With the temperatures and humidity levels rising all over the Korean peninsula, the nation’s players will be happy that the K-league is taking a five-week break. Recent games have seen most of the 22 on the pitch collapse on the turf in exhaustion as the referee blows his whistle to signal the end. Not all players will be resting, 18 of them will be heading to China to play in the Beijing Olympics- more about that next week. For those left behind, and especially the coaches, there will be a lot of thinking going on over the next month. Suwon, Seongnam and Seoul may be lording it at the top of the pile but there are plenty of others not so well off. The one with the most to consider is Hwang Sun-hong. The hero of the 2002 World Cup is one of South Korea’s best ever strikers but his first coaching job is not going so well. Busan I’Park started the season with a win on the opening day against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. 14 games later and Hwang is still looking for victory number two following four ties and ten defeats. Busan has been unlucky at times; playing well against some of the big boys and losing to last-minute strikes. The south coast team, which contains Ahn Jung-hwan, had never been handed a heavy defeat - until last Saturday that is. That was when free-scoring Daegu FC won 4-0 at Busan’s World Cup Stadium. Three of the goals came in the final minutes as Busan desperately tried to get something out of the game. Still, it was a sobering result and the defending was enough to drive long-suffering Busan fans, and perhaps coach Hwang, to drink. Ahead of Busan in the standings, but only just, are the three Jeolla clubs. Gwangju Sangmu is a perennial struggler and it is no surprise to see the military-run team, reliant on conscripts to the army and unable to sign players, struggle in the nether regions but more was expected of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. The Jeonju team is improving slightly but has won just four games in a season when the 2006 Asian champions was at least expected to finish in the top six with such players as Kim Hyeung-bom, Chung Kyung-ho and Cho Jae-jin on its books. Further south, Chunnam Dragons are also struggling. The Gwangyang club has never been one of the league’s big boys but three wins all season is a poor return. Jeju United spent much of this season languishing near the bottom. Four straight wins in June and July changed all that as Brazilian boss Arthur Bernardes has the team playing some good football and the islanders are outside bets for a top six finish and a place in the play-offs. Incheon United is in the opposite situation. The west coast port city started the season on fire and won its opening three games. Only two more have followed and some of the football on display at the Munhak Stadium has not been especially exciting with an over-reliance on big Serbian striker Dzenan Radonic partly at fault. Daejeon Citizen is a team usually tough to defeat. The Purple boys squeezed into the play-offs last season but have yet to find the same sort of form this time round. Goals are very hard to come by for Kim Ho’s team with a measly 11 netted in 15 games. A 1-0 win over Suwon the round before last was well-received but the veteran silver-haired Kim has to find some magic from somewhere over the next few weeks. Gyeongnam FC has been in reasonable form and currently lies in sixth –the last play-off spot. The Changwon-based club has coped well after the coach and its two best players left at the end of last season and new Brazilian signing Indio is starting to impress along with young midfielder Seo Sang-min. Up the road, Daegu is having a real roller-coaster of a season. The team has scored 31 goals, one more than leaders Suwon but the problem is the fact it has conceded 37.Games involving Daegu are usually high scoring with the Korean duo of Lee Keun-ho and Jang Nam-seok doing the damage only to look on in dismay as the defense is breached once again. If Daegu can tighten that backline without sacrificing its potency in attack, a place in the play-offs awaits. The two South-eastern coastal cities Pohang Steelers and Ulsan Hyundai are in their usual positions of fourth and fifth. Neither team has impressed on a consistent basis but have enough good players to get the results that will put them in the play-offs. Once you book that ticket, as Pohang knows only two well, anything can happen. 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

And so it came to pass that South Korean team Chunnam Dragons were playing Melbourne Victory of Australia to preserve their faint hopes of reaching the last eight of the Asian Champions League. Melbourne had been even worse than the Dragons in the competition but the A-League outfit at least had the excuse that it was their first time. Chunnam's centred on injuries to their best players. As excuses go, it was reasonable. The club was without three or four of its best players for every match. It doesn't however, explain why with all but one of those stars recovered, coach Park Hang-seo chose to leave out four first-team regulars. They watched the action from the stands accompanied by dried squid and ricecakes - snacks that keep mouths busy for hours. There was some football to keep eyes occupied but neither team seemed