The #KLeagueFM18 Challenges: Citizens Unite - Season Two Part 14

The giant that is Suwon Bluewings away, after a home match verses a team we are unbeaten in 4 occasions this campaign. The opener against Gangwon might be our only possible points for a while with an incredibly tough fixture list coming soon. With the aim being 4 points from these two games will we hit the mark or fade away like FC Seoul.



Catch Up On Season Two -  Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10
Part 11 Part 12 Part 13

Gangwon at Home

The terrible showing against the only team in the league, that we truly suffer with in Jeonnam. Is still fresh in the minds of all Daejeon fans. The social media accounts of the few who attended, was less than positive towards my management and the teams performance.

Some fans even called for a boycott after failing to beat the worst team in the league on three separate occasions. The memories of that unbeaten in six games seems to have been quickly forgotten. Nevertheless we push on, with Gangwon coming to our fortress after only picking up 3 points out of a possible 18 we are positive of a good result.

Gangwon's old time striker Lee Keun-Ho is in fine form, with 5 goals in his last 6 starts. Hopefully we can keep the old man contained and grind out a decent result.

The line up for this game remains mostly unchanged, with only the likes of Yoon Sin-Young preferred at CB over the younger Park Jae-Woo and Park Dae-Hoon keeps his place at striker, with his recent performances being our only positive.

Gangwon only bringing 89 away fans for a K League match on a Saturday is slightly concerning for the growth of the league, but 2913 Daejeon fans will be in full voice.

Concerning for the K League but a positive sign for our fans being heard

The line ups are out and the wonderful news is passed around the stadium that Lee Keun-Ho the only player we were worried about prematch, is excluded due to concussion. The players look more relaxed and head out to the field with actual hope instead of fear.

Kick Off

Ten minutes gone and fear is back in the players eyes. Dario Junior for Gangwon makes a darting run that splits the defence, a silky pass through to Jung Jo-Gook who must score. He smashes it with earnest and it goes flying over the bar and over the 89 travelling fans heads.

Still 0-0 but that was a golden opportunity for a Gangwon goal, clear instructions to relax is shouted out and Chan-Hee seems to nod in approval that or he's tired already.

LEE GWAN-PYO!

An excellent passing sequence by our midfield, dazzles the Gangwon system who get drawn into no mans land. With time and space Lee Gwan-Pyo picks his head up sees Dae-Hoon's arm gestures and slots the ball through. 

With only the keeper to beat, he rounds the keeper and makes it 1-0, Dae-Hoon's on fire. Daejeon lead at the fortress. 

Dae-Hoon capping off an excellent Daejeon move. 

Gangwon are the exact opposite of reality, being that they're the lowest scorers in all of the K League only notching 26 goals this season. With an early goal by Dae-Hoon, Gangwon look distraught. The 89 fans who have turned up are unraveling a banner of hate speech and it feels good to not be the most hated manager in the stadium.

We come into half time with little to no further action, and a clear dominate Daejeon performance. With Gwan-Pyo dictating tempo and finally a consistent finisher up top, we have positives to build upon. 

The Brazilian Gangwon forward looks incredibly depressed, not even running for balls now. Oh Ban-Suk is out pacing him, it seems like a team on their way down not fighting for survival, where else have I seen a team like that...

Speak of the devil, Oh Ban-Suk climbs for a header in the box and it just narrowly clips the crossbar going over with the power. Great opportunity but apart from that it's been a very controlled and honestly boring second half of no chances. 

The final whistle blows on a second half of what looked like piggy in the middle style football. It's 1-0 Daejeon. 3 valuable points and after the walk down the tunnel. The inevitable happened. 

Gangwon manager is sacked, 3 points from 21 possible and heading downwards faster than FC Seoul, good luck to Park Hyo-Jin in the future. 

Match statistics from an incredibly dominate yet boring Daejeon victory. 

Suwon Bluewings Away

With only three days separating playing Suwon away and at home, it looks like both games are going to be a complete whitewash. Suwon have scored 17 goals in 5 games, unbeaten in 8 and look set to go on a crazy ACL run to the final. Luckily those Gangwon points might give us extra motivation, but we will need a miracle. 

Suwon have sold 15,000 tickets for this match. Expecting a smashing I presume, we have some hope with our form not being entirely poor but can we stop the title challengers? Oh Ban-Suk is banned for a match for an accumulation of yellow cards, Park Dae-Hoon is also out with thigh strain and only 1,186 away tickets have been sold. 

Everything seems to be going against us for this clash, but my job as a manager is to some how get them motivated and with bribes of pay rises if we don't get embarrassed on SpoTV they seem to agree. 

Kick Off

Matthew Jurman, Shim Dong-Woon into Kim Gun-Hee and it's 1-0. We couldn't handle the press and the width of the 3-5-2. Simple cross get's missed by Jae-Woo and it's disaster stations already. They're on an amazing run and probably the best team we've ever played. Hopefully we can just hold out till half time being only 1-0.


VAR!!!!

Koh Rae-Se who made his return to the line up today, gets chopped down inside the box by Hong-Chul. It's waved away as a dive but after consultation it's a penalty. Here comes Kim Chan-Hee.

Captain fantastic steps up for a penalty for Daejeon in the 26th. 

It was close but looking through my fingers, the ball moves the back of the net. It's 1-1!!! Suwon are beatable all it takes it Hong-Chul kicking us inside of the box. 26 minutes gone and I'm blowing an imaginary whistle, call the game referee.

Park Jae-Woo takes an early bath. He goes in for a challenge on Muralha, who passes the ball with a deft touch and Jae-Woo can't stop. Straight red card we are now down to 10 men. Incredibly poor decision for the youngster, that will cost us heavily.

Second half kick off with Ho-Jun being moved to CB and Chan-Hee moved to CM, we are looking confused, frustrated and tired and it's 1-1. Suwon press is indescribable.

It's 2-1 Suwon in the 54th, our 10 men team can't handle the player on player marking, Park Gi-Dong get's free in the box and with a diving header it goes under Su-Hyun's flying arm for 2-1. Suwon Ultra's are loving life behind the goal for that one.

3-1 in the 62nd. Suwon repeat the previous goal but this time it's Kwon Young-Hyun who finds himself without a marker and it's easily scored for 3-1.

Wonder goal by Lee Gwan-Pyo showing his talent, albeit a useless goal.

The final score is 3-2, we didn't play well, we didn't play poorly. It was an acceptable performance verses the best team in the league with only 10 men. With Suwon Bluewings to play again in three days, hopefully we can learn some changes for the next game at home.

Post game statistics from an okay performance that lacked some attacking threat. 

TL:DR

A solid 1-0 victory over Gangwon, a decent performance verses Suwon away. An amazing goal and a lot to build on. It might be the worst time to build on it with Suwon, Pohang, Pohang in the space of 14 days. The result against Suwon proves that they're not perfect and maybe we have a chance in three days. Gangwon manager getting sacked might take the heat off of me for a few extra weeks.