South Korean clubs teams don’t change coaches at the drop of a hat and usually wait until the season ends before taking a look at how their man in the hotseat has done. Sackings are rare, coaches tend to leave as contracts end or better offers come along. This off-season period is a little unusual however as three of the four clubs that were under overseas stewardship last season will have a new coach when the 2010 K-League season kicks off at the end of February. Only Incheon United will have the same foreign face in 2010. Serbian Ilja Petkovic was rewarded for taking the West Coast club into the championship play-off series in 2009, his first season in Korea, by being offered a new one-year contract. FC Seoul, Pohang Steelers and Jeju United have all seen their coaches head out of South Korea. The biggest story and the biggest shock has been the convoluted departure of Sergio Farias from Pohang. The Brazilian led the team to the 2007 K-League title and then, famously, the 2009 Asian crown. Such success naturally attracts covetous eyes. In December, reports started to surface that suggested he was talking to Saudi Arabian club Al Ahli. “It is ridiculous that they publish something which is not true,” Farias replied when asked about the rumours. "Teams from West Asia tend to say things before checking all the facts just to show off. This kind of behavior should be avoided." Pohang CEO Kim Tae-man also dimissed the reports. “Farias is now famous so these kinds of rumours are common,” said Kim. “I know him personally and I don’t need to even ask him about it because it is not an issue.” It soon became one as Farias signed an 18-month deal with the Jeddah club worth a reported $2.5 million. That dwarfed his Pohang pay and despite the manner of his leaving, his five years and success in Korea meant that Farias left with good wishes. Pohang openly talked of their desire for another Brazilian coach and hired Waldemar Lemos de Oliveira, a 55 year-old with experience coaching in Japan and Saudi Arabia as well as his native Brazil. He has signed a one-year deal at his new club and will join them with immediate effect. "He has lots of experience with big clubs in Brazil and he has also worked in the Asian region, and he is able to get the players working together well as a unit," Kim Tae-Min said. "Most of all, however, he showed a good understanding of Pohang Steelers and what we are about. He likes to play fast and attractive football that excites the fans and wants to win respect from other teams through beautiful and clean football." Oliviera will be able to communicate easily with the new boss at FC Seoul. Nelo Vingada hails from Portugal but has coached all over the world. He replaces Senol Gunes who returned to Turkey in December as his three-year contract with Seoul expired. It is not the most inspiring choice for Seoul fans. Gunes was named FIFA’s coach of the year in 2002 as he took an unheralded Turkey team into third place at the World Cup. Vingada’s list of jobs may be lengthier but doesn’t carry the same weight. His last national team position was with Jordan. "I'm very happy to be here. My feelings are very optimistic," Vingada told local media as he arrived. "I believe that by training hard, as a team, as a family, we will achieve what everybody wants." The 56 year-old, who won the Egyptian title with Zamalek, aims to do the same for FC Seoul. "My challenge, the challenge of the team, the challenge I want to bring to the players, is to make first (place)," he said. "It's a new year, a new time, so when we start our training, we will have my new ideas and the support of the staff. I want to see FC Seoul on the list of winners of the K-League. I am here for this challenge." Jeju United parted company with Brazil’s Artur Bernandes after a fairly unspectacular two seasons and the club has decided not to follow the example set by Seoul and Pohang. A Korean has been appointed in the shape of former national team Under-17 and Under-23 Park Kyung-Hoon.There is less pressure on Park. Pohang and Seoul are expected to battle for the title. For Jeju, a mid-table ranking will suffice. For the new boys, now is the time for some pre-season training in warmer climes, not there are many of those around at the moment, but the real heat comes with the kick-off of the 2010 K-League season. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com Tags Soccer News football