especially interested playing in front of a tiny crowd in the unusual setting of Gwangyang stadium. In the crowded country that is South Korea,few places are really remote but Gwangyang, located around the middle of the south coast, is a trek to get to -though a very pleasant one at that. The place itself is small. Basically Gwangyang is a huge steel works and container port with a small town attached. The stadium is on the edge of POSCO's steelworks. With the huge complex to the right behind the stadium and lush mountains to the left, the compact arena makes for a great place to watch football. It wasn't so great last Wednesday but it was entertaining enough. Perhaps coach Park was right to field a weak team. Runaway leaders Gamba Osaka later won in Thailand to confirm their place as Group G's representative in the quarter-finals. 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

South Korean football fans have been following the progress of Manchester United and Park Ji-sung to the UEFA Champions League final with great interest. On May 21, the English champions will meet Chelsea in Moscow in the biggest club match on the planet and if Park features, and as he played every minute of the quarter and semifinals there is no reason to suggest he won’t, he will become the first Asian to play in Europe’s showpiece. Excitement is growing with dozens of daily articles but in the Asian Champions league, Korean interest will not last all the way to the final game. It has ended with the first round barely half over. The League’s two representatives in the competition Chunnam Dragons and Pohang Steelers are all but out of the running even though two of the six first round matches remain. It is a sorry and unusual state of affairs for Korea, the country that enjoys easily the best record in the competition with seven titles since it started back in 1967. Chunnam’s exit may not yet be officially confirmed but it is only a matter of time. Group leaders Gamba Osaka will have to lose both its remaining games and Chunnam will have to do the opposite. Even that may not be enough. The Dragons’ demise is no surprise. The club finished tenth last season in the league, only qualifying for the competition by winning the FA Cup. Injuries to its best players made a tough task even more daunting. A loss in the opening game at Melbourne Victory was a poor start but Chunnam looked like bouncing back in game two against group favorites Gamba. The Gwangyang team took a two-goal lead. The defence then fell to pieces and the visitors fought back to win 4-3 and take three points back to Kansai. No points from the first two games usually spell disaster in a first round where only the top team from each group survives. A last-minute home win against Thailand’s Chonburi FC in game three gave a little hope and that glimmer intensified in the return match in Bangkok but once again, Chunnam let a two-goal lead slip and drew 2-2. Pohang’s failure has been more disappointing. Unlike Chunnam, the stronger Steelers were expected in Korea to make it out of a group containing Australia’s Adelaide United, Changchun Yatai of China and Vietnam’s Binh Duong. Those expectations lasted exactly three minutes as Adelaide took the lead in the Steelyard and won the first game 2-0. It wasn’t all doom and gloom as Pohang had enough chances and possession for a much better result. A victory in Vietnam on matchday two was followed by a tricky trip to northeast China. Pohang dominated but was unable to take its chances and lost 1-0 to Changchun. The same happened in the return match two weeks ago. Pohang controlled the game from start to finish but could only manage a 2-2 draw. “I have never seen a team be so much on top but then fall behind,” Pohang’s Brazilian boss Sergio Farias said at the time. “We will do our best in the remaining games we have.” That is the way it should be but it will be barely noticed. Even without the distraction of Park Ji-sung, Korean fans and media are not big followers of the Asian Champions League. In the early stages, only the hardcore turn out for games against teams made up of players unknown in the Land of the Morning Calm. Scenes such as an almost completely empty stadium when Chunnam hosted Chonburi – albeit in bad weather – are unfortunate as the tournament has potential So if Chunnam manage to defeat Melbourne Victory in Gwangyang tonight and Pohang gain some revenge over Adelaide in South Australia, you will be able to read about it, but you may have to look hard to find stories of what in Korea is very much the other champions league. 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

