Archive for the ‘Football’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Goyang KB V Yongin City, Saturday 16th April 2011, 7pm

April 29, 2011

This was another Seoul based day, with some walking in the morning and a football game in the evening. Jen and I went back to the Achasan and Yongmasan mountains that we’d hiked up the previous week, but started at the other end this time for a bit of variation. Actually I’m not really sure what constitutes a mountain, these are only 287m and 348m high respectively so probably hill is a better description.

We were able to retrace our route from a week earlier, starting at Gwangnaru subway on Line 5 and walking through a park, then alongside the two thousand year old wall for a while. The route was even busier than the previous week with a number of hiking groups and most of Seoul’s pensioners out for a stroll.

I think some of them had been walking the route before the wall was built.

We passed the ice cakee man at the top of Achasan again and then pressed on to Yongmasan. The views of the city were a whole lot better than the previous week when the yellow dust had obscured all but the closest landmarks.

Instead of dropping down towards Yongmasan subway we took an alternative route towards, I think, Mungusan. It was difficult to see where the route was leading as it descended quite steeply. Some of the sections required the use of ropes and handrails and it was a lot more awkward way down than the more popular trail that we’d came up had been.

My office is out there somewhere.

We’d walked a lot quicker than the week before and despite covering a greater distance we were off the hill less than three hours after setting out. The extra time that we had in hand was quite useful as getting to Goyang is probably more of a trek than the hiking had been. Once we’d got onto Line 3 we had thirty stops to sit through until we reached Daehwa, the station right at the end of the line. It took us about an hour and a half in total and we arrived with just over an hour to spare before the 7pm kick-off.

Goyang’s stadium is pretty close to the subway and as we’d spotted it soon after coming out of the exit we had time for something to eat before the game. We popped into a place that was more like a café than a restaurant and got some of those steamed dumplings. I hadn’t realized that you could get Kimchi flavour mandu and having tried some I’d say that I prefer them. They are just that little bit spicier than the regular ones. The total bill only came to five thousand won which made me feel as if I should have been wearing a stocking over my head.

Goyang Stadium

It continued to be a cheap night out as the football was free to get in. When we passed through the entrance we were asked to add our names and phone numbers to a list. I assumed that it was some sort of visitor’s book or maybe an attempt to build up a marketing database. I was wrong though. It was the list of people who would provide the half-time entertainment on the pitch. With that in mind I thought I’d better warm up with a bit of target practice nearby.

"Gareth, why didn't you blast it, dear?"

I failed to get the ball through any of the holes, but was given bottles of shampoo and conditioner as a consolation prize. I tend to find that conditioner isn’t strictly necessary for me these days.

The stadium was very impressive. It was far too impressive for a team at National League level though. When you only get crowds of around two hundred people then a forty two thousand capacity ground seems a touch excessive.  Yongin provided eight of the total attendance. Fewer away fans than players but more than the substitutes seems to be a reasonable yardstick at this level.

Five eighths of the Yongin hardcore.

The generous hospitality continued and we were given a football and then had our photograph taken by the official Goyang bloke with a Polaroid camera. I struggle to understand why the crowds are so low really. It seemed ideal for keeping the kids amused.  A bloke can bring his kids for a free evening out, get their photo taken, let them run amok with a free football amongst the empty stands whilst he watches the match and then return home with a bag of assorted hair products to keep the missus sweet. Why wouldn’t you?

It was a fairly cagey first half, although that might have been expected with this being a game between the top two teams in the division, both of them unbeaten so far this season. Neither keeper had a shot to save and it was scoreless at the interval.

The view from our seats.

Mind you, when I say that neither keeper had a shot to save that may not be completely true. I missed the last ten minutes of the half due to making my way around to the other side of the ground after Jen got the phone call summoning me for the half time entertainment. I’d hoped that it would be penalties as even allowing for me wearing normal shoes rather than trainers I’d have been reasonably confident about not making an arse of myself. It wasn’t though. The challenge that we would face would be to try and score from the centre circle without the ball bouncing on the way in to the net.

"Did you definitely sign the medical disclaimer?"

I was asked a couple of questions beforehand, including my age, which seemed to impress the crowd. Possibly they admired the self-delusion of the old bloke. If only they knew that I’d have been just as unlikely to have scored whilst in my prime. The best I can say for my effort is that I didn’t fall over and it won yet another consolation prize. A pair of white sports socks this time.

The second half was more of the same, plenty of chances but without anyone ever really troubling the keeper and at the final whistle both sides had preserved their unbeaten records in a goalless draw. Yongin remained top of the table whilst Goyang slipped to fourth.

Goyang almost snatch a late winner.

Meanwhile for those of you keeping up with the Lion King, Jeonbuk had been playing Gangwon at home earlier in the day. Lee Dong Gook scored his fourth goal in seven games in a 6-1 victory to move them up into fifth place in the table, four points behind leaders Pohang.

Posted in Football, Hiking | 2 Comments »

Pocheon v Donggook University, Sunday 10th April 2011, 2pm

April 20, 2011

It’s FA Cup time in Korea. Actually it’s already the second round. I’d missed the previous ties last month as the opening round had been inconsiderately scheduled to coincide with my trip to the UK and so I was keen to take in a game this time. The Korean version is similar to the real FA Cup in that teams start at different stages. From what I can work out, nine of the third division teams get to take part, with eight of them entering at the first round stage and taking on teams from eight of Korea’s Universities.

The university sides are usually better than the K3 teams, perhaps because they tend to serve as academies for the professional clubs and it wasn’t much of a surprise to learn that seven of the eight first round ties were settled in favour of the students.

The exception to this was Pocheon who are a pretty decent third division team. They won the championship in 2009 and are currently top of the table. In the hope that they would continue their giant-killing in the second round I decided that I’d pop along to their game against Donggook University.

Pocheon is about thirty miles north-east of Seoul and there are a couple of options for getting there. You can take Subway Line 1 to Uijeongbo and then get a bus from somewhere nearby or you can get a bus straight there from Dong Seoul. I went for the latter option, mainly because Dong Seoul is easy for me to get to, but also because it removed the risk of me getting lost in Uijeongbo.

The buses go from Dong Seoul every twenty minutes or so and cost six thousand won. What you might not get though is the opportunity to see your bus driver fighting over a parking space with one of his colleagues. I guess I’m just lucky like that. It looked like they were going to limit the dispute to shouting at each other,  but when a couple of other drivers intervened it gave them the opportunity to throw some punches without fear of it getting too far out of hand.

Dong Seoul Bus Terminal

The journey to Pocheon takes an hour, but I decided to get there a couple of hours before the 2pm kick-off so that I could have a look around. I discovered that Pocheon doesn’t really have too many attractions for tourists. Or for locals if we’re honest. There’s the Korea National Arboretum nearby, but that’s closed on Sundays. I’d spotted a market by the river as I arrived in town though and so I thought I’d go and have a walk around that.

Pocheon Market

It was pretty good. There was the usual assortment of stalls selling stuff that I wasn’t too interested in such as clothes and power tools, but there were also plenty of people selling fruit, vegetables, meat and fish.

Some ice might be a good idea.

