Trail of the Lion King

Jen and I had been over to Gangneung the previous day for some hiking and football. On the Sunday morning she caught the bus back to Seoul whilst I got one to Icheon to watch the FA Cup second round tie between fourth division Icheon Citizen and third division Busan Transportation.

I can’t help but be impressed by the bus system in Korea. The fares are cheap, the seats comfortable and best of all the network covers a remarkable variety of direct routes between places that I can’t see why people would ever want to go from one to the other. If only the passengers could avoid shouting at each other all the way through the journey it would be pretty much perfect.

Two hours after setting off I was in Icheon and with a further two hours to spare until kick-off I decided to walk to the stadium. I’d found it on the map on my phone and so just used the blue dot GPS thing to get myself there. I had to cross a few fields where I watched farmers doing all the stuff that farmers do and I was barked at by half a dozen dogs or so. Once I got back into civilisation I picked up a few cans of beer before squeezing in an eight minute haircut at a salon that seemed more like a social club for the town’s pensioners than a place where much actual barbering went on.

Navigating with the blue dot.

It got even better at the end of the hour and a half walk as I stumbled across games taking place on the two Icheon practice pitches next to the stadium and I had a look at those for a while before making my way in through the main entrance.

The match had already kicked off by the time I took my seat, with Icheon in blue and Busan in their away kit of red and black stripes. I had a quick tot up of the crowd and estimated that there were about a hundred there. It didn’t surprise me that there were more fans watching the games outside as those local tournaments always seem to attract a decent following.

Icheon’s stadium.

Icheon took the lead from a penalty inside the opening ten minutes. I missed the foul but the home players seemed pissed off that the Busan defender responsible escaped with just a yellow card.

One- Nil

The rest of the first half was fairly scrappy, with both teams happy enough to lump the ball forward and fight for possession. Busan drew level bang on half time with a glancing header. There wasn’t even time for Icheon to kick-off again.

Yet another running track.

In the second half both teams continued to miss chances. One in particular from a Busan striker almost had my beer coming out of my nose as he somehow contrived to put his shot over the bar from close range.

Ten minutes from time, Icheon nicked the win and the place in the third round when a decent through ball was finally capitalised upon and blasted home.

The main stand.

I got lucky on the way out and managed to flag a bus down for the ride back to the terminal where it was easy enough to pick up a bus for Dong Seoul.

This was my second attempt to see a Chungju Hummel home game. I’d turned up for their fixture with Yongin City two years ago and despite the grass being cut, the nets being up and a large banner outside the ground advertising the match, it had been moved at the last minute to someone‘s back garden on the outskirts of the town.

That sort of thing is fairly common in Korean football, particularly in the lower divisions. All you can do is check as many sources as possible and hope it works out. If it doesn’t, so be it. Jen and I had quite ambitious plans for the weekend, including hiking in the nearby Sobaeksan National Park, but it’s usually better if we see the game as well rather than stare through the gates of an empty stadium.

The intention was to use Danyang as a base, visit the Gosu Caves on the Saturday and then hike the following day, after nipping in and out of Chungju for the match via the ferry that chugs up and down the lake between the two towns. Easy really.

At eight o’clock on Saturday morning we caught the bus from Dong Seoul to Danyang. It took a bit longer than it should have done, but it’s the holiday season and that’s how it works. Three hours later we were in Danyang and wandering around looking for a hotel.

It was ridiculously hot and after deciding  that I’d better buy myself a hat to try to cut down the chances of getting sunstroke we headed into an indoor market. Whilst most of the stalls sold the usual mix of tat, tat and more tat, one aisle sold nothing but garlic. I could probably describe it more thoroughly, but that’s what photos are for.

Garlic Street.

We found a barber’s shop that sold hats, which I suppose doesn‘t reflect all that well on their confidence in their haircutting abilities. Still, I was due a trim and so we went in. There was nobody around and just as it looked like I’d have to leave without a haircut or a hat, a woman came scurrying up from a shop a few doors along.

Sometimes I think it’s useful that I can‘t understand Korean and that was probably the case on this occasion. Jen told me afterwards that it wasn‘t the woman’s shop but after a brief shouted conversation with someone further along the street, she had volunteered to cut my hair anyway. Wonderful.