So far, so good. The 2008 K-League is only two games old but it has already hinted at a fascinating season to come. The weather is warming, attendances are healthy, stars new and old are shining and the best part of all is that there are still another eight months to go. It is unlikely that Incheon United will still be top of the table in November but the west coast club is the only one of the 14 that boasts a 100% record. Incheon won 2-0 at Jeju United on the opening weekend and then managed to beat Chunnam Dragons 1-0 on Sunday with a goal after just 41 seconds. Over the next 89 minutes or so, the Dragons, defeated 2-0 by Melbourne Victory in midweek in the Asian Champions League and then 4-3 by Gamba Osaka, managed to miss a whole host of chances. It just wasn’t their day. With the league taking a break due to the small matter of a March 26 World Cup qualifier against North Korea in Shanghai, Incheon can enjoy the rest of the month safely perched on the top rung of the ladder. The club is the only one in Korea that consistently makes a profit and it is a friendly one. Selling stars such as Dejan Damjanovic help the books balance but even the new FC Seoul striker was in the club’s office after the game on Sunday, smiling and joking with staff. The Serbian had plenty to smile about. He had opened his account for his new club the previous day at the Jeonju home of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Also scoring a first for a new club was South Korean international Cho Jae-jin. The impressive Cho equalized for Jeonbuk only to see his rival for the national team striking spot Park Chu-young net a late winner to give Seoul the three points. The Motors, tipped by many, including this writer, to be in for a good season, have stalled at the start line and are looking for a first point, just like Jeolla Province rivals Chunnam. Unlike the Dragons, Jeonbuk doesn’t have injuries and Asian travels to use as excuses. The team in green has the talent to move up a gear and up the table but two games and two defeats against Busan and Seoul, not the league’s toughest opponents, is a worry. Champions Pohang Steelers are discovering that defending the title brings different kinds of pressures. The south-easterners were, like Chunnam, defeated by Australian opposition in the Asian Champions League last week. That loss at home to Adelaide was followed by an equally painful 3-0 lesson doled out by Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I on Saturday. What of the two title favorites? Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and Suwon Samsung Bluewings met in round two, the first big game of the season. The result was an exciting 2-2 draw and a confirmation that both teams will again be setting the standard over the next few months. The draw was Seongnam’s second this season. Suwon, inspired by the talented Lee Kwan-woo who scored two stunning goals, perhaps have a little more reason to be looking forward to the months ahead with confidence. Perennial wooden-spoon winner Gwangju Sangmu is in nose-bleed territory with four points from two games. The first was a creditable 1-1 draw with Seongnam and the second a nice 2-0 win over a Gyeongnam club still struggling to come to terms with the pre-season loss of coach, top scorer and playmaker. The Ahn Jung-hwan effect hasn’t yet kicked in at Busan I’Park but the south coast club has started reasonably well. There is still a long way to go but things are shaping up nicely. 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

Melbourne Victory take their first ever steps on the Asian stage on March 12 when they host South Korean team Chunnam Dragons. It is over a year since the team won the A-League but because of timing and deadlines, Melbourne have had to wait until now to make their debut. Coach Ernie Merrick had time for a quick chat before the Chunnam match. Melbourne were comfortable champions in 2007 but struggled a little in 2008. Why was that? The main reason was the number of injuries we had. In Australia you can only have just over 20 players in your squad, a maximum of 23. Our midfield was very strong in season two (2006-07. Season three, one of those midfielders Fred, transferred to DC United, Grant Brebner, who was a youth player at Manchester United and was very successful with us, he sustained a pelvic injury and a groin injury and he was virtually out for the season and our third midfielder, Kevin Muscat had to move into defence as we had four centre-backs get injured in a row. Everytime we brought in a new centre-back they got injured and Muscat had to go there so we were without the same midfield. Towards the end of the season we had a new midfield, they were all Olympic-level players, playing for the Olympic team. One player was also Carlos from the Costa Rican national team and all of a sudden we started to play really well again and won three out of the last four and drew one. It is a while since the season finished. How do you maintain the sharpness of your team? We finished in January so we gave the players ten days off and then from the middle of February we have been training really hard, almost like a mini pre-season. We started arranging games. We played against the Socceroos team, a local state team and twice against the other team in the Asian Champions League, Adelaide United. So we have had four practice games and a very intensive training period. How do you feel about waiting a year to participate in the ACL? The ideal scenario would be to play in the A-League and then progress directly into the Champions League. We’ve had to wait a year. The advantage of waiting a year is that we have been able to prepare better. We have looked at how our opponents play. We hae sent someone over to Thailand, I went over to Hawaii to the Pan-Pacific games to watch Gamba Osaka play. We will send someone to Korea. We also have an acclimatization program ready for the boys for when we go to Thailand. In some ways it has been good and in some