With the benefit of hindsight it was written in the stars that FC Seoul’s season would end last Saturday after losing to Chunnam Dragons in the first round of the K-league’s championship play-offs. Seoul thought they shouldn’t have needed to play the match at all. The capital club spent the whole season slugging it out with Jeonbuk Motors at the top of the K-League and expected to go straight to the final, or at least, the semi-final. That all changed on the last day of the season as Seoul conceded a last-minute goal at home to Chunnam Dragons. That 1-1 tie saw Seoul slip into third. That finish meant Seoul had to negotiate the entire play-off series. As luck would have it, the first play-off opponent was Chunnam. And Chunnam was the last. For Seoul, it is very much a case of what might have been. For much of the season, the red-and-blacks looked the likeliest champion but when the push came to the shove, the team didn’t quite have the indefinable quality that champions need – the ability to dig in and fight for everything. The game again finished 1-1 after 90 minutes. Seoul’s penalty area was the least crowded place in the whole city after 12 minutes and Chunnam striker Lee Gyu-ro took advantage to fire a fierce shot low into the home net. Three minutes later however, Seoul drew level. A delightfully measured slide-rule pass from Ki Sung-yong gave Jung Jo-gook an easy chance from close range. The excitement didn’t last and the game drifted towards penalties. Two Seoul players missed the target completely – Kim Sung-yung and, dismally, Lee Jong-min. Ki Sung-yong saw his kick well-saved. It was the last action for Ki in the Seoul shirt. He has already signed for Scottish giants Celtic in a $4 million deal and heads to Glasgow at the end of the year. Kwak Tae-whi scored the winning penalty. The international defender has spent much of the season battling injury but was fresh as a daisy as he shot home emphatically against his old club. "The players were confident about defeating FC Seoul before the game,'' Chunnam coach Park Hang-seo said."They figured out their opponents and were more confident. We will focus on regaining our fitness level for the second round match on Wednesday.” The match was the last in the three season tenure of Senol Gunes. It was a widely expected that the man who took Turkey to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup would be off home at the end of the season. Hometown club Trabzonspor had come knocking earlier in the year but now the Korean contract has ended, Gunes is free to head home back to the Black Sea and that is where he will probably be seen very soon. “I am leaving but I will never forget the fans in Seoul and my time here,” Gunes told Seoul's official site. “We have come a long way together and I am sure that next year the club will keep improving and Seoul will become champions.” That didn't happen under FIFA's coach of 2002 and the team also exited this year's Asian Champions League at the quarter-final stage. “Though I had a very happy three years here, I am sorry and frustrated that we didn’t win. This year was especially disappointing and I am sad as anyone.” While Seoul missed out on a first title, Gunes did enough to give the capital club a reputation for playing decent football and giving young footballers a chance. The likes of Park Chu-young, Lee Chung-yong and Ki Sung-yong become well-respected players around Asia and have all earned big money deals in Europe. The challenge for the new coach is to help the many young players at the club reach the same level. Gunes will not be in the Land of the Morning Calm to see which of the three teams remaining lift the K-League trophy. Seongnam conquered Incheon United after a penalty shootout despite having two defenders and their coach sent off. A subsequent and narrow win over Chunnam Dragons has earned a semi-final match against Asian champions Pohang Steelers. The rested Steelers are strong favourites against a weakened and tired Seongnam side and should win through to the final where Jeonbuk Motors are waiting. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com Tags Soccer News football

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. Seoul have the best chance of making the last four, as the league leaders are just 3-2 behind Umm Salal with two away goals in the bank. Seoul traveled to Qatar to face Umm Salal last week and the Korean league leaders raced into a two-goal lead thanks to Jung Jo-gook. The hosts pulled a goal back early in the second half but with around 20 minute remaining, Ahn Tae-eun fired home an unstoppable shot to give Seoul a 3-1 lead.

