Can Gangwon pull off a huge upset at home to Jeonbuk?

Now somewhat back on track after an unexpected 92nd minute winner saw Gangwon beat Pohang in midweek, the Bears will be looking to use any momentum gained to score an unlikely victory against Jeonbuk. The visitors, however, are looking to try and keep pace with first-placed Ulsan before the league splits, and will consequently be hungry to claim all three points for themselves.

Recent Form

Before Gangwon’s 1-0 triumph on Wednesday, it was starting to look bleak for the Bears. Three consecutive disappointing losses topped off dwindling form for a side who had started to find their feet again prior to a forced COVID break, and seemed to signal that they would be in for a long finish to the season. Yet Kim Byung-soo’s men showed their resilience once more with a strong all-round display against Pohang, leaving some room for optimism going into this crunch period.

On the other hand, Jeonbuk lead the current form table with four wins from their last five, and zero defeats. Managing to keep three clean sheets in the process, the Green Warriors will be confident of maintaining their strong defensive run on Saturday as they face a Gangwon side who have managed to score just three goals in their last four games.

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Team News

For the home side, there is likely to be more rotation. The Jeonbuk game is unlikely to be seen as “must win” given some of the other upcoming fixtures, so players such as Kim Dae-won and Seo Min-woo, who were given opportunities to impress in midweek, will likely drop out, with potential replacements being Cho Jae-wan and Han Kook-young. Elsewhere, Kim Byung-soo will be hoping that either central midfielder Kim Dong-hyun or defender Yun Suk-young will be able to play a part, while Kim Young-bin may find his way back into the heart of defence after suspension in spite of a strong Rustamjon Ashurmatov showing last time out.

Conversely, the Green Warriors will go into proceedings without the suspended Stanislav Iljutcenko following his red card against Incheon, as well as Takahiro Kunimoto, who should remain sidelined with a knee injury. The injured trio of Modou Barrow, Lee Seung-gi and Choi Young-jun could also be unavailable, even if comebacks for all three are seemingly imminent given their return to training. With Jeonbuk in great form and there a fair amount of space between their next fixtures, it’ll be unlikely that Kim Sang-sik will experiment too much here.

Head-to-Head

Unfortunately for Saturday’s hosts, the head-to-head record between the two sides makes for grim reading. With just five wins across 25 meetings and a sizeable 17 defeats, it’s fair to say the Bears are up against it based on history alone. However, Gangwon have only lost in two of the last six contests, winning just as many as Jeonbuk over the same run of games. With a 1-1 stalemate the last result in this fixture, both sides will be looking to get one up on the other to either turn the tide on expectations, or keep up with tradition.

What to Watch

Can Gangwon use Wednesday’s win as the incentive for an upset?

Perhaps surprisingly given their overall form, Gangwon have been decent at using their momentum to propel themselves to positive results as the season has progressed. Their 2-2 fightback against Jeju seemingly paved the way for the following week’s 3-0 thrashing of Suwon Samsung Bluewings, an FA Cup quarter-final victory doing the same for the Bears’ subsequent 2-0 league victory against Daegu. Now that Kim Byung-soo and co. have managed to get an elusive win, one which evidently left the players ecstatic and emotional, following their poor run, can they once again show themselves as capable of using just one good result to lead to more?

Can Jeonbuk set the benchmark for Ulsan to clear?

Due to the timings of this round’s fixtures, the reigning champions have been presented with the perfect chance to send a message of readiness to league-leaders Ulsan. Playing 150 minutes before their rivals, a win against Gangwon will place the Green Warriors at the apex of the division, even if only temporarily, and set the level of importance for the Horangi’s fixture away to Suwon FC.