The #KLeagueFM18 Challenges: Citizens Unite! [Part 6]

It will be like David vs Goliath if we are to keep our unbeaten form in the next three games, with matches against first and second in the league this will be a decisive part of the season.We could be proven title contenders or shown to be pretenders with this run in. 


Previous Installments: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Post FA Cup 

After our extra time victory in the FA Cup over Bucheon 1995, the players are all completely ruined physically even more so than the Gwangju game. Training in the last three days has just been ice buckets and rest for everyone who played. Lee Gwan-Pyo even after three days of rest has knocked on my door prematch to ask for a rest day, normally I wouldn't grant this being that he's my midfield dynamo but medical staff say he's still not fit enough for even 45 minutes of play.

He could be a big miss especially with Seongnam top of the league away today this should be interesting if we can play our possession style game. Seongnam also are one of only two teams to beat us this year. The early exit from the FA Cup they suffered against Busan means they come into this game with all of their players fully rested.

Team line up news is luckily not that much hampered by injuries only Sang-Hoon's injury hurts us defensively but Joo-sung as a back up isn't all that bad. Going into this game the players morale is high and cohesion is flowing, hopefully if we are to lose this, it doesn't negatively impact us too much. The players look a bit worse for wear and seem tired even in the warm up but how our last rotated line up fared we can't take the risk. We are 10-1 to win away here shows how much of a underdog we are considered. Have they not heard of Daejeon magic?

Kick off

The FA Cup exploits seems to have garnered some Daejeon support as over 450 away fans make the trip to Seongnam. We win the coin toss and choose to shoot towards our loyal fans. Straight from kick off, we loft the ball wide and high to Chan-Hee on the right, who runs the line brilliantly and passes through with pace that evades the half asleep Seongnam defence for Chang-Hyun to score. It's 1-0 within 20 seconds! David is slaying Goliath. 

The celebration from our 450 fans haven't even died down yet as an instant reply in the 4th minute by Seongnam. They skip tackles in the middle of the park and with overlapping fullback runs, manage to deliver a crisp cross into the box for Maranhao their Brazilian striker to score 1-1. Shouldn't of celebrated so soon.

If the first five minutes were anything to go by this is should be an exciting game. However, the game seemed to of peaked after that crazy fast paced opening. We can't break down the Seongnam back four now that they're awake and our midfield is just doing one two's hoping that a gap forms. This goes on till the half time whistle blows, I'd like to say an exciting first half but forty minutes of that half was some of the most boring football since Hwang Sun-Hong got appointed Seoul boss.

Changes need to be made to liven up this second half, thankfully those three days of ice buckets seemed to of worked, as players are still able to continue. Changes of moving our line higher up the pitch, but also making the tempo higher with closing down faster so that we can fill the holes left. An one to one chat with Chang-Hyun seems to have inspired him to be nuisance.

The tactics change seems to have worked. We strike first again as it's that man Kim Chan-Hee who crosses it in for Ho-Jun to nod into the empty net, 2-1 Daejeon. It looks like no team in this division can handle his ability on the wing to find that perfect cross. Hopefully we can keep him as rumors are swirling of a Suwon Bluewings bid coming.

65th minute Seongnam go close but this time the header is turned onto the bar and cleared, just holding on here. Another close shave as Seongnam are throwing everything forward this time making a great reaction save to deny them the equalizer.

The 90th minute is here, the fans are making whistle noises so am I, the end is in sight. It's here we have beat Seongnam away 2-1 to claim a vital 3 points on the road. What a performance by Chan-Hee. Victory sees us go to first in the league table.

Busan Away

Having a 12 game rest period to this game was nice for a whole week of defensive coaching, our familiarity with the tactics is 100% now so we should be more fluid in our plays. We go into this game with very high morale and belief, but being away verses a team that have recently scored six in one game is still frightening.

The usual suspects for a feisty game verses Busan away.

Prematch team talk goes quite well with the players now assertively listening to what I have to say, that crash course in Korean is really paying off now. They look inspired and fit for this game, looking for Rae-Se to impress in this game as his training report implied he was very lazy all week so that saved energy could be useful, if not he is getting a week wage fine. We head down the tunnel for kick off.

Not long had we finally settled into the game and starting to build a bit of tempo had Busan scored.  In fairness it was a  really nice team goal that culminated in a simple goal for Jun-Tae to put Busan one ahead. We looked like we were chasing ghosts for that goal, I can see why they're so high scoring they're lethal.