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. The atmosphere was red-hot and the action on the pitch riveting as Suwon won 2-1 to take the final 3-2 on aggregate and the trophy for a fourth time. As the final whistle blew, the Seoul stars sank to their knees, Suwon’s hugged as if their lives depended on it and the man in charge of the PA pressed the button that piped out the inevitable opening strains of ‘we are the champions’. It was a worthy win for Suwon, a team that spent the majority of the season in first place. Seoul have a talented and youthful team but don’t yet have Suwon’s savvy or swagger. That will come as the likes of Ki Sung-yung, Lee Chung-yung and Lee Sung-ryeol will get better, though a move to Europe is only a matter of time. Suwon have been there and seen it but even among the club’s passionate fans, few would have experienced an atmosphere like the one conjured on a Sunday when the north, east and west sides were blue and the south red. “I told the players that they are the real champions,” a jubilant Cha Bum-keun told reporters after the match. “We struggled during the middle part of the season but because of the players, we came thrugh it to win the K-League as well as the League Cup. They have played hard all season and have won 25 games in all competitions and have scored lots of goals. I told them not to forget all they have done this season.” They are not likely to forget the win or the fight they were given by their bitter rivals. Like the first leg in Seoul four days previously, there was little to choose between the two. Edu, the bearded and talented Brazilian, shot the Bluewings into the lead after just 11 minutes. It has been a good season for the affable attacker and his shot from the edge of the area was always destined for the bottom corner. Seoul equalized just 14 minutes later. Lee Chung-yung went to ground a little too easily under the challenge of international colleague Lee Woon-jae. The German referee pointed to the spot and Jung Jo-gook, known as the patriot, made it look easy. The game was balanced on a knife-edge. The two finished the regular season occupying the top two spots in the league standings, had defeated the other once each and were exactly level in the final. There was a sense that one more goal would win it and so it proved. For some reason Kim Chi-gon lunged into a tackle deep inside the penalty area, Edu was quite happy to fall over Kim’s leg to win a penalty. Song Chong-guk may not be the star that he was in 2002 when he was named by many as South Korea’s best player of the World Cup but he was the toast of Suwon on Sunday night. His penalty was initially saved by Kim Ho-jun but Song reacted first to the loose ball to score what proved to be the winner. As Seoul tried its best to restore parity, tempers between the two rival teams rose as the sands of second half time fell along with the snow. “I would like to congratulate Suwon but after watching both games, we should have won. I am sorry for the club and the fans. If we had won, our young players would have gained lots of confidence,” Seoul boss Senol Gunes said after the match. “In the first game, we lacked in the physical department but in the second leg our passing was off. We got some chances in the second half but weren’t able to finish. The players tried their best and fought well. It was great to see so many Seoul fans in the stadium on a very cold day." 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

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'. With the national team winning 2-0 in Saudi Arabia recently, what had looked like being a bad year for Korean soccer is about to end on a high. "It's the game we all wanted," smiled a Korean Football Association official at me as the final whistle blew. He probably wasn't speaking for the good folks of Ulsan but most other fans in the Land of the Morning Calm would agree. The reason is two mouth-watering clashes between Korea's two biggest rivals. The first match takes place in the capital on Wednesday and the action then moves to Suwon on Sunday when the destination of the round-shaped trophy will be decided. Seoul got off to a great start against Ulsan with a thunderous shot from Jung Jo-gook. The patriot made a surprise return from a serious head injury. He soon jettisoned his batman-style protective mask and got his team on their way. 1-1 after 90 minutes, there were four goals in extra time, three of them for Seoul. Suwon's defence is not likely to be quite so obliging. It will be tight. As FC Seoul's boss Senol Gunes said after Sunday's win, 'We have been the best two teams in the league this season, we finished on the same points and we have the most fans. Now we will see who the real champion is." The Turkish tactician is right. After 26 games of the regular season, Suwon finished first and Seoul second –the only thing that separated them was the fact that Suwon scored one more goal. Six teams progress into the play-offs and after last season when the fifth-placed Pohang Steelers took the trophy, it is a relief that the top two can now fight it out. In their two league meetings this year, Suwon won in Seoul and then Seoul returned the favour in Suwon in October. Both matches were played in front of big crowds – the 2007 fixture between the two drew a record 55,000 – and both were tight and passionate encounters. After finishing first in the league, the Bluewings have had the luxury of sitting on their perch and watching the five other teams fight it out. Suwon will be fully rested after no games for 24 days though it can work both ways. A rest at the end of a season can be a great chance for injured players to recover but almost a month without a competitive game is not ideal. In a play-off final, there is not much time to shake off cobwebs. Seoul has no such problem. Gunes may not have been too happy with the match with Ulsan going into extra time just three days before the big Suwon game but it should ensure that his players are sharp. Star midfielder Lee Chung-yong has served his suspension and will be drafted in to the team. The big guns are returning then. Expect fireworks... 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