I knew none of this as I settled into the chair and after I’d mimed having my head shaved, she got to work. Usually I’ll be asked which guard should go on the clippers and I’ll generally go for the 3mm one. This time though, the fake barberess just got stuck straight in with the unguarded clippers. Once you’ve got that first strip of baldness then you just have to go with it. I bought a hat on the way out, as I imagine most of her customers do.

Afterwards she washed and polished my head.

We eventually found a hotel that didn‘t mind us checking in at lunchtime, but abandoned our plan to visit the Gosu caves as it was just too hot to be walking around. We did visit them the next day and they were crap. Nowhere near as cold as you want caves to be in the summer and despite going early in the morning we slowly shuffled along in lines like people filing past the Queen Mother’s coffin.

Gosu Caves

The next part of the plan was to get the ferry to Chungju and it sort of went ok. We spent twenty minutes in a taxi getting to the ferry terminal and then just before we arrived we spotted a road sign stating that Chungju was a further 52km away. It had only been about an inch on the map. A map that I now recognise as having a scale of about 70km to the inch.

Someone else’s boat.

The boat trip was worth doing though despite us being behind glass. It took an hour and twenty minutes to get to Chungju and we passed through some spectacular scenery. I think most of the people on the boat had probably arrived at the ferry terminal in their own cars and were doing a round trip that didn’t necessarily involve visiting either Danyang or Chungju.

Some passengers caught up on their sleep.

On arrival at Chungju Ferry Terminal we shared a taxi into town with an elderly Korean couple. The meter fare came to 16,000 won and the robber of a taxi driver took 13,000 won from both them and us.

Chungju Ferry Terminal

All of the changes to the plans meant that we arrived at the stadium a couple of hours before kick-off. No problem, we had a couple of bottles of wine with us and there is a park next door to Chungju’s ground that I’d drank in last time I’d been there. Or at least I’d thought it was a park. Jen helpfully pointed out that it was actually a school for ten to fourteen year old girls and maybe not the best place to sit slugging back cabernet sauvignon.  You’ve got to be somewhere though and with it having benches it was worth the risk of arrest.

As kick-off approached we headed into the stadium. Chungju were wearing Jeonbuk strips and Changwon were near enough AC Milan. The pretend Jeonbuk even had a number twenty, Lee Gon Hue, playing up front for them.

“Tonight Matthew, we are going to be Lee Dong Gook and Paulo Maldini”

There were about two hundred fans watching. There are nearly always two hundred fans. Perhaps it’s a National League rule. I saw some that might have been from Changwon but then again they might just have wandered in for a sit-down and a fag.

Some people at the match.

Changwon looked the better side early on but as we reached half-time it was still goalless. Jen went for more drink and some fried chicken and came back with a selection of things on sticks, most of which the local kids seemed happy to take off our hands.

They ate more than we did.

There was more good defending in the second half and the game finished goalless. As we were far too late for a return ferry journey or a bus, we took an hour long taxi ride back to our hotel in Danyang. On reflection, I think that if you are going to watch a game in Chungju then it’s probably best to stay slightly closer than seventy kilometres away.

On Wednesday I went along to Seongnam in the hope that they would get at least a draw against Seoul and help Jeju to finish top of the table. I wouldn’t normally care who finishes top but I’ve got a weekend booked to Jeju that coincides with the date of the play-off final. If Seoul overtake Jeju at the top then Seoul will be hosting the game instead whilst I’ll be three hundred miles south watching a match on telly that’s taking place about five miles from where I live.

It doesn’t take me long to get to Seongnam, in fact I even had time to nip back to my apartment after work and pick up a coat, hat and gloves. It’s pretty cold at this time of year and so my usual work attire of a short-sleeved shirt wouldn’t have been much use. I know short-sleeved shirts aren’t particularly stylish, but it was ridiculously hot in the summer. Besides, they take a lot less ironing than a normal shirt, although with winter approaching I’ll soon be able to get away with my usual approach of wearing my shirts unironed, underneath a jumper.