The first half keeps going much the same way with Busan counter attacking and getting close to having a second. Luckily we manage to hold till half time. We haven't looked poor in controlling the game but, they just appear to have watched a lot of this year and are allowing us so much space we seem shocked and make poor decisions in the final third.

Changes are going to happen in an attempt to rectify this You Ho-Jun is going off and Sung-Su is coming on to support the midfield attacks more. With pushing a man further up the middle this could cause the Busan team to close the center and not crowd Chan-Hee out of the game.  Joo-Sung will also be going off as at LB he has been useless and error prone. I'm still not a fan of his after only two weeks into my management he came into my office demanding football.

It's a kick off goal again, for Daejeon! the ball is passed to the new sub in Won-Seok at LB and he makes a instant impact with a cross just out of reach over the Busan CB's for Chan-Hee to blast home, 1-1! Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee is ringing out we are back in the game.

The 58th minute and we are at it again, I thought I had gone back into the past to watch a highlight as it's Won-Seok again with a cross that the keeper comes out to collect but he misses the ball falling over in the process,  leaving a open goal for Chan-Hee to score again. This combination has been a masterstroke. An incredible thirteen minutes here as everything has turned on it's head.

Busan won't go down without a fight as their midfielder strikes a shot from outside the box it's tipped over for a corner, great save to hold the lead. 91st minute Busan one on one with our goalkeeper, Busan's Jung Suk-Hwa strikes it low and hard but it's saved again he is fighting Chan-Hee for man of the match here!

The game finishes 2-1 victory for us, we have shown a lot of character here with the victory and the holding on, this is an important victory for the team especially with the hard run of games we are having. Due to recent results, I have been offered another year long contact to keep me at Daejeon till 2018. Little do they know I plan on being here much, much longer than that.

Suwon FC

After his wonderful second half performance against Busan, Won-Seok comes in at LB to add his creative crossing ability. The players after 15 games have finally completely understood the system being asked of them, and are now completely efficient in both defending and attacking.

The glorious 'Purple Arena'
Image courtesy of http://stadiumdb.com

Attendance is low for this game, even though being at home and the 7:30 in the rain, this somehow hasn't appealed to many Daejeon fans. The team talk is done by my assistant this time, he's currently undoing a coaching course so I thought this might help his progression.

Kick Off

The game kicks off with us immediately losing the ball from a long ball attempt within the first 20 seconds, the strategy is short patient passing so that's not a good sign. The game ticks by with nothing happening apart from me being able to pace the technical area ten times. Suwon have a shot from just inside the box it is caught with one hand by Su-Hyun, although he is 30 years old. He is looking very good this season more than impressed. Showed by his league leading clean sheet ratio.

Half time rolls around with that being the only highlight of the half, we look worse for having the time off from playing strangely. The time of rest might of been too much of a momentum loss. Suwon FC in fairness have a great defence this year so maybe they're just canceling us out.

Some changes are made as Sung-Su and Ho-Suk are coming into the games to complete their final week of wanting game time. Sung-Su has been a really good impact sub so I'm hoping that he can add that spark to the midfield again, so far we've not even had a shot so it can't get much worse.

I take it back, it can get worse as in the 56th minute  a penalty is awarded to Suwon, Jin-Kyu loses track of the ball and ends up kicking someone in the back. They step up for the penalty and neatly tuck it away for 1-0 Suwon FC. We have looked really poor creatively today. Jin-Kyu for his ability in the air and, his late winners is great but his lack of pace and awareness sometimes is a killer.

Another chance for Suwon FC as they shoot from distance to test Su-Hyun but he is well positioned to save comfortably. From the goal kick it is booted back into the middle of the field were  the Suwon striker Japa runs through but hits the bar with his effort. I don't understand what my assistant told the players today but the short play out from the back doesn't seem to have translated well.

This game has completely slipped away from us and every passing minute gets worse as, in the 80th minute Kim Jin-Kyu, gets booked for the second time. Completely lost his man and hacks him down for a red card, terrible game from the captain here and will be talked to after the match about his performance. Capping what has been a really poor Daejeon game.

Game ends 1-0 to Suwon FC, our first loss in 9 games terrible CB work cost us but in all honesty this has been the worst we've performed since I took over. Going to be analyzing this game for a while to see where we lost that creative ability. I'd like to blame the weather for disrupting our passing style but if that's true June is going to be a terrible month for us.

TL:DR 

Performed well above expectations against Seongnam and Busan but came crashing back to reality with a rainy match vs Suwon FC. Still positives to take as 6 points out of 9 is better than my hopeful 3. We finish the month top of the league and through in the cup, could of been worse.