“This is like deja vu all over again”, said baseball legend Yogi Berra once upon a time. A quick glance at the top of the current K-league table certainly brings a host of memories flooding back for football fans around the nation. Suwon Samsung Bluewings are in first place after winning four and drawing one of the five games so far. That single blemish came when Suwon faced old rivals Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma earlier in the season. Seongnam are now in second. The two Gyeonggi Province teams spent all of 2007 fighting at the top and are once again out on their own. Last weekend certainly brought back some bad memories for FC Seoul. Watched by more than 44,000 fans in the capital, the club once again saw an early-season good start ended by Suwon. Last April, the 1-0 defeat inflicted by the Bluewings stopped the Seoul season dead in its tracks. It remains to be seen how the 2-0 defeat on Sunday affects Senol Gunes and his players. Those players were unlucky as they controlled much of the match against Suwon. Especially in the first half, a number of chances came Seoul’s way and they all went begging. Dejan Damjanovic, Jung Jo-gook, Park Chu-young and Lee Chung-yong all could have done better. While Seoul’s superiority was real, it was also fragile. As poor as Suwon looked in the first half, the team, roared on by thousands of travelling fans, still carried an air of sleepy menace and a constant threat that Seoul would be made to pay for its profligacy. That is exactly what happened six minutes into the second half. Young striker Shin Young-rok let fly from 25 meters more in hope than expectation and somehow Seoul goalkeeper Kim Ho-jun let the ball soar over him to send the massed ranks of Suwon supporters behind the net into raptures. Those fantastic fans were celebrating once again 11 minutes later as young Shin fired a low shot into the net from the edge of the area and it was as good as game over. “This is a game that we really should have won, but the result was a defeat. We just didn’t take our chances” said Seoul coach Senol Gunes after the match. “It sounds like an excuse but I can’t blame my players as it was a good performance.” His opposite number Cha Bum-keun couldn’t stop smiling. “The first half was really tough for us but we recovered well. Our defence held firm so we there were opportunities for us in the second half.” Not too far to the west, Incheon United was suffering the same fate as Seoul – a 2-0 home loss ending an unbeaten start to the season. Seongnam’s Brazilian duo of Mota and Dudu did the damage for the seven-time champions who are now on the coat-tails of the Bluewings. Now Suwon and Seongnam have positioned themselves at the front of the pack, it remains to be seen if they break away in much the same fashion as 2007. It certainly is possible as the two teams look to be a level above their competitors. Before the season started, it was expected that those competitors would include Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors but the 2006 Asian champions have had a shocking start. The signing of international striker Cho Jae-jin was supposed to push the Jeonju team into the upper echelons of the table but the team is in last with four defeats in five matches. The latest was a 3-0 home setback at the hands of a stylish Daegu FC. Champions Pohang Steelers are also struggling with just one win so far this season. Perhaps it is at the bottom of the table where we will see some surprises in 2008 because at the top, it is the same old story. 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

