It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog, a combination of a COVID-ravaged fixture list and the fatherly duties of raising a toddler have left me both without time and interest. But I decided to sit down today and try to write something about what is quite simply one of the biggest ‘six-pointers’ of the season.
Both Seongnam and Seoul find themselves in their own “worst case scenarios” as looms increasingly likely that one, if not both, will be lining up against Bucheon, Asan and E-Land next season….yeah I know Seoul bottled it earlier in the season against their city counterparts. The current situation sees Seoul bottom and Seongnam in the playoff spot due to yet another shockingly low and unacceptable ‘Goals For”. Seoul have taken action to try and turn things around as manager Park Jin-sub “walked away” along with the General Manager who felt he was capable of stepping into a job with such unrealistic fan expectations….yes Suhoshin anything above the bottom 6 is a successful season these days not the bare minimum. Seongnam’s Kim Nam-il has avoided falling on his sword so far, a defeat on Sunday and you would have to imagine it’s when not if he makes the all too scripted announcement.
So how has it come that Seongnam and not Incheon are 11th, how is it Seoul and not Suwon FC propping up the table? Well in Seoul’s case it’s quite simply because they were absolutely woeful under Park, a team that looked like they’d never met and had all the confidence of a bunch of virgins who stumble upon a Bachelorette Party. There are, of course, rumours of dressing room discontent and stories of players more interested in Bitcoin than ‘back fours’ but even taking that into account they’ve still managed to make playing football look like a chore….and not even one as fun as emptying last night’s Kimchi into a Chuseok food trash bin.
As for Seongnam? Well Seongnam have become as one-dimensional as you could possibly become, if Mulic isn’t on his game then the team look like they have no clue what to do. Nam’s continual squad rotation has left the cohesive unit that started the season well suddenly looking like they need nametags to tell who the other guys in black are. Richard in midfield is one such example, it looked like a tactical masterstroke by Nam until he inexplicably moved him back into defence and has stubbornly kept him there since. Bus was signed, and of course never played and I could probably name another handful of poor, almost illogical decisions by him. Indeed if it wasn’t for ‘Glory’ in defence then it would definetly be Seongnam in 12th and not Seoul.
So to the game itself and what can we expect? Nam did seem to have the upper and on Park in the first two clashes with a home win courtesy of a Mulic penalty and then a 2-2 away draw where Seoul were incredibly lucky to get anything from the game with Seongnam twice taking the lead. It was that 2-2 draw that started the whole COVID fixture issue with Seoul’s Hwang Hyun-soo testing positive after playing in that game. Both teams have failed to win in the last five games and given that neither can afford to lose it does make for a hugely cagey affair. That being said I think the change of manager will be enough to see Seoul scrape a victory and I am fairly certain it will come via the penalty spot as so many of their important goals seem to come from
Prediction : Away win : Seongam 0 – Seoul 1
The K-League Kilt 