Was it Summertime Sadness for Seoul E-Land?

As the summer draws to a close, it has not been the perfect season for Seoul E-Land in the K League 2. Past seasons saw Seoul come to life under the hot, humid conditions. However, this year was slightly different from the others.

Michael Redmond looks at how the Leopards faired this over the last couple of months and what is to be expected from the side as they head into the business side of the season.

Seoul's Form

The Leopards played 13 games over the summer season. They managed to claim only three victories and three draws with seven losses. The summer only brought Seoul 12 points out of a possible 39. Here are the results from June to August.

Seoul E-Land 1-2 Busan IPark

Seongnam 1-2 Seoul E-Land
Seoul E-Land 1-2 FC Anyang
Jeonnam Dragons 3-3 Seoul E-land
Cheonan City 0-0 Seoul E-Land
Seoul E-Land 0-1 Gimpo FC
Cheongju FC 2-1 Seoul E-Land
Seoul E-Land 0-0 Chungnam Asan
Seoul E-Land 1-2 Gyeongnam FC
Gimcheon Sangmu 4-0 Seoul E-Land
Seoul E-Land 2-1 Busan IPark
Bucheon FC 1995 1-2 Seoul E-Land
Seoul E-Land 1-0 Jeonnam Dragons

The results have left a lot to be desired for fans of the side and they expected a lot more from a reformed team. Seoul now sits 10th in the league out of thirteen teams. The results may not have favored Seoul but there were some positives that came out of these past few games.

The Highs

Seoul played some good football throughout the summer. Sometimes it was not rewarded, however, on occasions, it was. Seoul managed to pick up three valuable points away from home to Seongnam in June and also managed a win against Busan IPark and Jeonnam Dragons. Two teams who have been above them in the league for most of the season.

Their win against Jeonnam was their first-ever victory against the side in their home stadium and hopefully, that will push Seoul on to get a late push to climb the K League 2 table.

The Lows

The two fixtures that will stick out for Seoul fans in this run will be the scoreless draw against Cheonan City. Cheonan have been very poor this season with only one win and seven draws. Teams who play Cheonan will find it disappointing if they do not get a win against them and that's exactly what happened to Seoul.

The second game that would have hurt Seoul fans the most was the 4-0 battering against Gimcheon. The loss was significant as it was against former manager Chung Jung-yong. To add further fuel to the fire, in a country that shows respect to one another and past teams at the end of the game, a traditional bow and applauding to the fans of a former team is often done. Chung Jung-yong failed to get the memo on this, giving a lifeless acknowledgement to the Seoul fans, adding a lot of anger in the stands.

What is Next?

At the time of this article, Seoul sits thirteen points off a playoff spot, with only nine games left to play. The ship to slip into the playoffs has already sailed for the side, so looking to work on the squad now for next year is more important.

The Seoul faithful believe in manager Park Chung-kyun. He shows a different approach to the game and is clear to the fans in his game plan. He does not come up with excuses when the team plays poorly, something the fans grew tired of with past managers.

Seoul has a few players who are on the cusp of playing their best football and some players who are on the bench and will be regular starters next year. It is time now for these players to start getting more game time and to start building a squad that will play with one another for a number of seasons.

Seoul can not continue to have a clear-out after every season as this does not give the team any time to gel and understand one another.

Final Thoughts

It has not been a memorable season for Seoul by any stretch of the imagination. The Leopards need to really finish the season on a high and give themselves motivation for the next season.

The K League is constantly changing and Seoul need to be ready for any changes that they make. If not, Seoul could be left behind in this ever-growing league.