FA Cup Preview: Daegu FC vs Yangpyeong FC

With a nationwide heatwave reaching its peak, Daegu FC manger Andre Gasper breathed a sigh of relief with an invaluable 3-1 win over Gangwon at the weekend. Ahead of home fixture against relegation contender Incheon United this upcoming Saturday, Daegu have an FA Cup match in midweek to contend with first. Will Andre’s side successfully fight on two different fronts, or can K3 League side Yangpyeong FC pull off another upset? Daegu FC Correspondent Muyeol Jung previews this clash.
(image via K League)

Last Time Out

With three games without a win, Daegu travelled northwards to Gangwon Province to take on Gangwon FC. Daegu manager Andre’s selection was a bit of a surprise; Cesinha was expected to feature but he was once again side-lined along with Edgar due to injury who were replaced by Kim Daewon and Jung Seungwon. In the end, it turned out that Andre’s selection was spot on.

The visitors were mainly sitting back and aimed to score from set pieces and on the counter-attack. Kim Daewon scored two goals and Ze Roberto finally bagged his debut goal in K League. In stoppage time, Gangwon's Uroš Đerić netted a consolation goal, but it was too late to turn the result. By beating Gangwon 3-1, Daegu successfully moved up to 10th in the table above Incheon and Jeonnam.

Highlights: here

The last game Yangpyeong had was the FA Cup 4th Round against Sangju Sangmu where they performed a minor miracle by beating the soldiers 4-2 on penalties. Sanju Sangmu rested a handful of first team players like Sim Dongwoon, Yoon Bitgaram, Kwon Wankyu and started with some of the recently-recruited players Kim Kyungjoong, Song Siwoo, and Yoon Bosang. Neither side broke the deadlock until after half time when Sim Dongwoon and Yoon Bitgaram were introduced. And it didn’t take that long to bear fruit with Sim finding the net on 75 minutes and victory looking to be in the grasp of Sangju’s hands. However, the game went to the extra time after Hwang Jaehyuk, who scored the winning goal in previous, dramatically equalised. In extra times, the hosts took the lead again thanks to an own goal on 114 mins, but the own goal scorer Kim Jinhyun scored a late equaliser just before the final whistle was blown. This victory was Yangpyeong's first over a professional outfit.

Previous Meetings

This will be the first clash ever between the two clubs. Up to now, Daegu FC have met a K3 League team only once in FA Cup competition when Daegu were in K League Challenge (now K League 2). On 11th April 2015, Daegu hosted Cheongju FC at Blue Arc where Johnathan relentlessly completed a hat-trick.

Team News

Daegu FC Andre Gaspar (Image via K League)

Ahead of FA Cup 4th Round in the midweek, Andre will be deeply thinking of how to rotate the squad in preparation for Incheon clash on this Saturday. Arguably, the league game will be highly prioritised, but the cup competition against K3 side is also something he cannot give up easily. If Daegu lose to the K3 side, this could be horrendously humiliating and very embarrassing. Therefore, some extent of rotation is expected here like in the 3rd round. Players that had been rested like Kim Woosuk, Cho Sukjae, Kim Jinhyuk, Jeon Hyunchul, and Park Hanbin will be likely to play here to maintain match-fitness. Edgar and Cesinha are likely to be out and will watch from the stands.

The Adversary

Yangpyeong is well-known for a confluence city where Bukhan River and Namhan River meet to become the Han River. Yangpyeong FC were established in late 2015 and started to participate in K3 League in 2016 with Buyeo FC and Siheung Citizen FC. In 2016, they finished 11th and secured a place in K3 Advanced league for the next season, while the other two teams were relegated to K3 Basic League. Afterwards, surpassing expectation, they went on to finish in fourth out of twelve teams. In their third season, Kim Kyungbum, former Gangneung City FC (National League side) manager was chosen to lead the team. After 14 games, Yangpyeong are currently lying tenth in the table.

In their two previous FA cup matches this year, Yangpyeong played extra time twice. In the third round against Siheung Citizen FC, they took a 1-0 lead on 49 minutes by converting from the spot, but Siheung levelled the game. In extra time, Hwang Jaehyuk sent the hosts to the next round by scoring the winner.


Majority of squad are not well known, but there are two familiar names to K League fans; former Busan, Suwon, Jeonnam and Bucheon attacker Lim Kyunghyun and FC Seoul midfielder Ko Gwangmin.

In attack, Hwang Jaehyuk, who scored two goals in FA Cup competition, will be a big threat to Daegu. Former FC Seoul, Ko Gwangmin, currently serving his military duty, joined the team this year from FC Seoul through Hwaseong FC and has featured heavily for Yangpyeong.

Ko Kwangmin in action for FC Seoul in 2017 (Image via K League)

Prediction

Daegu are expected to play with some extent of rotation due to preparation for the league match, but because of huge gap between squad qualities, it should be relatively straight forward for the hosts.

Daegu FC 3 - 1 Yangpyeong FC