Trail of the Lion King

The third tier Challengers League has quite an unusual format. There are two groups of nine and each team plays the other teams in its own group home and away. Halfway through those fixtures each team has a single game against each of the teams in the other group. I can only assume that it is done that way to reduce the number of fixtures. Each team plays a total of 23 games instead of the 34 matches that would be required in a standard eighteen team league.

Anyway, we are now in to the inter-group games and it‘s a chance to get a feel for the respective strengths of each group. Yesan United were third from bottom of Group B whilst the visitors, Icheon Citizen, were third from the top of Group A. Yesan United are a new team for this season. I’d been to this ground a couple of years ago to watch Yesan FC in the second tier National League, but they had folded at the end of that season. I doubt really very much though whether the few people of Yesan who watch football really care which division their team plays in as long as they have one.

Jen and I caught the Saemaul train from Yongsan to Yesan. The Saemaul train is the next one down from the KTX and has quite a spacious buffet car. It’s as well that it does really, as we got to the station too late to collect our pre-booked tickets and had to just jump on to our train moments before it left. All of the seats were sold out so we resorted to finding a space on the floor of the buffet car alongside the grannies and soldiers.

Not as good as First Class.

Eventually we were asked for our tickets and had to buy new standing ones. It’s a decent system though as the costs of your pre-booked ticket are refunded to the card that you used to make the booking and there aren’t any penalties for boarding a train without a ticket.  I didn’t fancy sitting on the floor for an hour and a half though so booked us a two-person noraebang. This is a private booth with two reclining seats, two microphones and a karaoke machine loaded with K-pop. They didn’t look as if they had anything by The Jam so we didn’t bother with any singing and instead just relaxed in comfort for the rest of the journey. It was well worth it at five thousand won per thirty minutes.

Better than First Class.

On arrival at Yesan we had a quick lunch of dolsot bibimbap at a small cafe where the boast on the sign by our table was that they don’t re-serve left-overs to other customers. Really? That’s big of them. I was a little concerned that I couldn’t see any notices confirming that they usually washed their hands after going for a dump and that they only spat in your food if they were having an exceptionally bad day.

 The Yesan stadium is some distance out of town so we took a taxi. We had a bit of time before kick-off which allowed us to watch an over-fifties tournament on the pitch across the car park before having a walk around the ground.

View from further around.

Like most third division games it was free to get in. They even offered us complimentary coffee. Mind you, last time I was here they gave me a sandwich, so maybe they are cutting back now that they are in the Challengers League. There weren’t too many people watching, in fact there were probably more at the over-fifties tournament across the car park. There were maybe a hundred people or so in the main stand with perhaps another twenty dotted around the rest of the ground. We had a couple of bigwigs sat in front of us, one of whom would shout “Shoot” whenever Yesan approached the Icheon penalty box. The other would then exhale an exasperated “Aiiishhh” when the shot inevitably ended up nearer to the corner flag than the back of the net.

Despite it being free to get in, some people preferred to watch through the fence.

Yesan were in all white whilst Icheon were in blue. As I’d expected, most of the early pressure came from the visitors but it took them half an hour to open the scoring. A stray shot ended up at the feet of Kim Tae Kwon eight yards out and he finished comfortably. The lead didn’t last long though and five minutes later Kim Tae Hoon weaved his way through an Icheon defence that kept backing off to equalise.

View from the back of the stand.

As we moved into the second half it was still a game that could have gone either way with each side adding another goal to make it two each. With twenty minutes remaining Icheon striker Na Gwang Hyun was brought down in the box. He invoked playground rules and took the penalty himself, placing it to the keeper’s right. The home goalie Kim Dong Woo guessed correctly though and palmed it away.

“Why didn’t you just blast it son?”

It was still level as we approached the final fifteen minutes, but eventually Icheon got the rewards that  their superiority deserved. Centre half Kwon Hyuk Tae had stayed up after a corner and when the ball was played back into the box he headed home to put the visitors back in front. He looked miles offside to me, but got away with it.

Random irrelevant action shot.

That was the cue for Im Seong Ho to do his stuff for Icheon. He began by getting his head to a loose ball as it bobbed around the edge of the six yard box in a bout of head-tennis. The keeper had been chasing it around as if he was being teased by big kids tossing his iPhone between them just out of his reach. It was a relief when it was finally put it over the line.

Im then scored the goal of the game after a break down the right wing. He cut inside and fired home into the top corner. He wasn’t finished though and with three minutes remaining he brought the ball in from the left, took it to the byline and after drawing the defenders and keeper squared it to Lee Cheol Hui who tapped home from close range to make it six-two.

Goal of the game.

That was enough for Shoot and Aiisshh and they left before the end. You’ve got to beat that traffic.

Aiisshhh (right) has longer legs in real life.

Whilst I had expected Icheon to win, Yesan had made a decent game of it and the final score flattered the visitors a little. Neither team moved up or down in their respective groups.