Best of all though was the livestock. When I was a kid I would go to Stockton Market with my Mam and Dad on a Saturday morning. Whilst my Mam would do the actual shopping, my Dad and I would follow the same route each week, visiting the stall that had a horse tethered to it, then the stall that sold puppies, rabbits and budgies before finishing up in the indoor market to visit the butcher where the dead rabbits would be hanging by their feet from ceiling hooks. I’m sure if there had been a zoo nearby we would probably have gone there now and again instead, but there wasn’t.

I didn’t see any horses at Pocheon but there were plenty of puppies, rabbits, chickens and ducks. I think the dogs were for sale as pets, although they did look to be the type that would grow to be a fair size and you don’t see many of those being walked in the parks over here.

Kennel Club registered apparently.

Conveniently, I’d spotted some floodlights as I’d approached the market so finding the stadium was quite easy. If you come out of the bus station, cross over the river and follow the road/river in the direction of Seoul you’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. It’s part of a sports complex with a big indoor arena that was hosting a badminton tournament whilst I was there.

Pocheon’s ground is fairly typical of those in the Korean lower leagues. Or at least those where the Mayor hasn’t decided for one reason or another that what his one horse town needs for their football team that doesn’t have any fans is a stadium suitable for hosting the Olympic games. This ground would be suitable for athletics with its running track and sandpit, but at least it is a sensible size. There is a uncovered bowl of seating all the way around the pitch and track, with a main stand along most of one side. Only the centre of the main stand is covered and that looked to be reserved for people more important than me. There’s a nice view from the main stand too, with trees and hills providing the backdrop to the action.

Main stand before kick-off.

I suspect that the indoor badminton was probably drawing more spectators than the football as there were only a handful of people in the ground when I arrived. Not only was it free to get in, but a Pocheon official gave me a complimentary cup of coffee as I took my seat. That sort of gesture isn’t uncommon in the lower leagues where they really do seem grateful to anyone who turns up. Maybe the people in the covered section of the stand got a chocolate biscuit with theirs.

By the time the game kicked off, a couple of hundred people had taken their seats. Most of them seemed to be parents of the players or the mascots. Pocheon had hit upon the cunning wheeze of having twenty two mascots, which when combined with all their friends and relatives, probably doubled the attendance.

The teams and half the crowd line up.

The mascots were drawn from a local kids team and in addition to the twenty two who had accompanied the players onto the pitch we also had a few substitute mascots further swelling the crowd. Maybe there had been problems in the past with some of the first twenty two managing to injure themselves between the tunnel and the pitch. Regardless, they seemed to be enjoying themselves and most of them made a point of saying hello to me.

Donggook University on the attack.

Donggook University, who had knocked out the third division side Jeonju EM in the previous round, were in grey with the home team Pocheon in red shirts and black shorts. There was a fairly niggling start to the game with Pocheon doing their best to leave a foot in on the students at every opportunity. Well you would, wouldn’t you? It’s payback for all the times you’ve stood behind one in the paper shop whilst he buys a packet of cigarette papers and a pot noodle with a debit card.

The heavy tackling didn’t seem to have the hoped for effect and Donggook opened the scoring after fifteen minutes when their number ten tapped in a cross at the back post. He looked a decent player and was involved in most of his team’s best moves. I missed the goal unfortunately as the bloke dishing out the free coffee was blocking my view as he handed drinks to the latecomers. Fortunately Pocheon has a big screen for showing replays. A technological advance that my own club Middlesbrough has yet to embrace despite spending over a decade in the Premier League and having reached a UEFA Cup Final. We don’t have free coffee either.

I saw the next goal, which was an equaliser for Pocheon a few minutes later. The student keeper had obviously been up all night building pyramids out of empty beer cans and he fumbled a cross allowing a Pocheon striker to turn the ball into the net.

1-1

There were a few more chances in the remainder of the first half, some of which had the Mothers of the mascots shrieking as if Take That had turned up in their underwear and taken over the coffee dispensing duties. Neither team was able to finish well enough though and as the teams trooped off at the interval it was still one goal each.

In the second half Donggook University had six or seven decent chances but failed to take any of them. With extra time and perhaps penalties looming Pocheon managed to get the ball in the net only for it to be ruled out for offside. The mascot kids were still celebrating a minute or so later, oblivious to it having been disallowed. Fortunately for them Pocheon then managed to score twice in injury time to clinch the game.

Third round here we come.

The goals sparked even more excitement amongst the kids who by this stage were chanting “Chicken, Chicken“ at their coach who apparently had somewhat recklessly promised to buy fried chicken for the entire thirty or so squad if Pocheon won.

The Pocheon players seemed as happy with the result as the mascots and the local KFC owner  were. Perhaps they were getting chicken too. The 3-1 win putting them into the draw for the third round and the opportunity to take on one of the K-League teams in a few weeks time.

Posted in Football | Leave a Comment »

Seongnam Ilhwa Chumna v Busan I’Park, Sunday 3rd April 2011, 5.15pm

April 10, 2011

I like walking to the match. When I was a kid we would often walk from Norton to Ayresome Park, mainly because if we did have enough money for the bus fare it seemed a shame to waste it on taking the bus when you could buy a chip butty with it instead.

Going to a game was quite a cheap day out in those days, even more so when we would get in for free as a reward for selling Golden Goal tickets outside the stadium. You needed to sell fifty of them to get a complimentary ticket and it wasn’t too difficult. A penny and a half commission on each sale meant that we would invariably buy more chips on the way home too.

Happy days.

On the days when walking seemed like too much effort we would try to hitch a lift as we walked alongside the A19. Traffic must have been a bit less hectic back in the late seventies as it hardly seems possible that a car would be able to stop on that stretch of road these days. I once hitched to a home game from Mickleton in Teesdale where we had a caravan. That took quite a while as I had to walk through both Barnard Castle and Darlington to resume my quest for a lift at the right end of the town. I think it was about eleven o’clock at night before I got back to the caravan site.

That 'star jumper' probably won't have helped with the hitching.

I was actually back up that way a couple of weeks ago as my son and I were fishing at Grassholme Reservoir. It was an enjoyable afternoon out but the fishing was too easy. The water must have just been re-stocked as we were pulling out a trout every ten minutes or so. In the end we switched from powerbait to worms just to try to delay reaching the catch limit.

It was easier than shooting them in a barrel.

I’ve walked to the Riverside Stadium a few times too. I follow the same route as I did going to Ayresome Park thirty years ago as far as the Newport Bridge, although the prison wasn’t there in those days. It takes about an hour and a half of walking time but as I tend to call into the bookies and a pub or two on the way, I’ll usually set off about three hours before kick-off.

Seongnam’s stadium is alongside the Tancheon River and Jen and I had talked previously about walking along it from Seoul to Bundang. We’d actually intended doing it in earlier this year but missed a fork in the river and ended up in Gwacheon instead. Now that we knew where to bear left it seemed a good idea to combine the walk with going to Seongnam’s game with Busan I’Park.

It takes about forty minutes to reach the Tancheon from my apartment in Yeoksam, the best bit of that journey being when you can look down on what appear to be quite large carp underneath the bridge near Sports Complex. They just seem to sit on the bottom of the shallow water with their noses pointing upstream.

