With most attention on the exploits of Pohang Steelers in the Asian Champions League and the
national team's friendly matches in Europe against Denmark and Serbia, the fact that the K-League
is about to embark upon its championship play-off series has almost gone unnoticed.
Six teams are still in with a chance of the domestic title.
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It is almost two years since the South Korean national team last ventured outside the borders of
Asia. This weekend sees the Taeguk Warriors in Europe for the first of two 2010 World Cup warm-up
matches against tough opposition.
Saturday sees the team in Denmark and then four days later; Huh Jung-moo takes his players west to
London to face Serbia.
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Pohang Steelers are just 90 minutes away from making soccer history. On Saturday night, the team
from Gyeongsang province could become the most successful club in Asia – ever.
The South Koreans meet Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad in Tokyo in the final of the Asian Champions
League. The opposition also has two wins under its belt.
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In a league that is famed through Asia for its physicality and aggression, K-League clubs can be
fairly gentle off the pitch when it comes to firing coaches. China and Japan have almost-European
style practices in that regard while in West Asia - rare is the head coach that lasts over a
season.
Not in South Korea.
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For almost all teams, international tournaments end in sadness and thoughts of
what-might-have-been. That is the case with South Korea in regard to the Under-20 World Cup in
Egypt but as time passes, the competition will be remembered fondly in the Land of the Morning
Calm.
The run to the quarter-finals ended on Friday evening with a 3-2 defeat against Ghana at the
Mubarak Stadium in Suez.
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With the Chuseok holidays in South Korea over, it is traditionally time for local fans to put down
their overheated chopsticks and check out the race for the play-offs.
Past battles have been thrilling and this season is no different. As always, we teams that have
long forgotten thoughts of merely finishing in the top six to book a place in the championship
play-off series and have eyes on top spot.
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A burning sense of injustice could spur on South Korea's two teams remaining in the Asian Champions
League. In the first leg of their respective quarter finals, both Pohang Steelers and FC Seoul
suffered defeats on their travels to Uzbekistan and Qatar respectively.
The K-League clubs have a chance to right the perceived wrongs on Wednesday evening in the second
leg of their encounters.
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There is always a last-minute move before the European transfer window slams shut at the end of
August but the latest deal to be made involving a South Korean star came so late that it will
actually take place at the start of 2010.
Ki Sung-yong has signed for Scotland titans Glasgow Celtic but will join the team next January.
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There were few eyebrows raised earlier this summer when South Korea clinched a place at the 2010
World Cup. After all, the Taeguk Warriors had qualified for the previous six global tournaments; a
seventh successive spot was impressive but not especially newsworthy.
But North Korea making a second ever appearance at the World Cup?
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Asia is accustomed to hosting teams from Europe. Every summer sees big clubs from the west heading
east to play exhibition games in attempts to win new fans and conquer new markets.
The likes of Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Roma and Juventus
have all paid visits to the world's largest continent in recent years.
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East Asia has long struggled to produce prolific goalscorers and most clubs import attackers from
Brazil, Africa and Eastern Europe.
It is a chicken-and-egg situation. Do clubs buy foreign forwards because there isn't enough local
talent or is there not enough local talent because clubs pack their offensive lines with overseas
stars?
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It really is a magnificent seven. Asia's most successful team has booked a place at the World Cup
yet again. South Korea defeated UAE 2-0 in the early hours of Sunday morning Seoul time to seal a
place in South Africa.
First, the details. It was a comfortable win against the bottom team of the group.
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In Korean football, you are nothing without a nickname. You don't have to be called to the national
team to get one but it helps. This season, we have seen the return to form of a number of old heads
and the appearance of some long-unused aliases headlines in the huge portals.
"The Little Emperor", "The Lion King'', "The Millenium Kid" and "The Lord of the Ring" are all
colorful movie-like monikers but they are players who are working their way back to the spotlight
and into the gaze of national team coach Huh Jung-moo.
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For at least two of South Korea's four representatives in the Asian Champions League, this week is
make or break time. The quartet stands at the halfway point of the group stage with three games
gone and three to go. With the top two in each group of four progressing to the second round, now
is the time to start picking up points.
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Jeonju is not all Bibimbap and pretty temples; it is also the home of the K-League pacesetters
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. The team from the south-west hasn't made a huge impression on past title
chases but after four games of the season, the Motors, are, well, motoring and with Gwangju fans
enjoying the sight of their team sitting in second, it is a good time to be a football fan in the
region.
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April 1 is a time for playing practical jokes on friends, colleagues and neighbours but few were
laughing at the Korean Football Association (KFA) in Seoul when the South Korean team was drawn in
the same 2010 World Cup qualification group with North Korea for the second time in less than a
year.br /br /Any novelty has long since worn off.
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It is a fact, and perhaps not an ideal one, that as soon as the K-League starts its new season, the
Asian Champions League also gets into gear. Clubs that don't hit the ground running can often find
that before they know what is happening, they are hotfooting it out of Asia's premier club
competition.
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Last week South Korea decided to bid for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups. Tonight, attention is
focused solely on qualifying for the 2010 version as the national team takes on Iran in Tehran.
100,000 fans (all male – though female Korean fans are allowed with headscarves) will cram
into the imposing Azadi Stadium in the Persian capital to watch a big match between two of Asia's
biggest rivals.