Jen and I had arrived early at the Yesan Sports Complex for the Challengers League fixture between Yesan United and Icheon Citizen. I’d been there a couple of years ago but on that occasion I hadn’t noticed that there was another pitch across the car park from the main Yesan Stadium.

What made it even better was that there was a match taking place on it. We wandered over and discovered that the game between Yesan Old Boys and Taean Old Boys was part of a five team tournament that also included teams from Dangjin, Hongseong and Seosan.

One of the banners around the edge of the pitch mentioned that it was a competition for over thirties, forties and fifties. Today’s fixtures were for over–fifties.

The main stand.

I reckon that most of the players looked a bit younger than their years, maybe in their forties, with the odd box-to-box midfielder who probably still had difficulty in getting someone to give up a seat for him on the bus. There were also one or two less than mobile defenders who were well into their fifties, probably even their sixties.

And a nice view of the hills too.

We sat down on the terracing that ran the length of one side of the pitch and watched for a while. The standard was similar to what you’d expect in a game played by old blokes on a hot day. There was lots of passing and not much movement, a bit like the Boro in the latter stages of last season really. One or two mistimed tackles made it look a bit more physical than it was, but on the whole people contented themselves with just closing down the opposition player with the ball until he moved it on to someone else.

One of the Yesan box-to-box midfielders takes a breather.

The pitch would have been fine for the Yesan United Challengers League game and the stand more than appropriate for the crowd sizes at that level. In fact there were probably more people watching these games as they waited for their team’s turn than you get at a lot of the third division matches.

I read recently that since the 2002 World Cup the number of public pitches has increased from 97 to 649. I’d suspect that this pitch is one of the new ones and if it has made it easier for local leagues to spring up, especially when it extends as far as the over-fifties, then that’s got to be commended.

One of the waiting players has one last fag.

That first game finished not long after we arrived and so we stayed to watch some of the tie between Dangjin Old Boys and Hongseong Old Boys. One of the players in the tent below us tried to tempt me into having a game. He obviously hadn’t realised that I was under-age. He assured me that they had plenty of kit but I doubted that they would have had a pair of size twelve boots and so I was able to graciously decline.

It’s strange really. Whilst I was watching all I saw were stiff old blokes, good at passing and retaining possession but unlikely to be able to coax their legs into making a run. I regard fifty as being pretty old for a footballer but don’t tend to apply the rule to myself. In my head, I’m no different to when I was a kid, but just temporarily out of condition, nothing that a few weeks training wouldn’t put right. I’ve had the same opinion for the last thirty years.

One of the younger Dangjin players.

I played in a five a side league in Seoul when I first came out here but gave it up after that one season. Most of the players were more than twenty years younger than me and whilst I don’t mind being slow in a friendly game with my mates, I felt a bit guilty at letting people down in a competitive situation. I wonder if that was it for me. Perhaps I should have taken the opportunity for a first and last game for Dangjin.

As it got towards kick-off time in the Yesan United game Jen and I left them to it and made our way over to the main stadium.

Incheon has a new stadium this season. The one that they had built for the World Cup ten years ago at Munhak was deemed a bit dated and in a perfect illustration of the pace at which everything changes in Korea, a brand new ground was built.

It had been over a month since I’d last watched Jeonbuk in their away game at FC Seoul and I’d been waiting for Incheon’s fixture with Jeonbuk before paying my first visit to the new ground.  Jeonbuk has had a relatively poor start to the season and last season’s champions went into this game in fifth place. Lee Dong Gook has been doing pretty well though, his two Asian Champions League goals against Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande in mid-week taking his total for the season so far to thirteen.

Jen and I got the subway from Yeoksam, changed at Sindorim and then took Line One to Dowon. It’s over thirty stops and it took us around an hour and a half. The new stadium looked impressive as we approached it. There’s an uncovered end behind one of the goals and as you walk up from the station it looks like a three-sided ground.

Brand new.

At Incheon’s opening home game the ticketing arrangement were a fiasco, with two-hour queues and people walking away when they couldn’t get in until after the game had started. I suspect that a lot of those fans won’t bother coming back, which is a shame. It worked out nicely for us though as it meant that we could buy our tickets without any trouble.

No queues this time.

We took our seats in one of the stands down the side of the pitch. The East one I think. We chose it because it was bathed in sunshine so those of you who know about sun movements will probably be able to tell if I’m right or not. There were more families around than normal which I put down to it being Children’s Day.

When my kids were young they would often ask me on Father’s Day when Children’s Day was. “Every day is bloody Children’s Day” tended to be my less than gracious response, possibly prompted by having to appear enthusiastic about another pair of novelty socks.

In Korea though, they do have a special day when you are not supposed to beat the little darlings quite so much as you normally would. Instead parents will mark the day by taking their offspring somewhere exciting, like a K-League fixture between Incheon and Jeonbuk.

As part of the celebration there were about a hundred small kids on the pitch before the game. Orphans I imagine, probably hoping that someone who had celebrated Children’s Day with too much soju might just take them home with them.

“I’ll take two with black hair please, if you have any.”

