Preview: Gangwon FC v Incheon United

The K League 1 Season starts on Saturday afternoon for Gangwon and Incheon United as they face each other over in Chuncheon.
(image via iufc press)

Last Time Out

October 8th 2017
Gangwon 2-0 Incheon United

Towards the end of last season over at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Stadium Incheon fell to a two goal defeat on an afternoon to forget. It was the final game of the regular season before the League split and with Incheon seemingly gearing up for a relegation battle, rested a few players. Gangwon took the three points thanks to goals from Diego Maurício and Jung Jo-Gook.

Previous Meetings

Over the years Gangwon and Incheon have played each other 16 times with the record looking like this:

Gangwon 6
Draws 2
Incheon 8

Last season Gangwon won both of their home games over Incheon with the other game ending 1-1. Incheon last beat Gangwon away back in 2013 with Nam Jun-Jae (now Seongnam) scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute.

Who To Watch

With this being the first game of the season there are a number of players from both sides that I'm interested in seeing how they do on Saturday afternoon. For Incheon United new striker Stefan Mugoša will hopefully start the season wearing his scoring boots. Fingers crossed that midfielder Moon Seon-min and defender Gordan Bunoza build on their debut seasons. For Gangwon newly signed Australian centre back Dylan McGowan and giant forward Uroš Đerić could be key moving forward this season, and so Gangwon fans will be hoping for strong debuts from them. Of course Lee Keun-ho is always dangerous moving forward, both creating and scoring goals.

Prediction

The opening game of the season is always so hard to judge as we've not seen these sides play competitively in months. Based on last season and pre-season signings Gangwon on paper have the edge. But the Incheon squad looks improved and I don't want to count them out just yet (just look at what Jeonnam did vs. Suwon). Therefore I'm going for a 1-1 draw, with maybe Incheon taking the lead early in the second half but Gangwon equalizing soon after. Finally finger crossed there's no VAR rubbish as well.

Gangwon 1 - 1 Incheon United

Once again, good luck to everyone this season.
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