You have to look closely, but there are fish there.

Once we had successfully negotiated the fork in the river we found ourselves walking along the course of a marathon. The runners were at around the twenty mile stage, but most of them looked as if they were likely to finish. We stopped for a while to eat the Blackwell’s midget pork pies that I’d brought to Seoul on my return from the UK the week before. It was quite a strange feeling eating something from my local butcher’s six thousand miles from where it was made. Blackwell’s is pretty good, but when I was a kid we’d get our pork pies from London’s who had a shop a little further down the High Street. It might be just nostalgia, but I think they were better. London’s must have been closed for over twenty years now I’d have thought. It became an undertakers for a while where I imagine that the meat hooks came in handy and it’s currently a photographers studio where there is probably less of a use for them.

There weren't too many runners.

Whilst I’m on the pork pie theme I’ll just mention that whilst on a flight with my daughter a few years ago I needed to go to the toilet just as the drinks trollies were being wheeled down the aisle.

“Do you want me to get you something?” she asked.

“Yes please” I replied, “I’ll have a pork pie and a Magnum.”

She asked as well, bless her. Apparently they had none left.

Anyway back to the walk along the Tancheon. It’s actually not quite as picturesque as the walk to Gwacheon that we ended up doing a few weeks earlier by mistake. We saw a few fishermen but not a lot of wildlife.

They would have been better off fishing from that earlier bridge.

What we did see though were dozens of small dogs being carried or occasionally walked by their owners. Pug crosses seem to be quite popular, although perhaps I just notice them more as my daughter has a pug.

I know, I know.

We saw one that looked like it had been crossed with a chicken. A Chug, perhaps.

Definitely a pug's head, but with a chicken's tail feathers.

Another was half pug, half dragon I think. Possibly a Drug.

A pug's tail this time, but a fire-breathing mouth.

We reached Seongnam’s ground after about four hours walking and had probably done around ten miles. We still had a couple of hours to go until kick-off though so we pressed on a little further before stopping for something to eat and drink a couple of miles beyond the stadium. When we returned at 5pm there were large queues at the ticket office and it took us fifteen minutes to buy our nine thousand won tickets.

It seemed as if the entire crowd was in the queue.

Once inside it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the game hadn’t yet begun. I doubt that the start was delayed specifically for us, but it would have been a shame if we had missed the kick-off after setting off more than six hours in advance.

The game was ok, Seongnam were dressed up as Watford, whilst Busan were wearing Poland strips. The playing surface was poor though. Every time a player made contact with the ball sand would spray upwards from the pitch. My suspicion is that the Moonie-owned club has been holding too many mass weddings on the pitch.

A chance that came to nothing.

The East Stand was quite full and I’d have estimated the total crowd at about two thousand.  Seongnam were missing Dzenan Radoncic who might have made a difference in a goalless first half. Cho Dong Cheon broke the deadlock a few minutes after the interval to put the home side a goal up and it was quickly followed by another from Hong Chul a couple of minutes later.

This wasn't one of the goals.

And that was it, a two-nil home win that lifted Seongnam up to tenth and left Busan one place off the bottom. We decided that it was probably wise to take the subway back to Seoul.

Posted in Football, Hiking | 13 Comments »

FC Seoul v Jeonbuk Motors, Saturday 2nd April 2011, 5pm

April 8, 2011

I’d been on holiday in the UK for a couple of weeks at the back end of March so this was my first game of Korean football since watching Jeonbuk lose at home to Chunnam Dragons a month earlier. The day had started a little bit earlier than I’d hoped though. I’d been doing some hiking the day before in Seoraksan National Park and my hotel room was so warm that I’d needed to leave a window open. Unfortunately there was a monastery right next door and at three in the morning one of the monks had started with that rhythmic banging noise created by hitting a wooden object with a stick.

Why don't they all just quietly light candles like this one?

The racket went on for a couple of hours before he went off to do whatever it is that monks do when they aren’t disturbing their neighbours and I finally got back off to sleep. I took a taxi into Sokcho later in the morning and then caught the ten thirty bus to Seoul.

The subway at the stadium didn’t seem as busy as normal, perhaps as a consequence of last season’s champions Seoul having made such a poor start to the season with just a single point from their first three games. I paid fourteen thousand won for a ticket in the East Stand, mainly because you get a better view of the cheerleaders from there. It seemed that most other people had the same idea as apart from a couple of thousand Seoul fans in the North Lower, the rest of the ground was virtually empty. There were about a hundred and fifty Jeonbuk fans behind the goal to my left and oddly enough , a few more Jeonbuk fans in the East Stand.

He looks a little out of place, perhaps he wanted a decent view of the cheerleaders too.

Lee Dong Gook, who had scored twice for Jeonbuk in their previous game, started as the lone striker, with Luiz Henrique and Eninho in support. The early chances all went Jeonbuk’s way with The Lion King missing one after ten minutes when he failed to make a clean contact with a cross before later having a shot from the edge of the box deflected for a corner.

Seoul were looking fairly solid though with Adilson generally taking care of things at the back. He’d had a change in his haircut from last season, perhaps to try and distance himself from the masks bearing his likeness that were handed out to fans. After about twenty minutes the home side took the lead when their new signing from Seongnam, Molina, played in Dejan Damjanovic who rolled the ball past the Jeonbuk goalie.

1-0

A minute later Molina doubled his team’s lead, notching his first K-League goal for Seoul by lobbing the advancing keeper with a well-taken finish. Seoul were well on top at this stage and with Djeparov firing a shot just wide could easily have finished the game off. The first half ended with Adilson finally picking up a booking for his dodgy haircut, although Jeonbuk failed to take advantage of the subsequent free-kick.

Adilson

A team-mate ushers Adilson away from the ref and back to the barber.

I don’t remember the Seoul keeper having to make a save in the first half. Mind you, I don’t think the Jeonbuk goalie made one either. During the interval we were ’treated’ to a couple of songs from someone dressed up in a Disney Princess costume.

Time for a Bovril.

Jeonbuk were a bit more adventurous in the second half, bringing on Krunoslav Lovrek shortly after the break to partner Lee Dong Gook up front. It eventually paid dividends, with Middlesbrough’s greatest ever Korean player turning in a cross from the left to pull a goal back for his current club.

And then they nearly equalised.

We looked set for an interesting last ten minutes, or at least we did until Dejan Damjanovic restored his team’s two goal advantage by following up after his initial header was saved and putting the rebound away.

Soon to be 3-1.

All that was left was to marvel at the cheek of whoever decides the attendance figure. It was announced on the big screen as 27,406 whereas I’d have estimated the crowd to be somewhere between eight and ten thousand. The win moved Seoul up into eleventh place after four games of the season, whilst Jeonbuk dropped down to ninth.

Posted in Football | Leave a Comment »

Jeonbuk Motors v Chunnam Dragons, Sunday 6th March 2011, 3pm

March 9, 2011

 

After kicking off the 2011 season with a visit to third division Seoul United, I thought I’d take in Jeonbuk’s first league game the following day, at home to Chunnam Dragons. 