ways not so good but we really appreciate the opportunity to play in Asia. Melbourne is well-supported in the A-League. Will it be the same in the ACL? We are all hopeful that it will and the early indications are promising. We have a massive stadium that holds 56,000 people. We normally don’t have any pre-sales but two weeks out we'd already sold 10,000 tickets. We’re expecting a very large crowd for our first game against Chunnam Dragons at the Telstra Dome. What did you learn from Sydney and Adelaide’s games in the ACL last season? Both those teams had new coaches and unsettled teams because they were in the process of changing over the players at the end of the season. We signed our players early, we obviously haven’t changed coach and we planned well ahead to make sure that our training program and practice matches were all in play. We finished the season strongly, got players early, trained early and did our homework on the opposition teams early. What do you know about Chunnam Dragons? We’ve looked at the video tapes from last year and Chunnam Dragons are a very good side. They are well-organised but they have changed coaches and have changed formation so we’ll have a look at how they play this year. There is no doubt that Asian clubs have an advantage over Australian clubs in that there is no restriction on player numbers in the squad plus they have no financial restrictions. We are restricted by a salary cap. I think Bare who plays for Gamba Osaka earns more than our salary cap! So we are up against it but our players are very fit and very strong and we have a couple of international players and we have four-Olympic level players. We have a Costa Rican national player so I think we’ve still got a strong team. Perhaps it makes things more difficult for you when Japan and Korea are in their close season? I was over in Hawaii to watch Gamba Osaka. I saw their new players and the second top goalscorer in the league. They were very impressive. We have watched Chonburi and they look good. Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai players that I have seen have all been very technical and quick. It will be a tough competition. Chunnam finished tenth last season, does that make it easier for you? I don’t think so. They have a new coach and I believe he has a very good record. Pim Verbeek has given us some information about them. He said that they are a good team with a good coach. The new players will be looking to impress the new coach. I think they’ll give us a very tough game. What did Pim Verbeek tell you about Chunnam and Korean teams? He just spoke highly of the technical ability, the physical ability and the speed. He also mentioned that the teams are well-organised and that the Chunnam coach, who I think worked with him before, is very good. He was full of praise. He couldn’t tell me much about how the team will play. He said that you have to be aware that Korea is a good standard and technically good and that strategically, he is very good. He didn’t want to make me afraid but he painted a tough picture for us. He speaks highly of Korean football. What is your impression of Korean football? I think Hiddink put Korea on the map with the tremendous performance at the 2002 World Cup. That was carried on by Dick Advocaat. The number of Koreans now playing in Europe seems to be impressive. I think Korean football is on the rise. How about Japanese football? The J-League has been going for 15 years, we have been going for three years in Australia. I believe that the turnover of Gamba Osaka is about $80-90 million. Our turnover is about $8-9 million. It’s big business for them and they can bring in top level players from Brazil or wherever. The J-League is one of the top competitions and is growing in strength. You saw Gamba Osaka last week? They won the Pan-Pacific tournament without a number of their best players away on international duty. That’s why I am worried!(laughs) They thrashed Houston Dynamo 6-1. They are well-organised and have got good strikers. They are strong in defence and have a good goalkeeper. I think they are the favourites in the group. For Australian teams to compete, is it time to abolish or raise the salary cap? It’s something we have to look at in future but the salary cap is in place to make sure that the A-League is viable so I understand why it’s there. It just compromises us when we face clubs from countries that do not have salary caps. The Thai team Chonburi. Is that two must-win games for you? I’d say so. Since only one team qualifies from the group, it’s going to be the kind of competition in which you can’t afford to lose many games. You need to be looking to win around four of the six games. I don’t know if it’s fair or not but the Thai team is probably looked upon as a team that has had less time to develop professionally. But I suspect that every team will be tough to beat. I imagine that after the Asian Cup, Australian players and fans have more realistic expectations of Asia… I think you’re spot on there. When Australia plays in Asia, you can’t take anything for granted. Every team is tough and you have to get used to the environment whether it is at altitude or in hot and humid whether. You have to prepare well to get the results. 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