The north east corner

I arrived at the ground well before kick off, bought a nine thousand won ticket for the east stand and got a couple of beers, although I wasn’t wholly convinced that chilled Cass was the most appropriate drink with the temperature dropping rapidly. Seongnam’s forward from Montenegro, Dzenan Radoncic was wearing tights and gloves as if the cold was a bit of a shock to him, although I wouldn’t have thought that the winters were much milder in his home country.

The game was fairly open with both teams looking to get forward at every opportunity before Seoul opened the scoring after about ten minutes with a scrappy goal. Bollocks. It got better though when Seongnam equalised a few minutes later. I was actually out of my seat celebrating for the first time at a Korean football match. It’s so much better when you care about the result, whatever the reason. I know that I won’t ever develop the same feelings for a Korean team that I have for the Boro, so maybe what I need to do is introduce a reason to care, perhaps with a big enough bet on the result to give the match that element of tension.

First half action.

My joy at the equaliser didn’t last long though as Seoul regained their lead just before the half hour. Double bollocks. They managed to stay ahead until the interval when despite having to drink them with my gloves on, I got another couple of beers from the chiller cabinet.

With it being half time I’m going to break off from the football to tell you about my most recent haircut. The actual clipping itself was just as you might have expected it to be, but afterwards the barber produced the sort of attachment that you see at garage forecourts for vacuuming the interior of cars and he gave my freshly cropped bonce a thorough hoovering. I’ve been to this barbers two or three times before and not had this particular treat. Perhaps they save it for regular customers and I’ve now been deemed worthy of the special attention. Whatever, I’d highly recommend it as a way of getting rid of the rogue clippings that a dusting with a brush or towel might miss and I’m sure it would work pretty well at getting rid of an infestation of head lice too.

Whilst I’m away from the subject of football I’m going to get on to the Olsen twins again, so to speak. A gratuitous photo in my last match report certainly seems to have increased the traffic to the blog. So much so, that I’m going to do it again. As I’ve never met Mary-Kate and Ashley, I don’t have any photos that I’ve taken myself, so I’ll have to ’borrow’ one from the internet. Not that it will be difficult, it looks as if there are one or two of them out there.

Olsen twins in a topless car

Mind you, it isn’t people mixing up the Olsen twins with the LG Twins that brings most visitors here, no, it’s people looking for bears. I know, you would think they would just try the woods. I’d like to believe that it was people searching for the bears that live in Jirisan National Park or the bear that sometimes appears at British Sea Power gigs, but I don’t really think it is. I think its more likely that people arrive here looking for big gay beardy blokes in checky shirts, only to come across a selection of relief pitchers for the Doosan Bears instead. Make your own joke up there, I’ve given you enough permutations.

Well, it’s a broad church here so if your interest is in bears, I’m happy to oblige. We can start with a shot of the British Sea Power Bear, Ursine Ultra, that I also found on the internet. And without any clothes on.

Nude bear

We can go back to the football now. The second half was just as end to end as the first had been with Seongnam pushing for an equaliser in front of their relatively small crowd. I’d been here a couple of weeks earlier for the Champions League semi final and the east and north stands had been fairly full that night. This game was played out in front of an almost empty stadium though. There were a few hundred visiting supporters who made plenty of noise, but I reckon the total attendance was probably no more than a couple of thousand people.

FC Seoul fans.

The Seoul manager, Nelo Vingada, didn’t seem too happy, despite his team hanging onto their lead. I can’t help but look at him and think of Alf Garnett. Stick a West Ham scarf around his neck and he would be a dead ringer.

FC Seoul manager Nelo Vingada

With Alf’s exhortations ringing in their ears, Seoul managed to hang on for the victory, a win which took them a point clear of Jeju at the top of the table with just one match left to play. The defeat for Seongnam prevented them from overtaking Jeonbuk, who remained in third place despite losing to Busan. That meant that I was likely to miss the final three play-off games if the placings remained unchanged. I had been hoping that Seongnam could pip Jeonbuk to gain themselves a home midweek tie in the battle between the third to sixth placed clubs. Without that though, it’s beginning to look as if the football season could be over a little earlier than expected for me and you’ll have a quieter winter to look forward too.  Still, I’ll no doubt be able to find a picture of a couple of bears indulging in a bit of snowballing or the Olsen twins in their stockings to keep the interest levels up.