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As the Year of the Rat gave way to the Year of the Ox in Seoul, Dr. Chung Myung-joon was finally
herded out of his office as the head of the Korean Football Association (KFA) to be replaced by Cho
Chung-yun.
It really was the end of an era. For the first time in 16 years, Dr. Chung did not be hand out New
Year presents to staff at the KFA.
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Former West Ham and West Bromich Albion midfielder Peter Butler has been coaching for years in
Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Yorkshireman believes that English coaches should learn the trade before taking top jobs
whether they do so in the lower leagues or, following his example, in a different and challenging
environment such as Asia.
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As he looks back at 2008, Park Ji-sung could be forgiven for allowing himself a wry smile. It has
been an incredible season for the man nicknamed ‘Three Lung Park' in Manchester and
‘Oxygen Tank' in Seoul.
These monikers sell the player a little short but they are vast improvements on the label quickly
pinned to his chest upon his arrival in England three and a half years ago.
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Following recent revelations that Chinese gamblers and match-fixers had been active in South
Korea's third division, I talked to Declan Hill.
Hill is a journalist who specialises in match-fixing in football and has written a book on the
subject called The Fix
If you want to fix a match, what should you do?
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The South Korean season ended just as winter started. The weekend of the championship play-off
final second leg dawned with temperatures in some parts of the peninsula approaching 20 below. The
cities of Suwon and Seoul were not far behind.
As the snow fell in the second half of the second leg of he championship decider between Suwon
Samsung Bluewings and FC Seoul on Sunday afternoon, few of the 41,000 fans present noticed
–some were bare-chested and many short-sleeved.
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Just as anxious Korean mothers head to temples to pray for good test results for their children,
football chiefs in South Korea have been doing something similar in the hope that the championship
play-off final will be between arch-rivals Suwon Samsung Bluewings and FC Seoul.
It came true on a chilly Sunday afternoon as FC Seoul defeated Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I 4-2 in the
penultimate round to set up the 'dream final'.
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It wasn't the prettiest and it wasn't without controversy but South Korea's 2-0 win over Saudi
Arabia in qualification for the 2010 World Cup in Riyadh was one of the team's best results in
years and a seventh successive appearance at the World Cup looks a good deal closer.
It had been 19 long years since the Taeguk Warriors last defeated the Sons of the Desert in a
competitive match but late goals from Lee Keun-ho, his fifth in three games for the national team,
and Park Chu-young in the early hours of Thursday morning Korean Time, gave the visitors the three
points.
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Football eyes have been fixed on the K-league in recent weeks but Wednesday's 2010 World Cup
qualifier in Saudi Arabia has been casting a large shadow over the domestic scene for weeks.
Wednesday's game in Riyadh is the first big test in South Korea's bid to qualify for South
Africa.
Until now, the obstacles on that road have been provided by the likes of Turkmenistan, Jordan,
North Korea and UAE.
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The regular season of the K-League has come to an end; now six teams are standing and dusting
themselves down in preparation for the championship play-off series.
Despite a mid-season dip that threatened to go the way of Seoul's KOSPI index and head into a
plunge, Suwon Samsung Bluewings bounced back to finish in first – just.
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It was a year ago when the news started to break. Reporters from Korean internet company Newsis
traveled to Jakarta to visit a ‘room salon' and chat with the female staff. The story soon
unfolded of how, during the 2007 Asian Cup held that July, four South Korean national team players
visited the establishment on two occasions and drank until dawn - once before a vital game against
Bahrain and then once after, following the shock 2-1 defeat.
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With winter on the horizon, the big games are coming thick and fast as the end of the regular
K-League season also comes into view. It is a time when some teams are going all out in an attempt
to grab what is on offer while others are more concerned with protecting what they have.
For the first time since April 2007, FC Seoul is the team with the most.
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There was a moment during Wednesday's World Cup qualification match between South Korea and UAE in
Seoul that may prove to be a turning point in the team's fortunes.
Korea dominated the match at Seoul World Cup Stadium, just like they had numerous times in the
past. With 20 minutes of the match remaining, it was 2-0 and really should have been more.
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A World Cup qualifier against UAE would not usually be a huge game but Wednesday's clash in Seoul
promises to be a big, big night for South Korean football.
What should happen in such a situation, and what has usually happened in the past, is that the host
enjoys a fairly comfortable victory and takes a step towards what would be a seventh successive
World Cup.
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It has been a strange K-League season. The constant stopping and starting has robbed the
competition of any momentum. A series of World Cup qualifiers in May and June necessitated a break
of a month and by the time play started again in July, the Olympic torch was lit in Beijing and
tools were downed once more.
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There was no Shanghai Surprise. The only surprise was that some thought it was going to be any
different. It could have been worse though, that was the one consolation for the few South Korean
fans who, late Wednesday evening, had sat through a typically turgid Korean Derby. 1-1 was the
score between the near neighbors in their 2010 World Cup qualification match in China.
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South Korea restarts its journey on the road to South Africa and the 2010 World Cup tonight in
Shanghai. Pyongyang was supposed to be the location but the qualifier against North Korea has been
moved to China as the communist authorities in the DPRK capital refused to fly the Taegukki or play
the Aegukga.
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The week before the transfer window closes is always a busy one. This year it slammed shut on the
evening of September 1. Clubs had to buy players before then or they are doomed to wait until
January before they can add to their rosters. It can be frantic.
That wasn't the case for South Korean players until last week – it had been quiet, too quiet.
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