As the players came out, I noticed that Lee Dong Gook wasn’t starting. Maybe at thirty-three, two games a week is a little much for him. With Incheon being bottom of the league I imagine that his manager thought that they could get a result without him.

I reckon that there were about four thousand fans in the twenty thousand capacity ground, including around four hundred from Jeonbuk. The visiting fans had a section of the open end to our right, whilst at the other end the more vocal of the home supporters were congregated in a safe-standing area at the bottom of a single tier stand. When you add in the decision not to include a running track, I’d say that the Incheon stadium is probably the best football stadium in Korea.

The Incheon fans and their safe standing section.

Incheon took the lead in the second minute when a direct free-kick from the edge of the box was put straight into the top corner. Jeonbuk have recently been starting with the forty-one year old ex-Daejeon Citizen keeper Choi Eun Sung. It’s a hazard of being that age that every time you let one in people will wonder if you are still up to it. I doubt he’d have stopped that one twenty years ago though.

“Oooh, me aching back”

 A quarter of an hour in, Jeonbuk equalised when the Brazilian Eninho’s free-kick was deflected in. There has been a bit of a fuss lately over the attempt by national team and former Jeonbuk manager Choi Kang Hee to have Eninho nationalised and brought into the South Korean team in time for the latest round of World Cup qualifiers. There have been a few basketball players given citizenship but I suspect that the difference with them is that they look Korean. Maybe Eninho should celebrate his goals by posing as if in front of a bathroom mirror and flicking at his hair for two minutes whilst people wait behind him to wash their hands. That should convince people that he’s sufficiently integrated into Korean society.

With a few minutes left in the first half a shot from the edge of the box was parried by Choi and the rebound went straight to Park Joon Tae who knocked it in to put Incheon back in front. I’d have to question the ageing keeper for that one, he should really have palmed it to one side of the goal.

It was quite a sunny day.

At half-time I went to replenish my beer supplies and found that they had run out. Or at least they had at the bar nearest to us. The bloke serving did his best by tipping the barrel forwards and he even gave me a free cup of what turned out to be ninety percent froth. Fortunately the bar further along had stocks left so it wasn’t the crisis that it might have been. I’d recommend taking a few cans though, just in case.

The prospect of losing to the bottom club was sufficient to see Lee Dong Gook brought on at the start of the second half. Incheon defended well though and then with ten minutes of the game remaining they broke down the left and scored to make it three-one. I don’t think anyone was expecting that.

Incheon fans celebrate what seems like a certain victory.

Jeonbuk are one of those teams that fight to the end though and with two minutes left Eninho did his case for citizenship no harm with the visiting fans by pulling one back. Jeonbuk threw everyone forward and in the third minute of the four that had been added for stoppages Lee Dong Gook showed his worth by heading home the equaliser and his fourteenth of the campaign.

It’s not over etc.

As the final whistle went it must have felt like a defeat for the home players and fans. Not quite the Children’s Day treat that some of the kids thought that it was turning out to be. One fella was so annoyed that he slapped his season card down on the table in front of Jen and stomped off. Well, it’s the perfect day to behave like a kid.

Season cards are cheap here with the Incheon ones starting at eighty thousand won for twenty-two games. That’s about two quid a game as opposed to the fiver that you’ll pay on the day. Even so, I wonder if he’ll ring the club up and tell them that he’s lost it or whether he will be another one that’s gone for good.

This was the game that confirmed to me that I definitely have caught the groundhopping bug. I know that should have been obvious from some of my earlier trips, but this one really was all about ticking off a ground from my list of places that  I hadn’t yet been to.

I’d turned up for a National League fixture at Ansan’s Wa Stadium last year only to find that they were playing next door on the practice pitch. When I’d checked the fixtures this season it seemed that all of their games were scheduled for the smaller venue rather than the main stadium. All except this game against Yongin City.

So, I probably had one chance all season to see a game in the Wa Stadium. I’d seen Ansan play a home game before, I’d been inside the Wa Stadium before, but I hadn’t actually seen Ansan play at the Wa Stadium. That meant I had to go. What makes it even worse is that the 7pm on a Friday kick-off would prevent me from getting there until half–time. But, as I said, I had to go.

Me in the empty Ansan Wa stadium last year.

I nipped home after work and got changed. As I wouldn’t get there until half-time it didn’t matter if I spent ten minutes getting out of my work clobber, I’d still be there in time to see the start of the second half at around eight o’clock. I got the subway from Yeoksam to Gojan station on Line Four. The journey  took about an hour and the train was packed. So much so that I didn’t get a seat until a couple of stops before I was due to get off. The subway isn’t the most pleasant place to be during rush hour and I generally need a good reason to travel during that time. I’m not wholly convinced that forty-five minutes of second tier football between two teams that I don’t care about really qualifies.

You can see the stadium from the subway exit and I was relieved to notice that the floodlights were on. That tended to suggest that there hadn’t been a last minute change of venue.

The lights being turned on is a good sign.