Jen and I got the KTX from Yongsan on the Saturday evening, getting off at Iksan and then taking a taxi to Jeonju. You can get a connecting train to Jeonju, but as  the taxi only takes about twenty minutes it wasn’t really worth sitting around waiting for the train.

Finding a hotel was a bit more difficult though and the first two that we tried were full. We got sorted before long though and sixty thousand won got us a room with a large bathtub in the middle of it and a circular bed.  Oddly though, there wasn’t a key or any sort of code to lock the door so when we went out we just had to hope that no-one would want to steal either the bed or the bath.

Next morning we had a bit of spare time before the game so we went along to the Jeonju National Museum. It was a pleasant enough place to spend an hour or so, the grounds had some re-built tombs that would have benefited from a few bones scattered around in them whilst the main building housed the usual assortment of cracked pottery and Bronze Age ash trays.

You weren't allowed in.

What did impress me though was that on the floor of one of the rooms was a map of the region that was maybe about five metres by three metres. It was a large enough scale to enable us to pick out landmarks like the football stadiums. It made me think that I’d like to see a map of the whole country like that, maybe even slightly larger in scale for those of us whose eyesight is starting to deteriorate. Even better, I’d like to see one of the world, perhaps housed in something as big as a few football pitches. I’d happily spend a day looking at the UK,  following the route of the A19 and looking out for places that I’d been. It’s the sort of place that would make an ideal theme park in my opinion, Mapworld or Mapland. Old blokes could be dropped off by their wives and collected in the evening after spending a day pointing out motorway junctions to each other.

Jeonju National Museum

We had some bulgogi for lunch at a restaurant near to the museum and then got a taxi to the World Cup Stadium. Jen must have got the pronunciation spot-on as the driver knew what she was talking about first time. I generally have to mangle the name and try saying it in about a dozen different ways before I get lucky and it’s recognised.

We got to the stadium with about three-quarters of an hour to go before kick-off and bought ten thousand Won tickets for the North Stand which is the bit behind the goal for home fans. There was a decent turnout, maybe eight or ten thousand, with the East Stand Lower looking fuller than normal and with enough soldiers in there to declare Martial Law if they were that way inclined.

East Stand

Jeonbuk has a new slogan for this season, Green Shouting 2011. I’m not really sure why they bothered, but it was emblazoned around the ground and the subject of a large banner hung from the East Stand.

That bloke looks familiar.

Lee Dong Gook started for Jeonbuk, with new signing Jeong Seong Hoon alongside him, whilst Chinese midfielder Huang Bowen also made his league debut. Luiz Henrique missed out though and together with Krunoslav Lovrek, had to settle for a place on the bench.

The main point of interest in the Chunnam team was their goalie and captain, Lee Woon Jae. I’d watched the thirty seven year old make his farewell appearance for the National team against Nigeria back in August when his final act before being substituted after less than half an hour was to pick the ball out of the back of the net. He only played a couple of times after that for Suwon before losing his place and then rarely even appeared on the bench. It was a bit of a surprise to me therefore when I read that rather than move into coaching he had signed for Chunnam Dragons.

Lee Woon Jae

Jeonbuk had a new goalie too, Yeom Dong Gyun, who had been signed from today’s opponents during the close season. I try not to prematurely judge a new player, but he looked crap in the warm-up. My doubts were confirmed when after about twenty minutes he didn’t even bother diving for a low shot from Gong Young Sun which I’m sure that he could have stopped had he just stuck a foot out to his left. His new team mates stood and glared at him in disbelief, pretty much as the Boro defenders would do with Brad Jones whenever he decided that a goal-bound shot wasn’t worth getting his knees dirty for.

Neither team had many chances, Lee Dong Gook put a half volley wide from distance just before half time and whilst Jeonbuk had a few free-kicks within shooting distance, I don’t think Lee Woon Jae had a save to make all game.

Eninho hits the wall.

Jeonbuk pressed a bit more in the second half with the introduction of Luiz Henrique and  Krunoslav Lovrek adding a bit of urgency to their play. Lovrek and Eninho failed to hit the target though when really they should have been testing Lee Woon Jae’s ageing reflexes.

At the final whistle we didn’t wait for the bowing but cleared off sharpish instead to make sure of being able to get a taxi to the station at Iksan. Our driver filled us in on the scores from the other games and speculated upon how costly the military call up of Jeonbuk’s regular keeper would be to their chances this season. There’s a long way to go yet though  and I’d expect Jeonbuk to finish the season somewhere near the top.

Posted in Dead people and stuff, Football | Leave a Comment »

Seoul United v Jeonju EM, Saturday 5th March 2011, 3pm

March 9, 2011

Eventually. A game of football. It’s a new season and I could forget about diversionary activities such as ice hockey or basketball and get back to watching some proper sport. I had a few options for the first day as there were four K-League games including a first ever match for new team Gwangju and an opening game in a new town for the re-located army team Sangju Sangmu. In the end though I decided to stay in Seoul and I went to the Nowon Madeul Stadium to watch Seoul United take on Jeonju EM in the third division, or Challengers League as it has now been re-branded.

Seoul United seem to move about a bit more than most teams. They were founder members of the K3 division in 2007 and the Nowon Madeul Stadium already appears to be their third ground. Initially they played in the Olympic Stadium at Jamsil, which with a capacity of over seventy thousand was probably a little on the large side. Last season I turned up at the eighteen thousand seater Hyochang Stadium to see them play Youngkwang, but in a none too rare mix up over the kick-off time I ended up watching a University game there  instead. This season Seoul United will be turning out at the Nowon Madeul Stadium in front of a maximum of three and a half thousand people. If the trend continues they will be staging home games inside someone’s house within a couple of years.

There is a subway station called Nowon and another one a stop further along called Madeul. I got out at the latter and when I got into a taxi I was driven back past Nowon. So, my advice is just get off at Nowon. If you come out of Exit 6 of the subway, then you are heading in the right direction. Just to make life that bit easier for you as well, I can also reveal that the taxi driver pronounced it in four parts as “Mad-Ell-Stad-Ium“.

He dropped me outside of the gate to the park where I was pleased to see the Jeonju EM bus. I’m never overly confident that these lower league games will take place as listed and so the presence of at least one of the teams added a degree of reassurance.

When you see this, you're there.

There was a game already underway on the artificial pitch, but as the players were wearing a variety of different strips, tee-shirts, tracksuits and jeans I was reasonably confident that I hadn’t got the kick-off time wrong again. I talked to one of the stewards for a while, a young lad who having asked me where I was from surprised me by not only mentioning Downing and Tuncay, but by having a pretty good understanding of their respective merits.

As I still had half an hour to go before the start I went for a walk around the ground. There was only the one stand, with the other three sides being fenced off. When I got to the far side of the pitch I noticed a platform that would allow me to watch the game with the main stand and the mountains behind it as a backdrop.

Just before kick-off.

Prior to kick-off Seoul were booting footballs into the crowd. One of the players came over to the platform with a ball for me. A very generous gesture, but I was heading off to Jeonju straight after the game and didn’t want to spend the rest of the weekend bouncing a football like a bored ten year old. I let the bloke next to me have it instead.