On Saturday I travelled down to the south of the country for the second weekend in a row. This time though it was to Ulsan where the home side Ulsan Horang-i were taking on Lee Dong Gook’s Jeonbuk Motors.

I was up early and by about quarter to eight I was already at Seoul Express Bus Terminal where I bought a ticket to Ulsan on the 8am ‘Deluxe’ bus for 29,300 won.

Seoul Express Bus Terminal

Deluxe means that the bus only has about 30 seats, each of them larger than normal and arranged in a 2+1 configuration. They are pretty comfortable and recline sufficiently to allow you to easily take a nap. This was handy as the journey of almost four hundred kilometres was scheduled to last about four and a half hours. We stopped after about three hours for a break at a motorway services. I’ve no idea where we were, but it looked nice enough.

Somewhere between Seoul and Ulsan.

If one of the market stalls had sold fishing rods I might have been tempted to have left the bus there and then.

Another one for those with an interest in motorway service stations.

They didn’t sell fishing rods though and so I got back on the bus and just after one o’clock I arrived at the Ulsan Express Bus Terminal.

I hadn’t managed to learn very much about Ulsan before getting here. It didn’t warrant a mention in either of the Korea guide books that I have, nor did the internet throw up anything of interest. I picked up a map and some leaflets from the Tourist Information Office and learned that they have a few mountains around the edge of town that looked worth a visit. They also have a lighthouse where people often gather to watch the sunrise and they have an industrial complex that the notes on the map recommended viewing from the top of one of the hills after dark when it would be fully lit up.

That place looks somewhat familiar.

I liked the last suggestion, it reminded me of gazing upon Teesside from Roseberry Topping. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to climb any mountains and I was too late to see the sunrise so I just had to mentally file the knowledge for any future visit.

As I had about three and a half hours to spare before the five o’clock kick-off I decided I might as well do my sightseeing on the way to the stadium. It was marked on the map that I had and looked to be a few miles away. I set off walking in the general direction, safe in the knowledge that I could always get a taxi if it turned out that the scale of the map bore no relation to the actual distance involved.

There wasn’t a great deal of interest along the route although I suppose that when the Tourist Information place is giving the Industrial Complex a plug, you know that it’s not really a town geared up for visitors. I did take the opportunity to get a haircut though. It had been a month since my last one and as I had a bit of time to spare it made sense to get an overdue job out of the way. I may have mentioned before that the barber shops over here are not alway what they seem. Some are just covers for brothels, others, whilst providing haircuts, also offer a variety of ‘extras’. Or so I’m told. I think the barbers that I went into was one of the latter type. The barbers chairs were hidden behind a screen so you couldn’t see them from the street and once in the door there was a small reception area where the barber, a couple of old blokes and a glamorously dressed women in her mid-thirties were sitting watching golf on the telly. I did my usual mime of shaving my head and the barber directed me to behind the screen.

In the back area there were three barbers chairs set out in front of mirrors and then behind them were three single beds. The odd thing was that there was nothing dividing the chairs from the beds or the beds from each other. If a customer wanted the glamorous woman to break off from the golf and fiddle with his bits, it would be in full view of anyone on the next bed or in the barbers chairs.

I like to think I’m fairly worldly-wise but I’m not sure I’d be too keen on someone, perhaps my next door neighbour, sitting down for a short back and sides whilst  I was getting jiggy with the staff, six feet away and in full view.

Anyway, the option didn’t arise and neither did anything else. Perhaps they realised I was just after a haircut or maybe the golf was at a particularly critical stage. Nobody else turned up in the ten minutes or so it took to give me a trim, so I didnt get a live show included in the price either.

About two and a half hours after setting off from the bus station I got my first glimpse of the stadium. Or at least its roof, with the rest of it hidden behind trees. It is right in the middle of a very picturesque park, complete with a boating lake.

It's behind those trees.