The Ansan Wa stadium is a bit bigger than most of the stadiums outside of the top division. It has a capacity of thirty-five thousand and a large multi-level Lotte Mart store built into it. I took advantage of it being half-time and nipped to the Lotte Mart basement floor for a box of fried chicken. I shouldn’t have bothered though as it tasted like it had been there since my previous visit.

I walked around the perimeter on the upper level and found a gate open. The concourse was in darkness but I could see the pitch. I went in and it brought me out opposite the main stand. The stadium looked even bigger when inside and the running track that went around the pitch could probably have been a lot more than eight lanes wide if they had wanted. I liked the look of the curved roofs above the stands along the sides of the pitch and whilst both ends behind the goals were uncovered, that’s not really a problem when your attendances rarely reach five hundred.

The view from my seat.

The game was about to restart as I took my seat and I hadn’t missed any goals in the first half. The visitors, Yongin, were in all blue whilst Ansan or Ansan H to give them their full name were in white shirts and red shorts. They used to be Ansan Hallelujah until this season when in what seems like a crisis of faith they dropped everything bar the ‘H’ and removed the horizontal section of the cross from their shirts. Maybe they just got sick of waiting for some Divine Assistance.

Yongin on the attack.

There was a much smaller crowd at this game than there had been when I’d seen Ansan play on their practice pitch last year, although even if there had been twice as many fans the atmosphere still wouldn’t have been as good. The practice pitch has a small covered stand that runs the length of one side of the pitch. It was so full last year that my son and I had to stand at the back. A few drummers urging their team on and half a dozen kids playing in the long jump sand pit all added to that occasion.

That’s not to say that the Ansan fans who were there weren’t putting the effort in for this game. There were about a hundred and fifty of them, almost all in the main stand and with a small section making some noise. I suspect that a good few of them were American and brought up on basketball as one of the more popular chants was “Defense, defense”. If there were any Yongin fans around, I didn’t notice them.

Ansan fans

The game stayed goalless until fifteen minutes from the end when Yongin’s Kim Myeung Seon played a one-two on the edge of the box, took the return pass and finished well to put the visitors a goal up.  Ansan couldn’t respond and the one goal was enough. A bloke to my left applauded pretty enthusiastically at the end, so maybe there was someone there supporting Yongin after all.

He stopped clapping when he saw me taking his photograph.

I discovered later that Yongin had a player sent off in the first half and I’d watched the second half without realising that it was ten men against eleven. It wasn’t quite a Chris Kamara moment, but it was something that I probably should have spotted.

As far as the stats are concerned, Yongin moved into fourth place in the table. Ansan remained one spot off bottom. I ticked another ground off my list.

It’s second round of the FA Cup time in Korea and just like in England it’s the last set of ties before the big clubs come in. For third division teams like Gimhae and Yangju, a second round victory will be rewarded by a game against international players, possibly in one of the World Cup stadiums and (unless they draw Seongnam) a crowd considerably larger than they are used to playing in front of.

I’d made my way down to Gimhae earlier in the day to watch some baseball and afterwards got a lift into town from fellow Boro fan Alan who lives down that way. We stopped for something to eat at a traditional sit-on-the-floor seafood restaurant where I was able to compensate for my lack of flexibility by positioning myself with my back against the wall. The food was good though and as we were only in there for half an hour or so I was able to get to my feet unaided.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the old-fashioned places are cheating a bit. Some give you that much-appreciated back support by having chairs without legs. My favourite places take it a step further though and have a hole under the low table to dangle your legs into. A bit like those inspection pits that people used to have in their garages in the days when it was the done thing to fix your own car. I had a pit in the garage of one of my old houses. It was filled with old shoes for some reason though and so little use for car maintenance. Although as I’m not the sort of bloke who knows a crankshaft from a camshaft, it’s probably just as well.

Gimhae Civil Stadium

We arrived at the Gimhae Civil Stadium twenty minutes or so before kick-off. The surrounding area had been very busy and for a while we wondered if there would be a bigger crowd than normal. There wasn’t though. The crowds of people were there for a big event nearby.

It was a shame that more of them didn’t decide to watch some football as there was plenty of room. Gimhae Civil Stadium has an official capacity of thirty thousand and whilst it didn’t look that big to me, the hundred and twenty or so spectators were never going to have any worries about finding an empty seat.

There were four Gimhae ‘ultras’ to our right. They had marked their territory with material, although with nobody within thirty yards of them it seemed a little unnecessary. They very politely lifted the barriers for me when I had to pass them to go for a second half slash.

The Gimhae diehards.

Yangju had brought about fifteen fans with them from north of Seoul. It was an impressive effort as the club hadn’t put a supporters bus on for them and they had travelled independently. Like the Gimhae fans they kept their chanting and drumming going for most of the game.

The Yangju fans

Gimhae were wearing a sort of AC Milan kit, although the black stripes didn’t go all of the way up the front of the shirt. Yangju were dressed up as Norwich. The breakthrough came early as Gimhae went a goal up in the first couple of minutes. We were talking and not really paying attention so I couldn’t tell you what happened.