Seoul were wearing a Newcastle strip which straight away endeared me to their sky-blue clad opponents, Jeonju EM. I could have tried to imagine Seoul as Notts County instead I suppose, but I’ve got bad memories of that place too.  Specifically, a John Chiedozie goal knocking us out of the 5th round of the FA Cup in 1984 during which a fellow Boro fan scaled one of the Meadow Lane floodlights and pissed on our heads. I’ve had better days.

Despite the lack of chances, there was plenty of effort.

Not a lot happened for the first half hour or so. There wasn’t a single shot on target or a corner. Jeonju broke the deadlock after thirty five minutes though when their centre forward dinked it over the keeper after chasing a punt from deep.

Jeonju EM celebrate the opening goal.

Seoul tried to hit back and had a few chances before half-time that they should have scored from but somehow contrived to put wide or blaze over the bar. At the interval I had a wander around to the main stand, so that I could watch the second half from there. I didn’t notice any Jeonju EM fans amongst the hundred and fifty or so people present, but there was a Seoul fan with a drum and one or two wearing replica shirts. About ten of them sang through most of the second half and they were rewarded just after the hour when their team equalised.

1-1.

Seoul Utd should really have gone onto win the game, but they couldn’t take any of the chances that they made in the final twenty minutes and it finished up at one each. I hopped on the first bus I saw after leaving the ground and fortunately it passed Gongneung station after about five minutes. As I had no idea where I was I thought it sensible to get off the bus and take the subway instead. I doubt I’ll be back at the Nowon Madeul Stadium anytime soon but should they continue their downsizing policy I’ll try and get along to a game in what might be a broom cupboard in a year or so.

Posted in Football | 2 Comments »

Anyang KGC v Wonju Dongbu Promy, Sun 16th Jan 2011, 3pm

January 31, 2011

Yesterday I went to the basketball again. It’s a poor substitute for going to a football match but you have to be somewhere.  And anyway, I had a plan to make it a bit more interesting.

Do you remember when I was rattling on recently about teams relocating?  Probably not if you’ve arrived at the blog after Googling ’Basketball in Seoul’ in the hope of finding something informative or interesting. The Korean football fans amongst you though will be familiar with the way teams get moved around the country at a whim, usually with a new name and a fresh relaunch. In my write-up on the Play-Off Final between FC Seoul and Jeju United, I posted photos of two of Jeju United’s previous homes, abandoned before their move three hundred miles south to take up residence in an empty World Cup stadium. Their opponents in the Play-Off Final, FC Seoul, are generally seen as an even bigger bunch of gits.  After seven years building up a fanbase in Anyang they moved to Seoul in 2004 for a new home in the Sangam World Cup Stadium.

So, what does all that have to do with the basketball? Nothing really, apart from the stadium that was abandoned in Anyang is right next door to where the Anyang basketball team plays and in the absence of any actual football matches I’d at least have the opportunity of having a nose around an empty ground. Sad, I know, but as that’s the sort of thing that I get up to these days I took the subway to Anyang and then a taxi to the stadium.

Anyang Stadium

I did think that I might be limited to wandering around outside the ground but the main entrance was unlocked and there was nobody to stop me just walking straight in. It was difficult to tell if the pitch is used by anyone these days as it was covered in snow.

No goalposts, but it is close-season

It seemed as if the main users of the stadium at the moment are old biddies who walk around the running track. With the outside streets being covered in snow and ice it made perfect sense. I didn’t see any of them break into anything even resembling a trot though.

Ovett tracks Coe and makes his move.

The stadium itself seemed in good nick and with it being quite a small capacity I imagine that there used to be a decent atmosphere for some of the games, particularly the derbies with Suwon.

Anyang Stadium, scoreboard end.

I spent about twenty minutes strolling around before leaving the walkers to their laps of the track and heading off to the basketball. I bought a 9000 won ticket for close to the front of the upper of two tiers at about the mid-court area. When I took my seat I noticed a cheerleading platform right in front of me. Sometimes life just works out nice like that. Except on this occasion it didn’t and rather than having the experience enhanced by a few pretty girls in short skirts I had my view obscured by some idiot bloke who insisted on standing right in front of me and blocking my line of vision with a cardboard sign that I suspect read ‘Tough Shit’.

That's him at the front. I was sat directly behind him before I moved.

I put up with him for the first quarter and then moved around to the other side of the stadium. There were plenty of empty seats so it was easy enough to do. The game was pretty competitive with Anyang building up an early lead that peaked at about eight points before the visitors Wonju pegged it back before going on to take a lead of their own in the final quarter.

Anyang were doing pretty well at this stage.

Each team has a couple of American players but it looks as if the regulations restrict them to only having one of them on the court at a time. This meant an interesting personal battle between the two foreign starters and then to a lesser extent between the back-up pairing.

Google them yourself if you care who they are.

 I felt a bit sorry for the two Americans that didn’t get much of a game. It’s a long way to travel for five minutes actual time on the court and it must be a little more frustrating to have to watch when you know that you are the second best player on your team.

I had to be quick to get a photo of these two, they only played for a few minutes.

The crowd was made up mainly of families and in direct contrast to most sporting events in Korea I didn’t see any drinking going on. Perhaps the winter weather meant that chugging cold cans of Cass wasn’t as appealing as it is at the football or baseball.

Gratuitous cheerleader photo.

Wonju held on to their late lead for a 66-60 victory and after buying a woolly hat to keep my head warm I gambled on getting back to Yeoksam by hopping on the nearest bus. The buses are far harder to work out than the subway trains, but I wasn’t in a rush.  It took me to the subway station, which whilst seeming to be a good result, was actually the wrong way. A second bus destined for Dong Seoul then took me back in roughly the right direction and after getting off at Jamsil I eventually gave in and got the subway for the remainder of the journey.

Posted in Basketball, Football | 4 Comments »

FC Seoul v Jeju United, Sunday 5th December 2010, 2pm

December 14, 2010

Well, that’s it for this season. Nine months on from my first visit to the Sangam stadium to watch a rare home defeat for Seoul at the hands of Jeonbuk, I was returning for the final game of the campaign. Sadly Jeonbuk and Lee Dong Gook didn’t feature as their season had finished in the previous play-off round away at Jeju, so for those of you reading to keep up to date with the Boro’s best ever Korean striker, I suspect that he is away on his holidays by now. This game was the second leg of the play-off final with Seoul having managed to hold Jeju to a two all draw in the first leg four days earlier.

Normally I go to these games with Jen, but as the weather has turned decidedly colder over the last couple of weeks she didn’t fancy it. She’s from the deep south of America and I don’t think it ever drops below about eighty degrees farenheit over there. For those of you who need a bit of help with your geography, I think it’s the bit of America where True Blood is meant to be set and whilst there might be a vampire or two less in Jen’s town, I understand that the climate is similar to that of the tv show. In Seoul, during the summer when I’d have the sweat dripping off me within a minute of leaving my air-conditioned apartment, she would be debating how many jumpers to put on.

Last week we walked the final part of the Bukhansan Dullegil and to be fair, I did feel the cold a bit myself that day. There was a definite chill in the air that hadn’t been present earlier in the month when we’d walked the first two sections of the 45km circuit. Whereas normally I can just smell my breath, during that walk I could see it as well. The final stretch that we did was probably the most undulating so far though with plenty of steep sections to temporarily distract us from the cold.