I had a wander around, as I tend to do and took a few photos. It was an impressive looking stadium from the outside, another of those built for the 2002 World Cup. It has a forty four thousand capacity and hosted the Germany v USA quarter final if you can remember that far back.

Ulsan Munsu Stadium

 I bought a ticket for the East Stand, which faced the tunnel, and went in. I was pleased to see that it didn’t have a running track like so many of the stadiums over here and after getting a couple of cans of Hite I took a seat in the back row of the lower tier, bang on the halfway line.

Kim Young Kwang, the Ulsan goalie seemed very popular. There was a lot of footage of him on the big screen before the players came out, although it did seem to include a fair few fumbles, which left me questioning both his competence and that of the bloke who put the video together. The fans liked him though, he had his own banner behind the goal next to a large inflatable tiger and he got the biggest cheer of the day when the teams were read out.

Grrrrr.

This was a big game for both teams. Ulsan started the game in fifth position with Jeonbuk in sixth, three points behind and in the final play-off position, but seven points clear of the next team Suwon. A win for Ulsan would just about make them safe and would give Suwon a bit of hope in their chase for sixth position, whilst a win for Jeonbuk would just about finish Suwon’s season.

Lee Dong Gook had been restored to the starting line-up after his substitute appearance the previous week as Jeonbuk went with the wing backs again, with Eninho playing just off the Lion King.

A few minutes into the game about fifty soldiers joined the hundred or so Ulsan fans behind the goal.

Just in case North Korea gets a bit arsey.

Jeonbuk didn’t bring as many fans as usual with them with only about fifty of their supporters grouped behind the opposite goal. It has just occurred to me that these reports could be a lot more accurate than they actually are. When there are only around fifty fans in a stand it shouldnt be beyond me to count them and tell you exactly how many there are. I’ll try it next game. I might even try counting the exact crowd just to see if I can do it. In fact at some of the lower league games I could probably get you a list of all their names.

Anyway, Jeonbuk started well and Lee Dong Gook had a chance in the first few minutes that looked offside to me but it didn’t matter as he shot straight at the keeper. No doubt the save will be on the highlights reel before next weeks game. A few minutes later Ulsan nearly scored from a corner when Yoo Kyoung Youl headed over the Jeonbuk bar.

Almost the opening goal.

Not a great deal more seemed to happen in the first half, apart from the appearance of Flag Boy. This lad turned up about midway through and wandered about the East stand collecting food and drink from people who appeared to be strangers to him. After he’d eaten and drank as much as he wanted he went down to the front of the stand and led the singing for a while before a niggly first half drew to a close.

Squid? Beer? Crisps? Thanks very much.

At the interval I wandered out for a couple more cans of Hite, watched a girl wearing the home team’s goalie top sing Blondie’s Maria and then moved upstairs to see what the view was like from higher up.

By popular demand

The second half was a bit better with Ulsan’s Columbian Julian Estivan Velez  forcing the Jeonbuk goalie to make a decent save early on and Lee Dong Gook blazing over the bar from distance. Middlesbrough’s finest ever Korean ex-player made amends after an hour though when he got on the end of a cross from the left and despite not connecting properly his scissor kick bounced up into the roof of the net for the opening goal.

Even better than his goal against Mansfield.

Not only did the goal shake things up on the pitch but it caused a bit of a scuffle behind the goal between one of the Jeonbuk fans and a bloke who I think was a club employee, possibly part of the security team. They appeared to have a disagreement over the lighting of a flare to celebrate the goal and in a throwback to more civilised ways of going toe to toe, each of them carefully removed their jackets before trying to get stuck in. It couldn’t have been any more ‘old school’ without them incorporating pistols at dawn. As ever in these situations, plenty of others managed to keep them apart and the security man departed without making his point or collecting his jacket. He had to send in one of his less confrontational colleagues to retrieve it for him.

Hold my coat.

Both teams had their chances late on, Ulsan from a free kick and Jeonbuk with a disallowed goal from Lee Dong Gook a few minutes from the end.

Near enough full time.

There were no further goals though and the win took Jeonbuk into fifth place, above Ulsan on goal difference and seven points ahead of seventh placed Suwon with just four games remaining.