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

He came, he saw, he danced and drove his one direct free-kick into the wall. Overall, David Beckham’s trip to Seoul with LA Galaxy was a success though not quite a complete triumph. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star is, of course, big news in South Korea. However, not enough to fill more than half of Seoul’s 65,000 capacity World Cup Stadium when the MLS took on FC Seoul in an exhibition match on March 1. Organisers were disappointed with the turnout and put it down to cold weather. It is true that the American team arrived in a city blanketed by snow four days previously but the temperature had risen a few degrees above freezing on Saturday afternoon. Ticket prices were a bigger problem. The cheapest was around $32 – more than three times more than what entry to a K-League match would set you back. The player did his promotional duties as professionally as one would expect and was followed around the city by a host of reporters. He gave most of them the slip last Thursday evening when visiting a Seoul nightclub on Thursday evening. The 32 year-old headed to ‘Circle’ in the trendy Cheongdam district. The following day, 'Seoul Sports' described how “girls competed against each other to dance sexily” in front of him. Refusing to head to the VIP section, he was regaled with shouts of “sexy Beckham” to which, the reports went, he shyly said “thank you". Beckham wasn’t quite so polite on the pitch after being caught late by Lee Chung-yong. The ex-England skipper gave the young winger a mouthful and later exacted revenge by chopping Lee down. The referee went as if to produce a yellow card before realizing that it the day was all about Beckham. Lee, a player with a bright future, mostly outshone the LA Galaxy star on the pitch though Beckham played well. His crosses and set pieces created a number of chances for his team-mates, especially in the first half. All but one were wasted. Alan Gordon managed to smartly chest down and volley home one floated free-kick in the first half but new strike partner Carlos Ruiz was guilty of a missing a couple of sitters. As the game progressed, the visitors looked tired. Beckham looked tired for most of the week. Seoul can be a draining high-energy city especially when there are many media and sponsor events to attend. FC Seoul didn’t impress too much a week before the start of the new season. New big-money signing Dejan Damjanovic somehow missed from two yards as the K-League team enjoyed the better of the second half. But as most FC Seoul games tend to do, the match finished in a draw. The tv broadcasters didn’t even bother to show the subsequent, slightly-pointless, penalty shootout. Beckham wellied his shot high into the net but four of his team-mates saw their shots saved by stand-in goalkeeper Kim Ho-jun, who looked increasingly bemused by his success. Then it was all over. Perhaps it was telling that there were a lot more reporters in the post-match press conference than in the press box during the match. Becks and the boys then headed onto Shanghai where he has to do it all again. 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

Senol Gunes arrived in South Korea to take over FC Seoul at the start of 2007. It wasn't his first time in the Land of the Morning Calm as five years earlier, he guided Turkey to the semi-finals of the World Cup. The talkative 55 year-old from Trabzon found time to chat about his first year in the K-League.

It’s all gone wrong for FC Seoul. As world leagues go, the K may be a low-scoring one but no goals in the last 582 minutes is not what the club had in mind when seemingly defensive-minded coach Lee Jang-soo was jettisoned at the end of last season for the supposedly attacking Senol Gunes. In the middle of March however, Gunes was starting to think that the whole East Asia thing was a walk in the park. Not only did he steer Turkey to third place in at the 2002 World Cup, he won his first five games in South Korea without conceding a goal. Three of those games were in the league and not surprisingly, FC Seoul were top of the standings. March 18 seems like a long time ago but that was when the team last scored a K-League goal. Six games later – two defeats and four goalless draws- and only the ineptitude of others keeps the capital outfit in the relatively lofty position of fifth.