It is a situation that is familiar to all English fans. The FA starts looking for a high-profile foreign coach for the national team, gets its fingers very publicly burnt, looks to home for a safe choice and then appoints a man with success in cup competitions but a mediocre league record. Steve McClaren’s England didn’t qualify for the 2008 World Cup but will Huh Jung-moo’s Korea make it to South Africa in 2010? For the sake of the Korean Football Association (KFA), it better. It hasn’t been the best of weeks for the KFA. It started with the expectation that, by Friday, a high-profile foreign coach would be appointed. The first choice was former Liverpool, France and Lyon boss Gerard Houllier and the back-up was the English ex-Ireland manager Mick McCarthy. Instead, a man who took Chunnam Dragons to tenth place in the 2007 K-League is in the hotseat. The story is a sorry one. For weeks, the authorities had remained tight-lipped about who was in line to take the job, admitting only that it would be one from overseas. Naturally, there were off-the-record confessions but nothing that couldn’t be denied if necessary. Last Wednesday however, two separate KFA officials, one the chief and FIFA Vice-President Chung Mong-joon, told reporters that the deal was almost done. Official spokesperson You Yong-cheol said that it was ’50-50’ between Houllier and McCarthy. According to sources, the 50-50 referred to whether Houllier would say no. It was assumed that McCarthy was prepared to leave English championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers and head east. The KFA’s comments were swiftly relayed westwards, made headlines and came as a shock to the English club which issued a statement that said a statement would be issued later. Whether or not McCarthy wanted the job, he was hardly likely to publicly say so when he knew Houllier had first refusal. After a day of meetings at Molineux, the former Irish boss emerged from talks armed with an improved contract and the old “thanks but no thanks,” speech. Shortly after, it was confirmed that Houllier had also said ‘non’. It was not a good 24 hours for Korean football and it also contained news that Pim Verbeek, who resigned as coach of the Taeguk Warriors in July, had been appointed by Australia. It didn’t make anyone feel better. Instead of taking stock of the sorry situation, the KFA immediately turned to Huh Jung-moo and he was officially unveiled on Friday afternoon. It all happened frighteningly quickly but perhaps after the stinging overseas rejections, it is understandable that swift solace was sought in the embrace of a familiar figure and old flame. Huh has coached the national team before – taking over after the 1998 World Cup and stepping down in 2000. It was not a time that was seen as especially successful. On the back of a Korean striker who could actually score goals, Lee Dong-gook, the team finished in third at the 2000 Asian Cup– the same as 2007. Without this recall, the 52 year-old would have gone down in international history as the man before Hiddink. As coach of K-League club Chunnam Dragons, it is only in the cups that the team has shone. League performances have been average at best. Last season the Gwangyang outfit finished in tenth, scoring just 24 goals in 26 games. With that in mind, it is not surprising that, among fans at least, Huh’s appointment has been met with even less enthusiasm that Steve McClaren’s in England in 2006. The Englishman was known by the media as ‘second choice Steve’ during his reign as coach, though that nickname turned out to be the nicest he was to receive as England went crashing out of Euro qualification. ‘Third-choice Huh’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it but he has a second chance to show what he can do, starting against Turkmenistan on February 6. Fans will be hoping that the team performs better on the pitch than the football association does off it. 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

For nations like Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Korea and now Australia, the Asian Cup is second only to the World Cup in importance and not only that, it is the one major competition that is, at present, winnable for such teams.

The 2007 K-League season is slowly starting to get into its stride. The first three rounds have contained a reasonable amount of goals and excitement as the Korean media and coaches have been telling everybody who will listen. It is early days. Encouragingly perhaps, most of the good stuff has been shown by the bigger clubs in the league. What is definitely promising is that those clubs have also been getting good results too. Seoul, Ulsan, Seongnam, Pohang and Suwon make up the top five and it will be no surprise at all if that same quintet is doesn’t change much from now until November.

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma The champions are still warm from their seventh title triumph that was achieved at the start of a winter that has yet to leave the Land of the Morning Calm. As they say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and Seongnam haven’t been too busy in the transfer market. 2006 top scorer Woo Sung-young has gone and his goals will be missed but at the age of 33, he has been traded in for a younger model – Kim Dong-hyun.