Preview: Seoul E-Land vs Daejeon Citizen

Football is an emotional game, nothing quite prepares you for the worst outcome and possibility in a match. A fate Seoul E-Land, unfortunately, had to suffer on the weekend, when they recorded their biggest ever loss in their history. A 5-0 demolition to Busan IPark in the K League 2, put a dark, gray cloud over Jamsil on Saturday evening.

The Leopards now need to be a phoenix, and rise from the ashes of their mistake. They have a mid-week clash against Daejeon Citizen, a team they know only too well as they played a fortnight prior. It ended 1-0 to E-Land that time around, and they will be desperate for another win, to correct their shocking performance on Saturday.
(image via K League)

Last Time Out

Both Seoul E-Land and Busan started strong, with attacking runs from both sides. Seoul were exposing a left flank that Busan just didn’t seem to cover well. They never really had any chance to put the ball into the box though, and they couldn’t create a goal scoring opportunity from their efforts.

It only took 14 minutes for Busan to score their first. Rômulo fired the goal home to make it 1-0 Busan. Their second came in the 35th, when Choi Seung-in, slid the ball into the net after meeting a well-worked cross. The striker also scored their third goal as the second half got underway, in the 60th minute.

The fourth goal will probably be the most painful for The Leopards, as a push from Jeon Min-Kwang, resulted in the defender being sent off. The free kick from the challenge was expertly slotted into the side of the goal by Rômulo to make it 4-0.

Busan ended E-Land’s misery in the 80th minute, Lee Jong-min with a wonderful half-volley fired the ball into the net. E-Land forgot the basics of defending and were humiliated in defeat.

Busan’s 4th goal and Jeon Min-Kwang's sending off can be found here

Daejoen Citizen did a lot better on Saturday as the traveled up to FC Anyang. A win for Daejeon would see them jump ahead of Seoul on goals scored into 7th.

The game saw one goal, and it went to Daejeon. Aurelian Chitu in the 77th-minute gave Daejoen hope once more and saw the game off with a good win. Daejoen will go into the game against E-Land in full confidence knowing both scores.

Away to FC Anyang on Saturday night, Daejeon Citizen picked up a long overdue win thanks to a second-half Aurelian Chitu effort midway through the second half. Neither side showed enough quality to warrant a halftime lead but the longer the Purples kept their Gyeonggi Province counterparts at bay, Ko Jongsoo’s men looked the most likely to grab a winner, and that they did. Romanian forward Aurelian Chitu latched onto a sloppy pass before rolling the ball over the line.

Written by Paul Neat

Previous Meetings

Seoul E-Land and Daejeon citizen will meet for the third time this season on Wednesday evening. They both share one win each.

Daejeon first claimed victory when they put one goal past E-Land back in March. The game saw two sending offs for E-Land. First was Ahn Ji-ho, with a straight red in the 55th minute. The second was a second yellow card for Choi Han-sol. His foul resulted in a penalty, which Pedro Henrique put away in the 76th minute. The game ended 1-0 to Daejeon.

The second game happened only two weeks ago when Daejoen came to Seoul in the hopes of two out of two against the Leopards. Daejon left empty handed though as Choi Chi-won, headed the ball home in the 70th minute. A wonderful cross from Choi Oh-back resulted in the goal.

The game, once again, was smudged as Ko Cha-won was sent off in the 60th minute for Seoul E-Land. Any hopes that Seoul E-Land were turning around their disciplinary issues prior to that match were short lived. They just cannot keep 11 players on the pitch recently.

The game ended 1-0 to Seoul E-Land and was the start of their short-lived, two-game winning streak.

Team News

Seoul E-Land were a mess on the weekend, they truly missed the partnership of Ahn Ji-ho and Kim Jae-hyun. They looked sloppy and defensively unaware. What makes it worse is that Jeon Min-kwang is now out of the game against Daejeon so their defensive worries may continue.

On a lighter note, after speaking to Bielkiewicz after the game, he is eager to play in the match against Daejeon. The Argentinean has an eye issue, which has mended now. The player wants to play, and probably needs to.

In Chang-soo will have a lot of food for thought as he picks his team on Wednesday. No one really showed any real quality or skill on the weekend to deserve a place on the team sheet.

The big question is that, will they keep the same 4-3-3 formation, after being dismantled like that against Busan? They have tried different formations and won using them prior, most notably the 4-1-4-1 shape against Ansan Greeners.

As for Dajeon's team news, our Paul Neat says as follows;

"Daejeon will have no players ruled out through suspension but there are no fewer than eight who are just a scribble in the referees notebook from serving a one-match ban. Injury wise, goalkeeper Kim Jinyoung is the Purples’ only long-term absentee, the former Pohang Steelers custodian suffered a serious knee injury earlier in the campaign and is expected to be out for most of the campaign. Former Seongnam ‘keeper Park Junhyeok will continue to deputise."

The Adversary

Such is the state of play in the K League 2 with any team from third downwards in with a chance of the playoffs, one result, good or bad, can change the whole complexion of a team’s season. That can certainly be said about Daejeon Citizen who will make the trip to the capital on Wednesday on the back of a much-needed win over FC Anyang. A poor run of form resulted in Citizen slipping further towards the foot of the table, where the 1997-founded cub spent the majority of their anniversary year in 2017. However, the win over Anyang has pushed the Purples up to seventh and six points off the playoffs meaning a win against E-Land would put Ko Jongsoo’s men back in the hunt for the top four. The 1-0 away victory over the Violets was the Purples’ first since the World Cup break, bringing a run of six games without a win to a halt and now means that Citizen can start to look up again, as opposed to glancing precariously over their shoulders. A win against E-Land will be seen as an absolute must in order to build momentum, or to exact revenge for the 1-0 loss at Jamsil just a few weeks ago if nothing else.

Throughout the campaign fledgling gaffer Ko Jongsoo has largely opted for a 4-1-2-3 formation, although the former Korean National Team midfielder has flirted with a back three on a few occasions. Former vice captain, Jang Wonseok looked to have been frozen out at the beginning of the year and relegated from the number three shirt to 38. However, the veteran fullback has forced his way into the starting lineup, as has center back Kwon Youngho who has displaced Ahn Sanghyeon as the holding midfielder. Another couple of players whose playing time had been limited is Yun Shinyoung and Shin Hakyoung, both of whom featured heavily last year but had, until recently, found first-team opportunities hard to come by. In the center of the park youngsters Park Sooil and Kang Yunsung seem to have cemented down the starting berth, the former is the league’s joint leading assist maker with six. Up front, Romanian forward Aurelian Chitu has been the man tasked with leading the line and has been flanked by the likes of Park Inhyeok, Shohruh Gadoev or Kim Seungseop.

Written by Paul Neat

Prediction

Seoul E-Land is perhaps the most unpredictable team I have ever seen. I have laughed and now cried with their performances. Wednesday will be anyone’s guess to what will happen. Daejoen come off the back of a win and will smell blood, and I can’t see a team, beaten 5-0 at home, getting a positive result only four days later.

Football fans love seeing goals in games and so do I, but I would be more than content with a stalemate 0-0 in this fixture, just to get stability for E-Land in their progression in the league. I doubt that will happen though.

Predicted Score: Seoul E-Land 0-1 Daejeon Citizen