The #KLeagueFM18 Challenges: Citizens Unite - Season Two Part 6

Daejeon boys are bouncing through to the next round of the cup, after the heroics of the last part. Attention now shifts to our league games, with games coming thick and fast after the cup tie. First up is an away game against fellow struggles Asan Mugunghwa, followed by two tricky tests of Jeju and Pohang. With our form of only 2 losses in 7 games can we maintain our position as 9th in the K League?




Catch Up On Season Two -  Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Injuries Galore

After the penalty shoot out victory, nearly every position in our team has knocks or fitness concerns. The most affected is in the striking position. Moon Chang-Hyun got stretched off in the 115th minute and will be out for 4 weeks, Suk-Jae is also struggling for match fitness, he somehow managed to injure his neck in training so he is probably out for Asan.

With the striking issues, in comes K league 1 debut for Park Dae-Hoon and a return to the top flight for old man Jin-Ho who will be on the bench, Chan-Hee is also suffering but he will be making the trip to Asan as this is probably the only real winnable game of the three.

The media haven't been kind again, as another press conference goes by with what feels like torture questions. I don't know who we annoyed, but with questions like "Do you think you'll get 20 points this season" as we already have 8 with over 30 games to go. Seems like victories over Suwon and Jeonbuk have long since been forgotten.

Match Day Asan Away

With only a four day break after our grueling 120 minutes plus penalties, our team sheet is announced for the big '6 pointer'. Some shocks for the players as Rae-Se is benched because of a pre match injury, Lee Jin-Ho has to play defensive midfield even though hes a striker normally due to Gwan-Pyo failing a pre match medical. Our normal back line just passes fitness and Captain fantastic Kim Chan-Hee remains.

Some questionable decisions even by my coaching staff after this line up. 

The players aren't fit but with no other options and a squad depth 1/3 of the real Daejeon team we have no options but to send the boys out knackered and held together with bandages.

Kick Off

The Asan team is crazy strong featuring the likes of Lee Yong, Park Dong-Jin, Yoon Bo-Sang and many more. They might struggle near the end of the season though as Sangju released their list of call ups and Asan have got to pick from the rest.

First chance of the game and it falls to us,  a set piece delivered in from the right by Hwang In-Beon finds Oh Ban-Suk at the far post. He's unmarked and with his experience and heading ability, you can already start cheering but the ball somehow get's tipped over the bar. Expert keeping from the Gwangju serving Bo-Sang.

The game has been edgy but the save from his header has been the big chance so far. Commentators curse nearly happened then, Lee-Yong delivers a perfect defence splitting pass, the Asan striker has time and space. His shot curves past the goal keeper causing a mini heart attack, but it clips the post and goes out. Ooosh take a breath it's end to end here.

The first half comes to a close but the travelling Daejeon fans look happy.... or sad can't really tell?

Dream start to the second half for Asan. A complete and utter mental breakdown, a corner is swept into the front post. Every Daejeon player is still arguing over it not being a corner, and Kim nips in for Asan to make it 1-0 in the 56th. If only Ban-Suk had scored earlier, the players are hunched over, time for some changes. 

The wise old devil Jin-Ho dives into the box, and when I say dive I mean fully 10/10 dive. It doesn't matter though because with Chan-Hee on the pitch it's a near guaranteed goal!

I can't hide the sadness, Chan-Hee has blasted the ball over the bar. I've shouted my lungs out arguing with the referee that 4 Asan players are in the box! Desperately claiming that this needs to be remade, but they're not listening. The penalty miss might be a game changer, we look dead on our feet and even our minds have gone now.

Game over. With Chan-Hee's miss in the 75th, the game just dwindled into nothingness, even with the bringing on of Kang to bring some energy we run (Crawl) to a 1-0 loss at Asan. With Jeju and Pohang next this could go from bad to worse.

Jeju Away 

My first ever trip to Jeju, one part of me is excited to see the island but the other parts are terrified of league leaders and current champions destroying us. They come into this game without a single loss in all competitions. With Brazilian fire power and Mendy still dominating the top scorer chart, this could be a step too far for our 21 man squad.

The Jeju team is just out of this world, with just the back line being worth more than my entire team. It's a return for club legend Oh Ban-Suk who is getting all the media praise and love, hopefully it makes them go easier on us.

The team look slightly more fit and prepared, the return of Gwan-Pyo and Suk-Jae helps the morale issues and our new last minute signing of a physio coach seems to have gone down well, with the players being given some pre match oranges...or maybe it's because we are in Jeju..

