2018 Fall Season Review: FC INT's

Prior to the 2018 Seoul Saturday Soccer League's Fall Season, K League United were proud to announce a partnership with one of the League's stalwarts, FC INT's. With promotion back to the first division the team's aim from the get go, the Fall campaign turned out to be the best in the cub's 13-year history. After a successful recruitment drive, INT's went on to secure their first ever second division title win thanks to a final day draw with Phoenix Fury. Accordingly, KLU caught up with INT's skipper John Georgie. 
(Image via INT's Facebook)

What Went Well

For the first time in the clubs history, we picked up the second division league trophy! So I would say a lot went well this season. We had a greater consistency from start to finish. Our top goalscorer was on form this season, receiving the top goalscorer award for the League as a whole as well. We beat some teams this year that we hadn’t beaten before, for example Seoyeong Celtic and Seoul Villains.

We added a lot of strength to our defence this season too, most notably the return Seonghyeon and the introduction of a few new faces such as Kyle Yoon. There were a good handful of new players this season that made a seriously positive impact on the team. Players like Kyle, Gary Daly and Matt Kuras all played significant roles.

From Seoul Saturday Soccer League

What Didn’t Go Well

Well, before the start of the season, we lost one of our best goalkeepers, Micky Wells. With injuries to our other goalkeeper, it was nearly impossible to recruit a new goalkeeper. It wasn’t until our I, as captain, decided to step in and take on the role - despite being a striker. The first couple of games, the lack of goalkeeping experience was a cause for concern but I think a lot of the players were eventually happy with the performance after that. Obviously, we didn’t go through the season undefeated, so our two defeats to Villains and HBC this season were times that things didn’t go so well. Injuries are inevitable at this level, so we hope that those players recover in time for the new season.

Young Player of the Year

Matt Kuras came in this year, fresh to Korea and clicked with the team straight away. At only 23 years old, he definitely showed a lot of maturity on the pitch and brought a lot of extra goals to the club. He can play out wide or in the middle and has to be, in my opinion, our young player of the year.

Team MVP

There were a lot of outstanding performances throughout the squad.  Whether it was a couple of shining performances from Gary Daly or Jack Kim, or the consistency of Steven Burt and BC Lee.  But, it is hard not to nominate Barrie Manners as the team MVP.  His goals and energy this season has been fantastic. He bleeds FC INT's and has been a paramount figure up front for a number of seasons now. Despite his age, he’s still running the younger lads off the park and has been a match winner all season.

Most Important Decision in the Off-season

I think there were two important decisions made during the off season.  Besides teaming up with KLeague United of course.  But from a footballing point of view, launching the club’s official Facebook page really helped the recruitment drive this season. Though we had a number of ‘professional’ players from overseas looking for season-long trials that we had to just ignore.

Another important decision was forming an important relationship that helped us secure a home ground for the long term. As a foreigner in South Korea, running a football team can be tricky, but nothing provides more stress than trying to book a pitch within the Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area every Saturday. We were fortunate in making the right connections, and we hope that this will benefit the league as a whole.

What next for INTS?

We are very happy with our partnership with K League United but our next step, as a 1st division team, is to acquire a sponsor to add on to our jerseys and have a location to gather after games that also a cabinet to display our trophies. So at the moment, we are looking around for a bar that would be interested in sponsoring our team, maybe chip in a little each season for basics such as footballs, bibs and things like that.

Goals of the Season