1. Suwon Samsung Bluewings (last season 2) Solid Suwon will be there or thereabouts. The defence is not getting any younger but still contains Lee Woon-jae in goal and the inspirational Mato Neretjlak at centre-back. The midfield boasts Lee Kwan-woo and Baek Ji-hoon but no longer South Korea captain Kim Nam-il. The combative Kim has headed to Japan and Vissel Kobe and it will be interesting to see how North Korean international An Yong-hak does in his place. Ahn Jung-hwan has left but after scoring no league goals last season, the Lord of the Rings will not be missed. Suwon’s one weakness could be a lack of firepower in front of goal. Key Player: Lee Kwan-woo Coach: Cha Bum-keun 2. Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (1) The seven-time champions lost the title in the play-offs last season but have been strangely quiet in the close-season. Star midfielder Kim Do-heon has joined West Bromich Albion and fellow international and goalkeeper Kim Yong-dae has cropped his Beatles mop-top and started his two-year stint at military team Gwangju Sangmu. Kim has been replaced by Jung Sung-ryeong. The Olympic goalkeeper aside, incomings haven’t been inspiring and it remains to be seen if the club can stay at the top. Key Player: Kim Sang-sik Coach: Kim Hak-beom 3. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (8) It was another disappointing domestic season for the 2006 Asian Champions but there are positive signs for the coming year. That is mainly because Cho Jae-jin has signed on the dotted line in Jeonju. The striker’s three years near the top of the scoring charts in Japan with Shimizu S-Pulse are not quite enough to erase memories of not many goals during his time in Korea and also were not quite enough to earn a big-money move to England. He has something to prove and if he finds his shooting boots then Jeonbuk will have a very interesting forward line of Macedonian marksman Stevica Ristic and Ze Carlo of Brazil. For the first time since 1996, Jeonbuk will start the season without defender Choi Jin-cheul who has retired after over 300 appearances for the club. Key Player: Kim Hyung-beom Coach: Choi Kang-hee 4. Pohang Steelers (5) The champions actually finished with a negative goal difference in 2007 and only made the play-offs on the last day. The team caught fire in the championship series however, disposing of Gyeongnam, Ulsan, Suwon and finally Seongnam, all away from home. Popular playmaker Taveres has left for Brazilian club Internacional but Daejeon’s deadly Denilson should be an adequate replacement. The striker found the target 14 times last season. Since the title triumph, young stars such as Park Won-jae, Hwang Ji-soo and Hwang Jae-won have seen international action. It promises to be a good season. Key Player: Denilson Coach: Sergio Farias 5. FC Seoul (7) 2007 was a real roller-coaster ride for the club. New boss Senol Gunes seemed to have a magic touch when he arrived and led the club to top of the league after the first month. Then it all went wrong as the strikers couldn’t score and the players couldn’t stay fit. The big-money move of the winter was the capture of Serbian striker Dejan Damjanovic from Incheon United. If he can forge a good partnership with the inury-prone Park Chu-young then a play-off place beckons for the capital outfit. Key Player: Ki Sung-yong Coach: Senol Gunes 6. Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I (3) Ulsan are never far away from the summit of the league but the team just doesn’t have the same look of quality in-depth that it had when back in the championship year of 2005. All three Brazilians have left with Almir the one that will be missed the most. The capture of Luisinho, prolific in Daegu last year, should help fans cope with that loss. There is a little staleness about the team and the Tigers need to sharpen their claws if they are to make it a second title in four seasons. Key Player: Luisinho Coach: Kim Jung-nam 7. Chunnam Dragons (10) Despite lifting two FA Cups in the last two seasons, the South Jeolla club has struggled in the league. Defeating Pohang Steelers in the cup final in December was the last act of coach