Kick Off

18 seconds into the game and I've gone flying down the touchline, an incredible passing sequence sets Gwan-Pyo free. He places the ball into the back of the net and wild hysteria. We are beating Jeju in less than a minute!! oh god, it's that shape again. The referee is signalling VAR and after three minutes of nervous nail biting and shouting verbal abuse that's probably FIFA ban worthy. The decision goes with Jeju. The goal is disallowed for an alleged push from Suk-Jae.

Someone hold me, Mendy scores in the 23rd. It's one of those goals where you kick the floor out of both sadness of conceding but knowing it's a great goal. The big man out jumps all the defence and with a flick that will be played on Jeju screens all week, it floats into the top corner 1-0 Jeju. We peaked too soon ever since 18 seconds we haven't even had a shot.

Things have gone from bad to worse, It's a second for Jeju. Their foreign imports have shown real talent, the move is finished off by Giovanny. We haven't look bad but we can't get the ball and we haven't had a highlight in over 40 minutes. Jeju are just too good.

Half time goes by with a quiet silence in the dressing room, nothing I can say. I try to inspire the players but even they know they're no match for a team that are probably going to win the treble.

The island is lovely, their team is lovely. We were outclassed and maybe another day we come away with a sympathy goal but we had no real chance, even though Jeonbuk beat us 7-1, this Jeju team is miles better. It's bad for us but good for the K League that it's more competitive now.

Two games played 0 goals and 3 conceded, maybe a home match verses 4th placed Pohang can save this dire form. If things keep going this badly I might have to get on my knees and beg the board for more money. We need strengthening and quick before they think a managerial change is needed...

Home Verses Pohang 

Finally with a seven day break the players are fully rested. Although we have played incredibly poorly the last few games in the league, heads shouldn't drop. Too many games could be the cause, it's partly my fault for maybe over spending on Sang-Min instead of getting more squad depth. At least that's what the media keep telling me every single day. The Daejeon board give me their complete backing though which is nice, after begging for more money they finally relented and gave me an extra £5,000 to buy a player with. I wonder if Lee Dong-Gook is looking to retire in Daejeon.

Some last minute changes as Ji-Min is back at LB due to a injury, Je Hyeok is starting at LW instead of Rae-Se after he missed training on ironically a rest day. Another strong support today with 2,900 Daejeon fans turning up to support the boys.

We are three minutes into the match and the score is 1-0 Pohang. Su-Hyun in goal is deciding to dive with his hands behind his back in a weird spider-man like movement, he obviously doesn't get to the ball and the new Pohang signing Rakic scores.

It's only 10 minutes into the game and the fans have already turned a bit toxic, we are really lacking quality. Our passes are going astray and Pohang have managed to keep us locked into our own half, I'm shouting instructions faster than the players can even hear me.

It's gone from bad to worse, ex Jeonnam boy Jair has now netted for Pohang in the 14th minute. We can't handle the front three of Pohang, Jair - Rakic and Hllovsky they are just too much for our back four, they're moving the ball and the poor inexperienced Sang-Min is looking like he's been hypnotized. We are struggling to score a single goal let alone two goals for the draw.

The midfield has been pushed into a flat three and told to push forwards, both wingers are told to hug the lines. Our last hope is that possibly we can use our pace to create a opening for Suk-Jae's 17 agility to cause trouble, but it's looking doubtful as so far the furthest we've been up the pitch was kick off.

Half time 

Two drastic changes, we've took of Ji-Min who is simply not good enough for the K league 1, we've switched to a back three with Jae-Woo on as the central defender. Moon Chang-Hyun is flung on even with his arm in a sling as we switch to 3-5-2 formation.

It's panic stations for Pohang, Gwan-Pyo shoots from outside the box and it's not saved fully by the Pohang keeper, the onrushing Chang-Hyun flings out a leg but he can't direct it goalwards. It's still 2-0 Pohang but at least we are pushing forwards more than the last two games. We have thrown everything forward to try and get a goal, every time we get into a position to shoot we get crowded out and panic pass it to a blue shirt.

I wish I had more to commentate or the good points of our game, but so far we are just stuck in a complete and utter rut. We can't create any meaningful chances and if we concede then we are very unlikely to score, we just don't look an attacking threat and when you concede on average 2.2 goals a game it's a big issue.

Final result 0-2 Pohang. If you're Korean and in the Daejeon area I'm looking for a new striker, apply through KLeagueunited Twitter. Please.

Match Statistics from a brutal depressing home loss. 

TL:DR

Three matches, three loses and not a single goal scored. We are well and truly in for a hard season, but on the plus side we still have the cup and we can only get better. We head into the transfer window in desperate need of any players, with an extra £5k added to our budget, I'll try and bring in a superstar for the next part.