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. The Gyeonggi giants took top spot ahead of FC Seoul by virtue of a slightly superior goal difference. The reward for laying claim to the top spots is that the lucky recipients get to watch the other quartet quarrel until one is left. The smart money is that Seongnam will emerge from the dust but anything could happen. The yellows finished in third and host barely-squeezed-into-sixth Jeonbuk. The match-up between fourth and fifth is an all-southeastern affair between Ulsan and Pohang. Winning the first match is just one step. The prize for the two victors is a battle with each other. The winner of that game will head to capital for a one-off match with FC Seoul. The winner of that takes on Suwon in a two-legged final with the K-League title as a prize. It is simpler than it sounds but the process getting to this point was not easy. Going into the final round of games on Sunday, there were a host of issues that had to be settled. Suwon traveled to Incheon. Both teams needed to win –Suwon to ensure first place and Incheon to stay in sixth. Thousands of Suwon fans also made the short journey west and were rewarded as their heroes took control of the game by scoring three very good goals. The first a real beauty courtesy of Baek Ji-hoon. Incheon pulled one back with a late penalty but the eventual result was never in doubt. The Suwon players celebrated first place with their fans while Incheon’s supporters quietly left their stadium for the last time this year. “We started this season so well but had injuries and then had a bad run,” smiled Suwon coach Cha Bum-keun after the match. “As a coach, this is the most difficult time but it was good experience for the other players. “I think that the team which finishes first is the real champion,” he added. Suwon had to win as Seoul was waiting to pounce and take top spot if there were any slip-ups. The capital club slipped up itself and lost the initiative in the race for the summit last weekend with a 2-0 defeat at Busan. On the subsequent trip to the southeast, Seoul performed better and was two goals ahead by half-time. Pohang hit back in the dying minutes but it was too little too late. Despite finishing second, Seoul coach Senol Gunes proclaimed that he was happy with the season. “All our players have given everything over the last 26 games. First of all we will give them a vacation and then continue the hard work. We will not make too many changes,” Gunes said. Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma spent virtually the whole season in the top two until the final week. The team simply stopped scoring though managed a 1-0 win at Daegu FC. Even that was slightly disappointing as Daegu may be a city famous for juicy apples and dainty dames but the team is notorious for its leaky backline. The seven-time champion will host Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the play-off. Of all the six teams remaining, Jeonbuk is the happiest to be there. The Jeonju team started the season poorly and spent much of the first half scrambling to stay to climb off the bottom. A great run in the second half of the campaign, culminating in an exciting 3-1 win over Gyeongnam, ensures that the 2008 season is not over in Jeolla Province With Pohang and Ulsan also ready to continue, there is still a great deal of football still left to be played. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

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. The capital club moved to the top of the standings on Sunday with a narrow 1-0 win over previous leaders Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. Seoul, playing with one striker for the first time all season in the first half were nervous and Seongnam were sloppy, slow and disjointed. It wasn’t pretty but the fans who braved a chilly autumn afternoon and 87 minutes of fairly turgid football were rewarded with a moment of beauty. Substitute striker Lee Sang-hyub connected to a deep Lee Chung-young cross inside the area to lash a left-footed volley into the back of the Seongnam net. It was Seoul’s first victory over Seongnam for three seasons and more importantly, it has made the team start to believe that it could actually win the league championship. Fans across the Land of the Morning Calm will be tuned into their televisions on Wednesday to see if Seoul has finally managed to combine mental mettle with fancy footwork. The men in black and red make the short journey south to Suwon - the home of their fiercest rivals and closest challengers Suwon Samsung Bluewings. The two teams lie level on 48 points and only the fact that Seoul has scored one more goal puts them in pole position. The hosts are rubbing their hands in anticipation at upsetting the Seoul bandwagon once again. Early in 2007, Seoul was riding high at the top of the table when Suwon arrived to win