taxi-driver Maranhao.
Not long after it’s 2-0 as our defence and keeper fail to deal with a lofted
ball into the box and the same man loops a header over everyone into the net.
Pathetic stuff from us now.
At half-time I make some changes
and tell them I expect a better second half. It’s all out attack from us now and we
need to take some risks. After 65 minutes it’s hail mary stuff and I stick
Mitchell up front. Our bench looks fairly sparse in terms of gamechangers at
this point. Nothing makes the slightest bit of difference and we’ve been
totally outclassed. The curse of Gangwon strikes again. Not happy at all with
this display and heads will roll.
At the end of the first month of
the season then it’s played 3, won 1, drawn 1, lost 1. Without Kim Jae-sung we
don’t look half the team we are with him and when you add in injuries to
Seung-woo, Tarabai and Glory I suppose we can’t be too unhappy with 4 points
from 9. The last game has shown that we far from the finished article but the transfer
window is closed now so there isn’t much we can do about it except wait for our
injured players to return.
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