Yangju looked to be the better team in the remainder of the first half, but Gimhae could easily have gone two up against the run of play when they hit the post on the half-hour.

First half action.

At half time we got a firework display from the Yangju fans that lasted a good few minutes. Eventually there was an announcement on the tannoy telling them that fireworks weren’t allowed and asking that they didn’t light any more when the current ones had gone out. Maybe the Yangju fans struggle to understand the southern accent because they didn’t take the slightest notice. It was only when a bloke in a suit turned up and had a word that the fireworks stopped. Even then I suspect that it was more likely to be due to them having none left to light rather than a sudden grasping of the Gimhae twang.

Yangju celebrate only being a goal down at half time.

Gimhae picked up the pace a bit after the break and fifteen minutes into the second half they equalised with a shot from the edge of the box. As the second half drew to a close our attention drifted somewhat to the Boro game kicking off in England. I couldn’t get a live feed on my phone but at least the BBC updates every minute or so kept us in touch with whether or not our promotion hopes were still alive.

Extra time came and went for Gimhae and Yangju without any further goals and we went into a penalty shoot out. The Gimhae keeper managed to keep one of the Yangju penalties out whilst Gimhae scored all five to go through to the Third Round. I was expecting more of a celebration from the winners but they seemed quite laid back about it all. Perhaps a trip to one of the big teams isn’t something that they really fancy. Or maybe they are just cool fellas who don’t make a fuss about stuff.

That’s all folks.

As Alan was driving me towards Busan train station we got the update that confirmed Boro’s season was over. We’d taken it to the final game which is something that I’d have settled for last August but it’s still disappointing when even the slimmest of chances finally disappears. I’d booked an early morning train back to Seoul so picked a hotel as close to the station as I could. I had stayed at the Samil Hotel when Jen and I were in Busan last year and I couldn’t remember whether it was any good or not.

Samil Inn, Busan.

It wasn’t. Whilst it was cheap and handy, it smelt as if the room hadn’t been aired for months. Hopefully I’ll remember that next time.

This was the other of the two games being played simultaneously on adjacent pitches. The beauty of that is that you don’t have to read anything in this post about my journey to Cheonan or the usual guff about what I’d had for breakfast. I’d had glimpses of the first half of this match whilst watching the game next door between Cheonan City and Busan Transportation. From a distance it looked as if Germany were taking on Holland but as the teams came out for the second half I could see that whilst Cheonan were wearing the classic Dutch combination of orange shirts and white shorts, Gyeongju Citizen had red and green stripes on the fronts of their white shirts.

Not quite the 1974 World Cup Final.

The visitors were leading by two goals to one but that didn’t seem to have diminished the support from the half a dozen home fans close to where we were sitting. They had four drums between the six of them which is a ratio that I imagine even the drummiest of marching bands could only aspire to.

Four drummers drumming.

There were probably about a hundred people in total watching, which was pretty good when you consider that a game of a much higher standard was taking place less than twenty yards away. I didn’t notice any fans cheering on Gyeongju, just as I didn’t when I saw them play in Seoul recently. Maybe they don’t have any travelling fans. Or maybe they just don’t like to make a fuss, acknowledging goals at either end with a similar stoic nod and a wry smile. That’s fair enough, I’ll watch out more closely for them in future.

The view from the other side.

Ten minutes into the second half, Cheonan drew level. One of their strikers chased a through ball and placed his shot to the keeper’s left.

It's on its way in.

There weren’t a great deal of chances for most of the second half and my attention did drift occasionally to the Cheonan City game taking place to our left. Five minutes or so from the end Cheonan’s Park Min Seok cut in from the right and shot across the keeper into the corner of the net to give the home team the lead. The lads with the drums seemed overjoyed.

The joy was short-lived though as Gyeongju hit back almost straightaway through Jang Ji Soo. His initial shot was parried by the Cheonan goalie but the ball ballooned up and he was able to direct his header over the grounded keeper. Three-all and surely worth more than a wry smile from the away fans.

Jang Ji Soo - Gyeongju Citizen.

The point moved Gyeongju up into second place in their nine team group, whilst Cheonan remained in seventh place, five points behind.

There are two football teams in Cheonan. One of them, Cheonan City, plays in the National League whilst the other, Cheonan FC, is one division lower in the Challengers League. Up until recently they played their games at the Baekseok and Oryong stadiums respectively. These days though they both seem to have been turning out at the newer Cheonan Soccer Centre.

The Soccer Centre has four pitches, two grass and two artificial. Both the grass pitches have seats for spectators, the main pitch having stands down two sides whilst the other has just the one stand.

So, what’s all this leading to? Well, I was coming to that. Both teams had been given a home fixture on the same day and so it should have provided an opportunity for a few hours of watching football, with one game following the other. That’s too sensible though and instead both games were given three o’clock kick-offs. Baffling. I couldn’t miss the opportunity of watching two games simultaneously though and so Jen and I caught a train from Seoul to Cheonan at Saturday lunchtime.