and send Seoul sliding down the table with a run of seven matches without a win. This season Seoul again started well and was once again defeated at home by the men in blue. The reaction in the capital was different in 2008 however as that defeat signalled the start of an impressive unbeaten run that has now stretched to an impressive 18 matches. “Playing Seoul at home is a good chance for us to recover our first place in the league,” Suwon boss Cha Bum-keun told reporters. Since an 11-match winning streak sent Suwon nine points clear in June, the Bluewings have stuttered a little. Those recent wobbles will be forgotten and forgiven if Suwon can not only defeat Seoul but also take the top spot with two matches of the regular season remaining. The stakes could be a little higher, but not much, especially as Seongnam is just a point behind in third place and eager to bounce back from its defeat at the weekend. “It’s not over yet,” said a smiling Senol Gunes after the Seongnam win which provoked wild scenes of jubilation at Sangam Stadium in the north-west of the city. “Defeating Suwon on Wednesday is a bigger target.” Since arriving in Korea, Gunes has only won two out of nine meetings with the Bluewings. “There are still three games to go, starting with Suwon. If we win all three then we will finish in first place. The win against Seongnam is for our fans and through this kind of result we aim to attract more fans to the stadium next season.” For now however, the focus is firmly on the end of this season. After Wednesday, there are just two games of the regular season remaining before the six-team play-off series begins. Finishing in the top two places in the K-League not only makes those play-offs significantly less taxing, it also grants access to the 2009 Asian Champions League. As the temperatures around the southern half of the peninsula start finally to fall, the race for the K-League is getting hotter by the day. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

“Seongnam are the second strongest team in the league but we are the strongest,” said Pohang Steelers boss Sergio Farias after his team defeated the K-League leaders 2-1 last Saturday. The Brazilian is exaggerating his team’s abilities but at the moment in Korea, just as the weather finally settles into seasonable temperatures, the football scene has gone haywire. How else can you explain Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors’ 5-2 thrashing of Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the once-feared Big Bird Stadium? Earlier in the season, Suwon couldn’t stop winning and the Motors couldn’t start. Now the Jeonju club collected three successive wins; Suwon have lost five of their last seven. For the Jeonju-based team, the fried egg on the bi-bim-bap was the five star showing in Suwon, after the meeting between the two earlier in the season had been a bad-tempered one. In May, the Gyeonngi team went to Jeonju to win 2-1 with the last kick of the game. By that 94th minute, emotions were running high after Jeonbuk striker Cho Jae-jin scored and then, in the view of the Suwon fans, celebrated provocatively in front of the massed blue ranks. Cho told them he was only following what Suwon’s Seo Dong-hyun had done earlier in the game. Suwon fans told him that they would ‘see him at the Big Bird’. They came, they saw but Cho conquered. The much-maligned male model was roundly booed and jeered on his return to Gyeonggi but he quickly made the catcalls stick in blue craws. Cho put Jeonbuk ahead and although Suwon soon equalized, four goals from the men in green in ten second half minutes stunned the home fans and kept the visitors’ hopes of a place in the top six and entry to the championship play-off series alive. It was also the most goals that Suwon goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae has ever conceded in a single match. “I expected it,” smiled Cho after the game, not referring to the 5-2 scoreline of course but the reception from the home fans. “It didn’t bother me. I was just focused on the game. In fact, it motivated me to do better.” The feeling of defeat is becoming increasingly familiar for Blues boss Cha Bum-keun. “Our condition is poor,” said the legend of Korean soccer. “We have many injuries but most importantly because of results, the atmosphere around the team is bad.” It certainly is. A comprehensive 3-1 defeat at Jeju United the week previously and a 5-2 thrashing at home at the hands of another mid-table team leaves Suwon’s season in danger of meltdown. It is a big test for coach Cha, one known for buying good players but his ability to build a team is not quite so respected. Runs like the current one happen and are never easy for a coach to break. The defeat sent Suwon, so long the leaders, down into third place and looking over a shoulder at the approaching Ulsan in fourth. It is FC Seoul that are