Week 2: Big Review of K League 2
Seoul E-Land and Chungbuk Cheongju top K League 2 with maximum points from two games after another drama-filled weekend in the second division. Seongnam crashed in their home opener, surprisingly losing to the unfancied Ansan Greeners. Red cards ruined Cheonan's big day, and over 10,000 fans watched Chungnam Asan draw with Bucheon.
Gyeongnam 1 (Won Ki-jong 30')
Busan IPark 4 (Kim Chan 39', 46', and 75', Lamas 45+3')
Changwon Football Centre
7,649
Busan IPark bounced back from last weekend's surprise defeat by comfortably beating provincial rivals Gyeongnam on Saturday. Kim Chan's hat-trick helped Busan to even out their goal difference despite the three-goal loss to Seoul E-Land in Asiad. This was as comprehensive a 1-4 win as you're likely to see. Busan tore Gyeongnam to shreds, registering a whopping 14 shots on target against a playoff team.
Incredibly, Park Jin-sub's side fell behind to Won Ki-jung's third of the season, a penalty on the half-hour after a needless foul in the box. They had three good chances immediately after to equalize before Kim's neat side-foot finish. Lamas converted a penalty on the stroke of halftime to give Busan the lead. The second half was one-way traffic. The damage was restricted to four, but it could have been double that. Busan are back!
Jeonnam Dragons 4 (Choi Seong-jin 32', Kim Jong-min 59' and 89', Montano 69' )
Gimpo FC FC 0
Gwangyang Football Stadium
7,295
Jeonnam Dragons recovered from their opening day disappointment by putting last season's surprise package, Gimpo FC, to the sword in the second half. It was an unhappy return for former Jeonnam star Leonard Pllana, who lasted just 22 minutes on his return to Gwangyang. With the score still tied at 0-0, Pllana went down with what looked like a groin injury, only minutes after carving out a good opportunity for his side.
Gimpo held on until the half-hour but a beautiful cut back from the left found Choi Seong-jin unmarked to tap in. Jeonnam had chances to extend the lead but had to wait until the 60th minute to make the game safe when Montano came off the bench and immediately set up his side's second. The Colombian added a third with 20 minutes to play before Kim Jeong-min scored his second in the dying minutes to cap a brilliant team performance.
Chungnam Asan FC 1 (Juninho 71')
Bucheon FC 1995 1 (Lupeta 62')
Yi Sun-sin Stadium
10,022
After praising the attendance figures on the cold opening weekend at Anyang and Cheongju, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the five-figure number at Asan on Saturday. With only a few hundred away fans making the trip, this represents an enormous figure for a club that lost its opener the previous week. The pitch was in horrendous condition but the Asan jerseys were not. They wore a cracking all-red strip, instead of their traditional yellow.
Juninho Rocha registered his first competitive goal for Asan, earning a point for his new team. It was a stunning individual goal with the Brazilian gathering possession on halfway, taking on the entire Bucheon team, and then firing a shot in off the post. Bucheon's Lupeta opened the scoring despite having his spot-kick saved. It is a thing of beauty that happens so rarely; the penalty taker knocking home the rebound after the initial shot was parried by the goalkeeper.
Seoul E-Land FC 2 (Bruno 52', Cho Dong-jae 93')
Suwon Samsung Bluewings 1 (Jeon Jun-woo 78')
Mokdong Stadium
9,123
Arguably the biggest game of the weekend with plenty of interesting subplots. Osmar's home debut for Seoul E-Land, against his former club's bitter rivals. The November meeting with Suwon was Osmar's last appearance for FC Seoul. Added to that, former Suwon FC manager, Kim Do-kyun, is E-Land's new boss. Suwon FC finished joint-bottom with Suwon Samsung but survived on goals scored.
This game was settled deep into stoppage time when Cho Dong-jae met a bouncing ball on the edge of the box and fired it into the net, sparking wild scenes inside Mokdong. This game only came to life on 52 minutes when Bruno scrambled home Seoul's opener. Suwon deservedly equalized with 12 minutes to play and looked on course for at least a point until Cho volleyed Seoul to the top of the table. Osmar was majestic, Fejsal Mulic a shadow of the match winner last week.
Cheonan City FC 1 (Bruno Mota 26')
Chungbuk Cheongju FC 2 (Lee Kang-han 80', Lee Min-hyung 95')
Cheonan Stadium
5,576
The Chungcheon-do rivals arrived in Cheonan joint-top of K League 2 after recording surprise wins on the opening weekend. This was the most K League 2 of games over the weekend with plenty of drama, late twists, and talking points. Having tamed Bucheon the previous weekend, Cheonan were in fine form and deservedly opened the scoring through Bruno Mota's unsavable header midway through the first half.
Unfortunately for Mota, his day was about to take a dramatic twist. Approaching half-time, the striker was sent off for a stamp on Lee Min-hyeong's ankle. If Mota was unlucky, Paulinho certainly wasn't. He joined his teammate for an early bath after a disgraceful elbow off the ball. Cheonan paid a heavy price. The equalizer came with 10 to play and the winning goal, in the final seconds, was scored by the man who felt the force of Mota's stamp, Lee Min-hyeong.
Seongnam 1 (Kim Jeong-hwan 20')
Ansan Greeners 3 (Kim Jae-sung 3', Roh Kyung-ho 52' and 76')
Tancheon Stadium
3,077
Two sides that lost their opening game met in Tancheon on Sunday night and it was Ansan Greeners who defied the odds by claiming all three points. The Wolves were ahead inside three minutes when Kim Jae-sung took advantage of some classic ball-watching at the back by nipping in for this side's first goal. Seongnam were level on 21 minutes and what a brilliant goal it was, too. Jung Won-jin's perfectly weighted ball behind the Ansan defense was met first time by Kim Jeong-hwan who volleyed home from a tight angle.
Both teams had good opportunities to take a lead into the break but somehow it remained tied. However, seven minutes into the second half, Roh Kyung-ho scored the first of his brace to set up a big win for Ansan. Roh met a weak defensive header to fire into the bottom right corner. The forward found the same corner on 76 minutes with a sublime finish to cap off a great counterattack by the Wolves. He celebrated in front of his fans as Seongnam's players sunk to their knees.
FC Anyang sat out Round 2.
Up next...
Cheonan City vs. Seongnam
Gyeongnam vs. Chungnam Asan
Bucheon FC 1995 vs. Seoul E-Land
Busan IPark vs. Gimpo
Chungbuk Cheongju vs. FC Anyang
Ansan Greeners vs. Suwon Samsung
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