Huh Jung-moo before he left to take the reins of the national team. Since then, Huh has been calling up a number of Dragons to the national side which begs the question that if there were so many good players at the club then why did they finish in tenth last season? The capture of coach Park Hang-seo should be a positive one as is the signing of Brazilian striker Schuba. Chunnam should finish higher than last season. Key Player: Kwak Tae-hwi Coach: Park Hang-seo 8. Daejeon Citizen (6) Deajeon have seen all three foreigners leaves in the last few months. The afore-mentioned Denilson is the biggest loss but Chunnam-bound Schuba looked very good in the second half of last season. That was when 1994 World Cup boss Kim Ho took over. The wily old fox somehow steered the club into the play-offs but that was as good as it got. Kim has brought in some new faces this season. Much depends on how they settle but a top six finish could be beyond the central club in 2008. Key Player: Kim Hyung-il Coach: Kim Ho 9. Incheon United (9) Last season was ultimately disappointing for the bad boys of Korean football. For so long, the team was within touching distance of a play-off place only to fall away on the final day. The loss of Damjanovic is a big blow. Coach Jang Woe-ryeong, who has returned from a year’s sabbatical in England, has yet to spend the money from that sale. Key Player: Dragan Mladenovic Coach: Jang Woe-ryeong 10. Jeju United (11) Jeju are another team that have suddenly enjoyed a much-increased representation on the national team. The signs are that the island club could have a reasonable 2008 after two turgid terms since relocating from Bucheon in 2006. Many eyes will be on new –and fairly unknown – coach Brazilian Arthur Bernardes. He has brought in a couple of compatriots too but how the club’s young Korean prospects fare is of more interest this season. A mid-table finish will be satisfactory for the club. Key Player: Ka Ju-cheol Coach: Arthur Bernardes 11. Gyeongnam FC (4) Losing a coach is unfortunate. Losing a coach, playmaker and top scorer is downright careless and it will be a miracle if the Changwon club reproduces the fourth place finish of 2007. Boss Park Hang-seo fell foul of the politics at the club and moved to Chunnam. K-league top scorer Cabore shamelessly engineered a big-money move to FC Tokyo while Popo, acting with considerably more honour than his compatriot, will also be in Japan next season with Kashiwa Reysol. Replacement coach Jo Kwang-rae is not one to get hearts racing near the south coast and it could be a long hard season for the club. Key Player: Kim Jin-yong Coach: Jo Kwang-rae 12. Busan I’Park (13) The south coast has a new coach and the return of an old hero for the new season. The past two seasons have been fairly wretched for Busan but the appointment of 2002 World Cup star and South Korean legend Hwang Sun-hong made lots of headlines. One of the first things that the 39 year-old did was trade midfielder An Yong-hak for 2002 team-mate Ahn Jung-hwan. The Lord of the Ring made his name in Busan in the nineties and the former giant of Korean and Asian football needs some big performances from the aging attacker. Key Player: Ahn Jung-hwan Coach: Hwang Sun-hong 13. Daegu (12) Despite some good goalscoring performances from Luisinho and young Korean star Lee Keun-ho, Daegu struggled last season under new coach Byun Byung-joo. One half of the partnership has gone. The Brazilian was tempted to make the short journey to Ulsan and will be missed. The club have a history of finding reasonably good Brazilian imports and much depends as to the quality of this year’s batch – Alexandro and Joao Silva. Key Player: Lee Keun-ho Coach: Byun Byung-joo 14. Gwangju (14) What is there to say about the military club and perennial basement-dwellers? Any place above 14th is a bonus. That is more of a possibility this time round as South Korean goalkeeper Kim Yong-dae is now enlisted. It is tough for the army boys; half of the playing staff leaves every season and returns to their original club. Key Player: Kim Yong-dae Coach: Lee Kang-jo Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

It was surprisingly easy in the end. Pohang Steelers defeated Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 1-0 in the second leg of the final of the 2007 K-League championship play-off series to add to their 3-1 win a week previously.

By the skin of their teeth the Urawa Reds staked their place in the finals of the Asian Champions League on Wednesday. The J-League holders beat K-League champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 5-3 on penalties in the second leg of the home-and-away semifinal at Saitama Stadium after playing to a 2-2 draw in regular time.

The system has its critics but the play-offs gave the K-League regular season a final day to remember. Six teams out of 14 doing battle in the championship deciders may be a high percentage but without the games, we would have just been treated to the sight of Seongnam strolling to another title.

Things change quickly in football and the K-League is no exception. August 8 saw the first day of action after the mid-summer break. It also witnessed champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma defeat Jeju United 2-0 to stretch their unbeaten league run to 22 games.

With South Korea preparing to celebrate independence from Japan on August 15, it is, perhaps, a little ironic that the K-League relies upon foreign players for a sizeable percentage of its goals. It has been well-documented that South Korea scored a measly three times in six Asian Cup games last month. Departing coach Pim Verbeek blamed the goal drought partly on the scarcity of Koreans scoring goals domestically. The Dutchman has a point. The top eight goalscorers in the K League all hail from South American and south-eastern Europe, not from Seoul or Busan. The highest ranked Korean is Daegu’s Lee Kun-ho way down in ninth. The top five can be seen in the graphic above (put together by Sports Chosun). From left to right they are Cabore (Brazil –Gyeongnam), Stevica Ristic (Macedonia –Jeonbuk), Dejan Damjanovic (Serbia –Incheon), Mota (Brazil –Seongnam) and Denilson (Brazil –Daejeon). Below is a graph that shows the percentage of total goals scored by overseas players. Own goals are excepted as are any scored by military team Gwangju Sangmu who aren’t allowed any foreign players –though their need is greater than most. Top Two To Meet Those wonderful waegookins will be in action on Wednesday night as 14 teams in the K-League do their thing on the pitch. Since the end of the midsummer break last week, two rounds of games have suggested that spectators up and down the southern half of the Korean peninsula could be treated to a feast of fine football, excitement and perhaps even goals in the coming weeks. It is unfortunate for Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma that the team which finishes top of the standings after 26 games doesn’t automatically win the title, though that fact will bother the other 13 clubs a little less. As the regular season ends, the top six teams will enter the championship play-off series in November. After the resumption of the league, Seongnam have moved even further ahead at the top of the league and the seven-time title-winners are now nine points clear of Suwon Samsung Bluewings in second. The two meet at Suwon’s ‘Big Bird’ World Cup Stadium in front of what should be a large and passionate crowd. A win for Suwon will keep faint hopes of replacing Seongnam on the summit alive. A repeat of the 3-1 defeat suffered in the first meeting between the pair in April however, will virtually seal top spot for the yellow machine that has not tasted defeat in the K-League for 22 games. While the clash of the big boys takes top billing, there is still a good deal of action on offer a little lower down the table as the battle to gain a foothold in the top six increases in intensity. FC Seoul went ten games without a win in the first stage but has started the second half of the season brightly. A home game against bottom club Gwangju Sangmu tonight provides an excellent opportunity for another victory. Just to the west, Incheon United has also collected four points in the last seven days and three more at home to fellow play-off hopefuls Chunnam Dragons will be welcome. Asian champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors have looked sharp since the break, picking up an impressive 3-2 win at Suwon last Wednesday and will be looking for another victory at Pohang Steelers. The Jeonju outfit traded Yeom Ki-hoon for fellow winger Chung Kyung-ho in the summer and look to have got the best of the deal and not just because Yeom has a broken heel and will likely miss the rest of the season. In the 180 minutes Chung has played since moving to the south-west city, he has already shown the form that made him one of Korea’s brightest prospects two or three years ago. With Chung wreaking havoc on the wing, the sublime Kim Hyeung-bum returning to fitness after a long-term injury and the energetic Kwon-jib returning to form in midfield, Jeonbuk look well-placed for the play-offs as well as an Asian Champions League quarter-final with Japanese champions Urawa Reds in September. The rest of the action takes place in the deep south-east. Gyeongnam FC has so far struggled to reproduce its performances of earlier in the season and faces a tough task at home to a resurgent Daejeon Citizen, now coached by old warhorse Kim Ho. The former national team coach saw his new team shock usual contenders Pohang Steelers with a 3-0 victory on Sunday. Elsewhere, third-placed Ulsan Hyundai Horang-I face coachless Busan I’Park and Daegu FC take on Jeju United. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile Hotels in Bangkok - Bookings Hotels in Kuala Lumpur - Bookings Hotels in Jakarta - Bookings Hotels in Hanoi - Bookings Hotels in Ho Chi Minh - Bookings

Anybody who left Korea in November 2006 as the soccer season ended and returned in the much balmier month of June as the 2007 version reached its halfway point could be forgiven for experiencing a little deja vu.

Games against the Netherlands are often ones to remember and last Saturday night in Seoul was no different for hosts South Korea. The game was arranged to mark the five-year anniversary of the start of the 2002 World Cup, which was of course, hosted by Korea and Japan.

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.