We picked up the trail where we’d left it a fortnight earlier, somewhere after the Dullegil Trail Information Centre and we walked through the Seongbuk-gu area around to Seodamun-gu, finishing up at the Bulgwang subway station at the top of Line 6.

A bit of town and a bit of countryside.

The route of the Dullegil follows the edge of the national park and generally gives views of the hills in one direction and Seoul to the other. We passed a few interesting sights, including a couple of temples. I’m a bit bored with temples, to be honest, they all seem very similar to me. However, one of them gave us the opportunity to look down on to some of the housing on the outskirts of the city where one of the properties had a golf course, or at least a green complete with hole and flag, in its back garden. I can’t see that fella being too popular with his neighbours. Still, it will give the monks something to watch between prayers.

Probably a seven iron to reach the green from here.

As usual there was also plenty of outdoor exercise equipment near to the trail, along with a few badminton courts. One of the courts was hundred of yards away from the housing, high up in the woods. If it seemed an effort to get there for a knock-up, that was nothing compared to the measures that someone had gone to in actually building it. The available space hadn’t been sufficient and so the rock face had been cut away.

You may have to sweep the leaves away first.

I’d like to think that in order for a couple of housewives to be able to spend an hour or so gently tapping a shuttlecock backwards and forwards, someone had lugged explosives up the mountainside and blasted away a few tonnes of granite. It reminded me of that stadium in Braga, Portugal, where similar measures had been employed. Although I suspect building that one will have needed a few more sticks of dynamite.

I like this stadium.

Overall, I’d recommend the Bukhansan Dullegil. The woodland paths make for a pleasant walk and the sections that stray on to roads and pavements took us into a few areas of the city that we probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. The next section opens up in the New Year and I’m looking forward to having a wander around that as well.

Right, back to the football. I met up with Iain and James before the game outside the GS convenience store next to the stadium. Football tends to make me as thirsty as hiking does and so I got myself a can of Max from a woman selling them from a cart nearby. If drinking cans outside of a shop isn’t scruffy enough then drinking cans outside of a shop that you’ve bought from a street vendor probably takes it to the required level. It’s quite commonplace over here though and most of the corner shops will have a table or two outside of them just in case you don’t want to wait until you get home to drink your beer.

The crowd makes its way towards the convenience store.

We had a bit of a chat about the forthcoming match and as they both know a lot more about Korean football than I do they filled me in on the politics of the game. I already knew that Seoul weren’t popular amongst Korean football supporters, mainly as a consequence of them gaining their place in the K League by taking over an existing team, Anyang, and after changing their name, relocating to the then-empty World Cup Stadium in Seoul. We’ve seen it in the UK with Wimbledon being stolen from their fans and being re-launched as MK Dons, so I could understand the depths of feeling against the new club.

Bands, beer and bouncy castles.

It turns out though that Jeju has a similar story as well and after a few years of nomadic wandering around Seoul they relocated from Bucheon to the island of Jeju four years ago. That’s some move. I’d say we are looking at three hundred miles and either a ferry trip or a flight if you want to travel from Seoul to see them play. I’ve not been to Jeju yet, nor Bucheon for that matter, but I have seen a couple of the stadiums that Jeju had played in previously.  They played at Mokdong for four years up to the turn of the century and a few months ago I found myself looking at their former ground whilst at the baseball.

That's the football stadium in the background.

Before that, they had spent four years at Dongdaemun Stadium. There’s not much left of this one these days after the ground was knocked down to make way for a park.  For some unknown reason though, unknown to me anyway, a couple of the floodlights were retained.

It must be a little strange for fans to stand in the park and remember it as it was.

So, where as most games involving Seoul are seen by the neutrals as a fairly straightforward battle of good v evil, this one was more a case of northern evil against southern evil.  We went into the away end, just as I’d done on my last visit and lent our support to the baddies from out of town.

There was a decent turnout, or at least there was by the time everyone got in there.  People were still arriving well into the second half, but that’s not unusual over here.  A lot of the schools in Seoul had been selling half price tickets and this was reflected in a crowd of what must have eventually reached somewhere near the 45,000 mark.

View from the Jeju end.

The first half was pretty eventful. The highlight for me being when Seoul set off their fireworks behind the goal in celebration of a ‘goal’ that was then disallowed a few seconds later. In terms of real goals, Jeju got the first with a long-range shot that the Seoul keeper should have done a little better with. 

Jeju takes the lead.

 It didn’t matter though as within a couple of minutes Seoul were awarded a dubious penalty which allowed them a second go at the fireworks.

The equaliser for FC Seoul.

The disputed spot kick infuriated the Jeju players and we got a couple of flare-ups afterwards, one of which had the referee, both linesman and one of the penalty box officials in the middle of it trying to restore calm whilst the other penalty box bloke loitered by himself on the half way line looking like a shy new kid in the school playground.

It remained level on aggregate at half time, although had it stayed that way Seoul would have won on ‘away goals’.  The second half saw both sides pushing forward and Seoul got the winner from an Edilson header fifteen minutes from time.  I’d been surprised to see him playing as when I’d been here a few weeks earlier it looked as though he was on his way back to Brazil with a season ending injury.  There had been a centre-circle presentation to him on that occasion and the crowd had worn masks with his face on them. It was quite disconcerting leaving that game and being confronted by a crowd of  ‘Edilsons’ coming the other way.

Second half pressure from FC Seoul.

And so that was that. We got the music, the fireworks and the presentation of the trophy as the season finally ended.  I’ve really enjoyed it, the football might not always have been top class and the stadiums were rarely even half full, but it’s given me an excuse to travel around the country with something as near as I’m likely to get to a sense of purpose.  I’ve been to thirty odd games in the nine months since that first visit to the Sangam stadium back in March and it would have been a lot more if I hadn’t caught the baseball bug during the summer. Actually it would have been more if some of the games hadn’t been switched to different stadiums at the last minute without me knowing.  Still, thats the way it works over here and its all part of the sense of it being different that keeps it interesting.

I suppose they have three months to clear up the mess.

Next season starts in March and my plan is to carry on with more of the same.  There are twenty odd teams that I haven’t paid a visit to yet, each hopefully with something interesting going on in their town. In the meantime, I’ll be filling the close season with a bit of hiking and some trips to the races and the basketball.  Maybe even the odd game of badminton.  It would be rude not to after the efforts they go to in building the courts.

Posted in Football, Hiking | 45 Comments »

Jeonbuk Motors v Gyeongnam, Saturday 20th November 2010, 3pm

November 27, 2010

This match marked the start of the play-offs in the K-League. For those not familiar with the format the league isn’t decided by the final placings, of course not, that’s far too simple. Instead we have an extra three weeks tagged onto the end of the season where the top six sides battle it out for the championship. I’m fine with that as it gives me the chance to watch a bit more football, although if I were a player or a fan of the team that had topped the table then I might just feel a little differently.