the ones to watch. The capital club are unbeaten for 15 league matches and brushed aside Chunnam Dragons 3-0 on Sunday to move above Suwon but below Seongnam. It wasn’t the best of performances for the hosts but confidence is coursing through the veins of the players and with Dejan Damjanovic in great form in attack, Seoul are looking good at a good time. With Ulsan and Pohang looking fairly safe in fourth and fifth, a number of clubs are chasing the sixth and final play-off spot with all the fervour of a tired Seoul salaryman eyeing a free subway seat in the evening rush hour. The Uniteds of Jeju and Incheon are in there fighting along with Gyeongnam FC, a resurgent Jeonbuk and an unpredictable Daegu. The play-off system has its critics but there is no denying that at this stage of the season, it provides a fascinating sideshow to the increasingly fierce race at the top. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

As the K-League reaches the halfway stage, there is one team that looks like 100% champions, one that is setting the bar higher every week. It is a statistic that improves by the week but has become so familiar that it almost ceases to impress. Suwon Samsung Bluewings have won the last eleven league matches. It is a new record and at the moment, it is hard to see when it is going to end. “The Blue winning machine’” it has been called by some writers who find that match reports when watching Suwon almost write themselves. March 16 was the last and only time in 2008 when the Bluewings didn’t taste victory - a 2-2 draw at perennial title rivals Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. Seongnam is still in second but lagging a massive nine points behind. FC Seoul is in third. But at the moment, it is all about the boys from the Big Bird Stadium just to the south of Seoul. Suwon is unstoppable. The latest win was a 2-0 triumph at home to Incheon United. “It was a tough match for us,” said coach Cha Bum-keun. “With the injuries we have, some players were playing out of position and I am proud that they came through and we won.” “This was a game in which we really needed Mato,” added the boss. Mato is Mato Neretjlak, currently the best central defender in the K-League and one of the best in Asia. If he was Korean then the final stage of qualification for the 2010 World Cup would look much easier but the 29 year-old is a former Croatian international and the man responsible for organizing the Suwon backline along with Korea’s 2002 and 2006 World Cup goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae. ‘We have a good team and are playing well,” Neretljak told me after the match. “I am enjoying my football here and it is a good place to play.” Understandable sentiments. As well as a solid defence, there is an embarrassment of riches in midfield and attack. Lining up in the center are the likes of Cho Won-hee, Baek Ji-hoon and Lee Kwan-woo. Even North Korean midfield lynchpin An Yong-hak barely gets a game. It is in attack though where the team looks more dangerous than last season when it finished second. Seo Dong-hyun and Shin Young-rok are young strikers who have been terrorizing defenses up and down the Land of the Morning Calm. The two haven’t yet managed to break into the national team but with the lack of firepower at international level recently, it should only be a matter of time. Usually, it would also only be a matter of time before the championship trophy was leaving Pohang and heading northwest to Suwon but in the present system, the top six teams will enter the championship play-off series. Finishing first gives an automatic place in the final but as Seongnam found out last year, it guarantees nothing. With the league at the halfway stage, the top three seem to be pulling away from the chasing pack and if the trend continues then much attention will be on the teams fighting to fill positions four to six. Daejeon Citizen made a late and dramatic run to squeeze in at the last minute last season and there are a number of teams that could do the same in 2008. Usual suspects Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I and Pohang Steelers won’t be far away and less regular play-off participants Incheon United, Daegu FC and Gyeongnam are all hovering around the cut-off point. All it needs it a purple patch to push them into the top six spot and a tilt at the title. The contenders all know however that, like the ultimate boss in a computer combat game, Suwon will be waiting and ready to provide the toughest of tests. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

After going for almost 700 minutes of K-League football without scoring, FC Seoul’s coach Senol Gunes would have tried anything to break the drought. It is unknown however if it was the Turk who booked the half-time entertainment for the game against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors on May 12.