Cheonan is pretty well served by transport options ranging from the thirty-five minute KTX journey to a couple of hours on the subway. This time we went by Saemaul, which was the fastest option until the introduction of the high-speed KTX trains a few years ago. It took just over an hour and that was fine. We overtook a few of the subway trains at a pace where I could look smugly into their carriages. The KTX trains must use a different track which is just as well really as the difference in speed between the KTX and the subway trains would no doubt be enough to suck out the subway carriage windows and spirit away the hats, glasses and false teeth of the people inside.

We took a taxi from Cheonan station, but that was only because we didn’t know where we were going. It’s probably only a ten minute walk from there to the Soccer Centre. Once we arrived we had to decide what to do. Do you focus on one game or try to watch them both at the same time? If you sat right at the end of the stand you could pretty much keep an eye on both, a bit like if you had a seat right on that dividing screen at The Crucible when the snooker is on. In the end though, we decided to watch forty-five minutes of each game and started with the National League fixture between Cheonan City and Busan Transportation.

The view from the main stand looking towards the other grass pitch.

Both teams have terrible kits. Cheonan were wearing maroon with grey shorts and socks. That’s not a football strip, particularly the grey socks. They looked like kids who had forgotten their PE kit and were just wearing standard school uniform socks. Busan weren’t much better, they have a strip that resembles a Brighton kit from the front. Nothing too bad about that I suppose, unless you are a Crystal Palace fan, but the blue and white stripes are only on the front of the shirts. The shirts are solid blue on the back which makes them look nearer to Chelsea when you see them from behind. It’s as if you are watching three teams chasing the same ball.

School kids v Brighton v Chelsea.

Whilst the strips were dodgy, the crowd was very impressive for a game at this level. I’d estimate that there were about five hundred people in the main stand and another seventy or so sat in the sunshine opposite. The home side were cheered on by about a dozen ‘ultras’ whilst Busan also had a few supporters making a bit of noise at the far end of the main stand.

Cheonan City fans.

The visitors almost opened the scoring in the first minute but the ball ran just the wrong side of the post. They were certainly the more attacking of the two teams, but the finishing from both sides left a lot to be desired.

Busan had another good opportunity ten minutes before half-time when Kang Jin Kyu cracked the ball against the bar from the edge of the box. He hit it with enough force for the rebound to clear the penalty area. The miss was forgotten a couple of minutes later though when Busan took the lead through Park Seung Min. The former Incheon United midfielder capitalised upon a spot of arsing about by the Cheonan defence to drive the ball home from close-range.

This wasn't the goal, but it would be ideal for a Spot the Ball competition.

That was about it for the first half and as we had another match to watch on the next pitch, just about it for us too as we moved to the adjacent stand at half-time. A few minutes into the second half the noise from the crowd alerted us to a goalmouth scramble and we were able to watch from a distance as Busan doubled their lead.

A little later I had a wander between the two pitches to get some photos of the main stands so I did see a bit more of the Cheonan – Busan game.

The view from the other side of the pitch.

We didn’t miss any more goals though and the match finished with Busan maintaining their two goal advantage.

This trip didn’t turn out anything like I’d intended it to. The original plan had been for Jen and I to walk along the Hwaseong fortress wall before watching Suwon City take on Mokpo City in Suwon’s Civil Stadium. In the end though, we did neither.

A late night on the Friday resulted in us getting up too late to walk along the fortress wall. It did mean that we had a bit of time to watch some baseball in ballpark next door though. Once that had finished we made our way to the Civil Stadium.

Suwon Civil Stadium.

Now, I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m not really one for learning lessons. Unless, perhaps, physical pain or injury is involved. For example, I no longer use that open razor blade on the cheese grater for slicing bits of cheese. Not since I took a chunk out of my thumb anyway. Nor do I try to force corks into a wine bottle with a knife if the corkscrew doesn’t do its job properly. At least not since the time when a bottle cracked and I nearly severed a finger.

Where I’m still struggling to learn lessons is in making sure that games are on before setting out. God knows I’ve missed enough of them and this one was yet another. We arrived at the Civil Stadium bang on three o’clock and after wandering in caught sight of another pitch without goalposts. Perhaps if I get Jen to jab me in the eye each time it happens I might start to check things a bit more thoroughly.

Fortunately, the most likely alternative to the as yet incompletely refurbished Civil Stadium was the Suwon Big Bird Stadium, either the main pitch or more likely the auxiliary one next to it. There’s not too much distance between the Civil and Big Bird Stadiums and a twenty-minute taxi ride was all that was needed.

I’d watched Suwon City on the auxiliary pitch last season. It’s ideal for a lower league team with one small stand running the length of the pitch. As we walked around the outside of the main stadium though we could hear drumming and chanting from inside. A quick glance confirmed that City had borrowed the Big Bird from their K-League neighbours, Suwon Bluewings.

It was a relief to see some goalposts.

Suwon were in their red and blue stripes and were already a goal down to Mokpo. It was strange seeing a stadium that is usually one of the best attended in the country staging a match in front of no more than a couple of hundred spectators. Mokpo had contributed to the crowd by bringing eight fans with them for their rare day out in a World Cup Stadium. I wondered if any of them had turned up at the Civil Stadium first.

It was a good day out for these fellas.

We made our way around to the far side so that we could sit in the sun and watched the remainder of the first half. Suwon had a few chances to equalise but were unable to take them and they went in at the interval still trailing by a goal to nil.

A Suwon corner, just before half-time.

Mokpo doubled their lead a couple of minutes into the second half when Suwon keeper Lee Jung Hyung dashed to the edge of his box only to get in the way of one of his defenders. The mix-up meant that the ball fell to Han Jae Man who after controlling it with his arm was able to roll the ball into an empty net. A couple of the Suwon players protested to the linesman who I’m sure must have seen it. Maybe the odd poke in the eye might have helped him to focus on the task in hand too.

Suwon responded by bringing on their lanky striker Bae Soo Han. Although having checked his height it turns out that he is only six foot three. Maybe he is just tall in comparison to some of his short-arse team-mates. Whatever, the substitution paid off almost immediately as Suwon pulled a goal back when Jang Hyuk’s shot from the edge of the box sneaked in next to the post.

Goaaaallll.

The home side had plenty of time to find an equaliser in the remaining half hour and they put the visitors under a lot of pressure. The Mokpo keeper had a decent game though and he was able to keep the Suwon efforts out to help his team pull off an unexpected away victory.

It hadn’t been quite the day that I’d planned but it had worked out pretty well in the end, whilst the fortress wall and the Civil Stadium will still be there for a future trip.

The last time I’d been to Bucheon I’d taken a trail through some woods to reach the ground. This time though, I didn’t have time and so after getting off the subway at Sosa I just followed the road for twenty five minutes to Bucheon’s stadium at the Leports Complex. On my previous visit I’d arrived only to discover that the game had been switched to the opposition stadium but thankfully this time I could see the players walking out onto the pitch through a gap in the stand.

With the game about to start I followed some fans through the main entrance where I was politely turned away and re-directed further around the stadium to the ticket office. It came as a bit of a surprise as it’s not often that you have to pay at this level or indeed, the one above.

I found the ticket office and joined the queue for a five thousand won ticket. It wasn’t ‘Boro at Wembley’ length, but I did find the idea of printing tickets and then employing people to sell them and check them on entry a bit over the top for a division where the crowds average around two hundred. Wouldn’t just handing over a five thousand won note as you went in be a bit more efficient if you are going to bother charging an entry fee in the third tier?

At least you didn't have to camp out overnight.

I’d missed the first couple of minutes by the time I’d got inside the stadium. Bucheon were in red shirts with black shorts and Paju were in green tops with blue shorts. There were maybe five hundred people or so watching, including a dozen from Paju behind the goal. That’s a pretty healthy crowd for a Challengers League game, so perhaps it’s worth their while charging for admission after all.

The Paju fans seemed happy to catch up on their sleep.

Bucheon had more of the ball in the first half but neither side created much and when a half-chance did fall to someone a goal never really looked likely. It was goalless at half-time.

Paju on the attack in the first half.

The Bucheon fans were very impressive, singing throughout the match and they marked the start of the second half with a flare. Bucheon 1995 is a club that was founded by supporters of SK Bucheon after the K-League club was relocated to Jeju Island a few years ago as part of the effort to de-centralise clubs from the Seoul area. Whilst the new team play in the third division, they use the same stadium that SK Bucheon did and they wear the same colours.

The Bucheon fans show the Paju lot how it's done.

The game came to life ten minutes after the interval when the Paju goalie flattened a Bucheon striker on the edge of the box. It looked like it was going to end in tears from the moment he set off as he was never likely to get to the ball first. Even though the ref had little option but to send the keeper off, the lad was furious, throwing his gloves to the pitch in a fit of temper.

Bath time, sonny.

Once the keeper had left the pitch, we still had to wait a while for the re-start. First of all the Paju staff had to work out which of their twenty of so subs were actually goalies. Then they had to decide which of them would come on to replace the unlucky outfield player. Once the new keeper had been selected, we then had to watch him warm-up at the side of the pitch for five minutes whilst the rest of the players and the crowd gradually froze to death.

Eventually the new lad felt ready to come on. If I’d have been the ref, I’d have booked him for time-wasting as he made his entrance. His first touch saw him pole-axed as if he had been clattered with a length of 4″ by 2″. I did wonder at that point whether he just didn’t fancy it, despite his extensive warm up. His second touch was to pick the ball out of the net as Bucheon finally got the opening goal.

As most of the home players ran to their fans to celebrate, Paju had to be stopped by the ref from sneakily kicking-off against the couple of Bucheon players who were back in their own half.

The goal opened the game up a bit more and both sides had their chances. A few minutes from time a Paju free-kick from the edge of the box was curled just wide, whilst Bucheon could have sealed it at the end with a chip over the Paju keeper that landed just the wrong side of the post.

Almost an equaliser.

The single goal was enough to clinch victory for Bucheon and the win took them above Paju in the table and into second place.

Three weeks into the new season and with Jeonbuk Motors visiting FC Seoul, it was time for me to catch up with Lee Dong Gook. The Boro’s greatest ever Korean player had started the season exceptionally well, capping his recall to the national team with three goals in two games and then continuing his good form with another three in Jeonbuk’s first three K-League games.

I’ve been to see quite a few games at Seoul’s Sangam stadium over the last couple of years and so to make the day a bit more interesting Jen and I decided to walk there. We’d tried to do the same thing last year but had been thwarted by the flooding of the Han River.

This time though, we were still three months or so away from the rainy season and saw no reason why we wouldn’t be able to just follow the river all the way to the stadium. We set off from Yeoksam not long after eight in the morning which gave us almost seven hours until kick-off. Just to make the route a bit longer, we walked in the wrong direction to Jamsil and joined the Han River at the Olympic Stadium. This took the overall distance to more than twenty kilometres. I’m not sure how much more, but as we seem to average around three kilometres an hour, I wasn’t entirely certain that we’d make the kick-off.

There wasn’t a great deal going on that we hadn’t seen on previous walks along the Han, apart from a much increased security presence. There was a Nuclear Summit due to take place the following day that the likes of Obama would be attending and it looked as if every copper in Korea was on duty. We passed three coachloads of police by the COEX centre and as we walked along the river we saw policemen on bikes, in boats and guarding every bridge we passed. Helicopters constantly flew overhead.

Undercover Police pretending to be fishermen.

Every time I walk along the Han I see more improvements to the paths, facilities and surrounding areas. It’s a place where kids can play sport and older folks can walk their dogs or work out on the gym equipment. There are stages and seating for open-air concerts and car parks where people can watch films on big screens. There are swimming pools, football and rugby pitches, basketball, badminton and tennis courts, croquet lawns and baseball parks. Taxation levels seem very low in Korea so it surprises me when I see the extent of public spending on leisure facilities.

We passed the areas where the previous year we had been forced to make extensive detours and in some of those cases the path had now been relocated to higher ground in response.

Last year.

After a bit of earth-moving and with a new path installed it now looked like this;

This year.

We first spotted the World Cup Stadium at around two o’clock. It took us another half an hour or so to get there as there were numerous roads to cross. I’ve a feeling that if we had carried a little further along the river then there might have been a nice easy path through a park. Maybe next time.

Six hours later.

It was a cold day and whilst Jen was fine with that during the walk, she was less confident of her ability to avoid hypothermia whilst sitting in a football stadium for two hours. She headed off back to Yeoksam (on the subway) and I got myself a fourteen thousand won ticket for the Jeonbuk end.

As I went through the gate I noticed that Jeonbuk shirts were being given away for free. I joined the queue, but was told that they were only for employees of Hyundai Motors and their families. Judging by the amount of shirts being given away, half the factory must have been attending the game. Despite the decent turnout by the Jeonbuk fans, the overall attendance was poor. It was announced as 25,811, but it was easy enough to work out that the true figure was less than half of that.

The match started well for the visitors and within three minutes they were in the lead. Luiz dispossessed a defender and played in Lee Dong Gook who calmly placed the ball to the keeper’s left for his seventh goal of the season.

One - nil to Jeonbuk.

Seoul had plenty of possession though and equalised just before the half-hour mark. Dejan Damjanovic’s shot hit the bar, bounced down and Ha Dae Sung  was first to the rebound, scoring with a diving header.

At half time I moved upstairs, partly for the change of view but mainly for a bit of peace and quiet. The woman who had been sat behind me in the lower tier had been getting a little too excited in the first half whenever Jeonbuk were on the attack. On the occasions when they got near to the Seoul penalty box, she sounded as if she was close to orgasm. I thought it only polite to give her some privacy.

Jeonbuk should really have regained the lead on the hour. Lee Dong Gook got clear though and was one-on-one with the keeper. He tried to leave the lad flat on his arse but in doing so allowed the goalie to nick the ball off his toe. He got a second chance at it but his shot was cleared off the line by a defender who had got back to cover.

Jeonbuk have got a new foreign striker this season, Hugo Droguett, a Chilean who has been playing in Mexico. He came on as a sub for Eninho mid-way through the second half but didn’t make much of a difference. He put a free-kick wide of the post and failed to hit the target after a one-two with Lee Dong Gook. I don’t want to judge him prematurely, but I didn’t see anything that made him look as good an option as an impact sub as Krunoslav Lovrek, who has moved on from Jeonbuk to Qingdao Jonoon in the China Super League.

Droguett puts his free-kick wide.

As the game drew to a close I reflected that whilst both teams would no doubt be disappointed with just the point, they had each missed so many chances that they couldn’t really complain. It wasn’t over though and in the eighty-ninth minute Molina weaved his way through the Jeonbuk defence and finished well to clinch the three points for the home side. I was keen to be home before midnight and so decided against walking in favour of the subway.