Jeonbuk finished third in the league and so this entitled them to a home tie against the sixth placed team, Gyeongnam. The winners of that game will play the winners of the fourth against fifth clash between Ulsan and Seongnam. Whoever comes out on top in that match will be given the a Champions League spot and an away tie at second placed Jeju United. The victorious team in that contest will then play table toppers Seoul over two legs for the title. Seoul and Jeju have already been awarded Champions League places for finishing first and second, as has Suwon Bluewings as a reward for winning the FA Cup.

The trip to Jeonju for the first of the play-off fixtures was looking as if it might be a bit more eventful than my usual jaunt to a game as I was traveling down with three lads from a messageboard I use. They’ve all been here in Korea for a bit longer than me and so know their stuff where local football is concerned.

 The plan was that we would have a few beers on the KTX from Yongsan to Iksan and then meet up with another four lads at the stadium in a sort of  post-season piss up. I always think traveling on a train to a football match and talking bollocks with like minded people over a few cans is one of life’s pleasures and it’s something I don’t do often enough these days.

My son Tom and I went down to Peterborough on the train last season to watch the Boro and we were fortunate enough to get a table opposite a couple of other Boro fans. The journey flew by as despite never having met before we were able to share memories of past games, European trips and of players long gone. In an added bonus that day, we got to re-live standing on the terrace behind the goal too.

Peterborough away, a rare return to the terraces.

The journey to Iksan was very similar in that we were able to get a table for four on the train where we passed a very pleasant couple of hours accumulating empty cans whilst talking football. Once there, we restocked with beer at a convenience store outside the station and then got a taxi for the twenty minute drive to the ground.

Jeonju World Cup Stadium is actually about halfway between Iksan and Jeonju stations, so it makes sense to just get the cab from Iksan, rather than changing trains there, travelling on to Jeonju and then getting in a taxi. I wish I’d known that earlier in the season when I’d ruled out being able to attend a Jeonbuk Sunday evening game because there wasn’t a connecting train from Jeonju that would have got me back to Seoul that night. Still, that’s one of the advantages of traveling with people who know what they are doing.

Iksan Station, on the way to a previous game.

One of the good things about Jeonbuk is the selection of food and drink stalls outside the stadium. Or at least it normally is, it seems that most of them have gone now that the weather has got colder, but we did manage to get a bit of chicken on a stick and a few bottles of makgeolli. The chicken tasted like it may very well have been on the stick since the busier days of the summer, but the makgeolli went down well, as it always does. We made our way into the ground and got some more beer before taking our seats in the East Stand.

The Jolly Boys' Outing

The East Stand was fairly full, or at least it was in the lower tier where we were. There weren’t too many people in the rest of the stadium though. A few Gyeongnam fans to our left, possibly a couple of bus-loads, with maybe five or six hundred Jeonbuk fans to our right.

Jeonbuk fans

Lee Dong Gook was captaining Jeonbuk, who started strongly, taking the lead after ten minutes through Cho Sung Hwan. The action was secondary to the drinking and talking though, as it tends to be for a fair number of people at Korean football games.

I've been at games where this would have doubled the crowd.

By the time the second half got underway I couldn’t really tell you very much about the detail of the game, apart from Jeonbuk were still winning. Not that you tend to get a lot of detail in these write-ups anyway. I can remember that the fried chicken seemed ok, but you should probably assume that it was more as a consequence of the cans of Hite than take it as any endorsement of the catering. At least the chicken had bones in it. I’d had some chicken at Seoul’s stadium recently where the manufacturer had gone to the trouble to mould what were effectively chicken nuggets into a variety of shapes such as wings and legs. I don’t know why they bothered. If I’ve decided that I’m going to eat reconstituted and bleached mechanically recovered chicken eyelids, I don’t need to be kidded that I’m eating actual limbs of a whole chicken, albeit one that has been very cleverly bred not to have any bones in it.

A few months ago I was in quite a badly lit basement bar and I ordered what looked, from the picture, to be chicken pieces, hopefully breast and perhaps in a sweet and sour sauce. Fortunately someone came out from the kitchen to query my order and to check that I really did want a plate of chicken feet. Which I didn’t.

Chicken feet, best served in dimly lit bars.

Anyway, by the time I’d had enough chicken wings Eninho had got a second goal for the home team to seal the victory and book Jeonbuk’s place in the next round of the play-offs. They seem to be coming back into form after their late season wobble and it wouldn’t surprise me if they progress a bit further.

The ref checks his watch.

We made our way outside after the game and by borrowing a couple of barriers from the car park had a kick around in the shadow of the World Cup Stadium whilst the rest of the crowd headed for home.

Rumours of a new K4 Division.

With the impromptu game of four-a-side finished, we ended up in Jeonju for the night where I recall eating in one of those barbecue restaurants before sloping off to bed early. There’s a limit to how long I can drink these days and ten hours is pretty much as good as it gets. I’ve no idea what the next game I’ll get to will be, it depends really on whether Seongnam progress in the play-offs which would enable me to get to the first leg of the final. I’ll definitely be at the second leg of the final though in Seoul, which will bring the season to a conclusion and which should give me another opportunity to eat fake chicken legs.

Posted in Football | 2 Comments »

Samcheok v Gyeongju Citizen, Saturday 13th November 2010, 2pm

November 18, 2010

I haven’t seen very much of the third division whilst I’ve been here which surprises me a bit. If I’d had to forecast at the start of the season what I’d get up to I’d have thought my trips to matches would have been fairly equally spread amongst the divisions. But it hasn’t worked out that way and whilst I’ve been to almost all of the top division stadiums I’ve only managed to get to a single K3 game so far.

I had an opportunity to double my tally for the season last Saturday though as it was the first leg of the K3 Play-off final, with Samcheok hosting Gyeongju Citizen. Samcheok is quite a trek from Seoul and I remembered it from spending an hour or so there a few months ago when I changed buses on the way to the Hwanseon Cave.

Hwanseon Cave

But, you have to be somewhere, and whilst a four and a half hour journey each way to watch two poor teams contest a match where I had little interest in the outcome seems a bit of an odd way to spend a day, it does have its plus points.

Apart from enjoying watching live football, I quite like the traveling. The buses are comfortable with wide single seats and I tend to alternate between reading a book and looking at some fantastic scenery. This journey went through the mountains, where I saw plenty of graves in the hillsides and as I got close to Samcheok, which is on the east coast of Korea, I had some decent views of the sea.

As we drove along the seafront I did think that maybe I should have made this a weekend trip and seen a bit more of the area, but I’d already arranged to do a bit of hiking with Jen the next day. We’d walked the first fifteen kilometres of the Bukhansan Dullegil the week before and I was looking forward to doing the next fifteen or so. Actually, I’ll fill you in on how the hike went now and then get back to the football. I think these things read a bit better if they finish off with the match.

So, on the previous week’s hike we had ended up north of Sangbangjong, where the path turns to the east in the direction of Gangbuk-gu.

Bukhansan Dullegil

Our plan for the second leg had been to get the 704 bus from Gupabal subway station back to where we had left the trail and then hike through the valley towards Gangbuk –gu. We would then carry on beyond the Information Centre until we found a convenient point to leave the trail having done somewhere around fifteen kilometres.  This would mean that we could complete the 44km trail on a third visit. Unfortunately plenty of other hikers had the same plan and the buses all seemed too full to even bother trying to get into them. We took a taxi instead and beat the crowds.

It was fortunate that we did get there before the buses as when we passed the Park Ranger Post we were stopped and told it was reservations only to go beyond that point. Again we were in luck as that day’s quota hadn’t been reached and we were given a slip of paper and waived through. Fifty yards up the road we reached another checkpoint, this time manned by a couple of soldiers complete with tin hats. They seemed content to let the Rangers do all the work and didn’t even come out of their sentry hut.

Some of the peaks that we saw from the valley were spectacular, with rocks on the top that looked likely to fall if given the slightest touch. Perhaps that was why we couldn’t see anyone on those hills.

Bukhansan rocks.

As far as wildlife went, we didnt see much. There were plenty of signs telling us of the various species that lived in the area, but all that we spotted were a couple of dogs that weren’t very wild at all.

Bukhansan wildlife

The section of the trail where entrance was restricted was a very pleasant walk, with far fewer hikers than we’d seen on the rest of the trail. The woods were close to a couple of military bases and it looks as if they had used the area for training. We passed a watchtower and a small parade ground and at one point along the route there were anti-tank defences.

Anti-tank defences. Or something.

Once we got to the other side of the valley the route skirted the edges of the city. Whilst I’m happier being up in the hills this did have its advantages, mainly that I could forget about the roll of gimbap that I’d packed for lunch and get something a little better. We went into a restaurant that specialised in mutton and had barbecued lamb chops instead. I can’t think of a single hike I’ve ever done that wouldnt have been improved by stumbling across a restaurant that allows you to barbecue lamb chops at lunchtime.

We did pass a few other restaurants along the route, quite a few of them having signs outside informing passers-by that they specialised in the combination of dog and duck. As The Dog and Duck is quite a popular name for a pub in the UK, I was amused by the prospect of a Korean visitor to the UK seeing the pub sign and popping in for some familiar food.

In the afternoon we walked on for about another three hours, passing a cemetery dedicated to the victims of the 19th April 1960 massacre of protesters by soldiers.

April 19th Cemetery

We couldn‘t get into the cemetery from the trail, but there was an observation point that gave us a good view of it from up on the hillside. I’m not quite sure exactly where we left the trail later in the day, but hopefully we will manage to find our way back to complete the final section.

Right, back to the football. I’d left the Seoul Express Bus Terminal at half past nine in the morning and I didn’t get to Samcheok until ten to two in the afternoon. The bus had about ten passengers on it to start with, but then dropped most of them off at Donghae, which is a town just along the coast from Samcheok and as it has a beach and a harbour it looks like somewhere worth visiting. Mind you, after four hours on a bus, even  places like Billingham start to look like they are tourist hotspots.

As we approached Samcheok I spotted the football ground on the outskirts of the town. A little further along the route I also noticed a banner advertising the game. The good news was that I’d got the date right. However I hadn’t been quite so precise with my understanding of the kick-off time. I was under the impression that it was a three o’clock start, whilst the banner had it down as 2pm. As it was already ten to two and I wasn’t yet at the bus terminal that wasn’t the best development.

It worked out ok though. When I got off the bus I was fortunate enough to get into a taxi whose driver knew where the football stadium was and I arrived at the ground a couple of minutes after kick-off.

Samcheok Football Stadium

It was free to get in and you just sat where you liked. Mind you, as the total attendance in the fifteen thousand capacity stadium was no more than about one hundred and fifty people, it wasn’t a fixture where much stewarding was required.

One of the teams was wearing a red strip, the other was in white. I had no idea which team was which and as the half went on I didn’t really get any wiser. I think that I was sat with the Samcheok fans, although as they weren’t wearing any colours and with most of them seeming to cheer everything that was going on regardless of who did it, I couldn’t be absolutely certain.

The chants were led by a bloke with a drum who appeared to have brought a class or two of schoolkids with him.As he banged the drum they would chant each players name in turn. Occasionally he would vary the routine by giving the drum a rest and by hitting an iron railing with a saucepan instead.

Samcheok supporters.

The stadium was quite typical of older Korean grounds. It was oval shaped, with a running track and with a small covered stand along part of one side. The remainder of the oval was uncovered terracing. Where it did differ from other places was the playing surface. It was grass, which isn’t too unusual, but it was yellow grass, which tends to be a bit rarer. Particularly as we are only a few weeks past an uncommonly lengthy rainy season.

Maybe a little watering might be an idea.

It was a fairly typical first leg, with both sides not wanting to give too much away. There were a few running personal battles between the players which were making the play a bit niggly and the number nine for the white team was spoken to a couple of times for not disguising the sly digs at his marker a bit more professionally.

At half time I nipped outside and after being given a free coffee I bought a hot dog in a bun that had been inserted onto a stick and then deep fried. It tasted as bad as you would expect it to. I decided I would watch the second half from the other side of the covered stand and so I made my way past the main entrance. I was surprised to see eleven brand new bikes lined up by the front door, hopefully they would be the prize for the winning team. I’m sure that they would be a lot more use than a medal. Back in the nineteen seventies I can remember the winners of the League Cup getting a tankard each rather than a medal, but a bike would be even better, although I’m not sure about the practicalities of doling them out from the Royal Box and then having to manhandle them back down the Wembley steps again. It would make the lap of honour that bit quicker though.

Bikes outside the main entrance.

As I took my seat for the second half I noticed that I was now sat with the other set of fans. I was fairly sure that this lot were supporting Gyeongju, who by now I had concluded were the team in white. Gyeongju is a town from a lot further down the coast. I was there a couple of months ago with Jen, after we had been to a barbecue out in the countryside nearby. It has some old tombs in a park that looks like teletubbyland and every second shop sells nothing but barley bread.

Gyeongju

The Gyeongju fans were as noisy as the Samcheok ones that I’d sat near in the first half. There were probably about thirty of them, although I did wonder if they had been expecting more when I saw the supplies that they had brought with them. Even though we were into the second half they still had cases of food and drink unopened. They looked a lot rougher than their Samcheok counterparts. Perhaps it’s a harder life in tellytubbyland. One of them, who I’ll call Tinky Winky, was leading the chanting. He didn’t have a drum or a saucepan, which is probably just as well, as judging from his looks I suspected that he was prone to smacking himself in the chops with a saucepan rather than banging it on the railings.

Gyeongju supporters

They had a chant that might have been “Gyeongju“, but it actually sounded more like “Dog Dirt“. I really hope that it was one of their players names.

Both sides had their chances, although I dont really remember either keeper making a save of note and the game finished up at 0-0.

View from the other side.

By this time I’d made a circuit of the terracing and ended up back where I’d started. In addition to the usual bowing I was treated to a salute from the Samcheok players.

Attenshuuun.

After the players had left the pitch most people wandered down onto the yellow grass for a raffle where just about everyone seemed to win a scarf, ball or a bike.

Everyone's a winner.

After a while I left them to it and walked back into town. It took me about half an hour to reach the bus terminal and ten minutes after that I was on my way back to Seoul.

Posted in Dead people and stuff, Football, Hiking | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »