Trail of the Lion King

With all the groundhopping I’ve been doing I hadn’t yet managed to fit in a Jeonbuk game this season and so with our departure from Korea getting nearer I thought I’d nip down to Jeonju and check up on ex-Boro striker Lee Dong Gook.

Jen and I caught the KTX to Iksan. You can go to Jeonju on the train as well, but the World Cup Stadium is out of town and as you need a taxi from either station I think Iksan is just that little bit more convenient. Mind you, the taxi driver did make a point of checking that it was Jeonju World Cup Stadium that we wanted. I’m no idea as to how many fares he would ever have had to other World Cup stadia but I doubt it would be many.

Crunching tackle coming up.

It was busy outside of the ground with the crowd larger than normal as a consequence of it being Childrens Day. That’s the designated day that kids don’t spend in a hagwon memorising quadric equations but instead accompany their parents to a park or a football game.

It looked as if Jeonbuk had put some special deals on to boost the crowd as the lad in front of us in the queue had a coupon that got him in for five thousand won. Jen and I paid fifteen thousand each to sit in the West stand, mainly so that we didn’t have the sun in our eyes. It’s free-seating and so we made our way up to the less well populated upper tier.

The view from our seats.

The official attendance was announced as 23,000ish. I’d have estimated it at about two-thirds of that, but it’s still a decent turn-out. Jeonbuk haven’t had the best of starts to the season and on the back of failing to retain the title last season the crowds have been dropping off.

Seoul brought around two hundred and fifty with them which considering the terrible start to the season that they’ve had is equally impressive. As ever they made plenty of noise.

Defensive header from Lee Dong Gook.

Both sides struggled to impose themselves in the first half, Seoul probably having the best of the chances including a two on one which ended up with Jeonbuk goalie Choi Old Man forcing Dejan Damjanovic wide enough for the shot to finish in the side netting.

Lee Dong Gook didn’t see too much of the ball in the opening period, he won a couple of fifty-fifty challenges and linked up well with Eninho but didn’t have any scoring chances.

A few minutes into the second half Jeonbuk’s Lee Seoung Ki turned former Celtic player Cha Du Ri inside out before beating the keeper at the near post to put the hosts a goal up. Maddeningly he then picked up his second yellow of the game for removing his shirt. The Jeonbuk players argued that he hadn’t taken it fully off but the ref was having none of it.

Jeonbuk players making their point.

The sending off didn’t seem to change the game too much. Jeonbuk, as you might expect, occasionally sat that bit deeper at times but still pressed forward at every opportunity. Seoul hit the post on the hour and at the other end Eninho curled a shot just wide.

Jeonbuk came close to adding a second with a quarter of an hour to go when Lee Dong Gook bore down on goal, held off a determined defensive challenge and squared for Lee Gyu Ro who should have done better than the tame header he directed straight at the Seoul goalie.

Second half goalmouth stuff.

In added time Seoul almost snatched an equaliser but were denied by a great reflex save from Choi. Not bad for a forty one year old. Deep into injury time Lee Dong Gook was subbed. He got a warm round of applause from the home fans and a handshake from the referee. Seconds after he took his place on the bench the final whistle blew.

The one nil win moved Jeonbuk up into fourth place, leaving Seoul just above the relegation spots in tenth position.

Off he goes.

I think that‘s probably the last time I’ll see Lee Dong Gook play. I’ve watched Jeonbuk around thirty times over my three years in Korea and he’s played in almost all of those games, providing me with a tenuous link to Teesside. Mind you, I only actually saw him play half a dozen times or so for the Boro and managed to miss both occasions where he scored for us.

You never know though, maybe he and I will both get to go to the World Cup in Brazil next year. That would be nice.

Hwaseong are one of this season’s new teams in the fourth tier Challengers League. They don’t really play in Hwaseong though, more in the middle of nowhere to the south-east of the city. I’d been hiking on the morning of the game down past Taean and managed to catch a bus to nearby Suwon.

Jen had written down the full address of the Hwaseong stadium in Korean for me and the taxi driver was able to successfully enter the details in his satnav. It showed a journey of around 17km and thirty five minutes. Forty minutes later we were driving at walking pace along farm tracks. I was sure that we were lost and kept showing him a photo of the brand new stadium at Hwaseong. The driver remained equally convinced that the ground would be just around the next corner. He pointed out a hand-written sign stuck to a gatepost that apparently confirmed his belief.

He was right. We turned one more corner and the stadium appeared from nowhere.

That’s part of the main stadium in the background.

The delay in getting there meant that I’d missed the opening twenty minutes. I’d also missed four goals as the score was two apiece. Bugger.

The practice pitch main stand.

The game was on the practice pitch rather than the main stadium, but it was very impressive despite the almost obligatory running track. There was only one stand, but that’s all that was needed. I didn’t notice any fans from visitors Gyeongju, but there were around five hundred home supporters, most of them decked out in what I imagine were complimentary orange scarves.

Hanwha Eagles will want their inflatable sticks back..

Hwaseong were in orange whilst Gyeongju wore their white shirt with the red and green stripes. I’d barely arrived when a Gyeongju forward chased a long ball and put his side three-two ahead.

It was a ridiculously open game with play rapidly switching from one penalty area to the other. Both sides spurned plenty of chances to score until with a couple of minutes to go to half time a Hwaseong striker got clear and slide the ball under the body of the advancing keeper to bring his side level.

Gyeongju on the attack.

A few minutes later the ref blew for half time and to my surprise the players all slumped to the floor. It soon became clear that I hadn’t arrived midway through the first half of a 3pm kickoff game, but midway through the second half of a match that had started at 2pm. Well that would explain the open nature of the game and me having missed four goals. Double bugger as they say. I filed out and went to have a look around the main stadium. Very nice it is, hopefully I’ll get to see a match there sometime.

The real Hwaseong stadium.

As for getting back to Seoul, I took a cab to Osan station. It took half an hour and cost 15,000 won. I then stood for an eighty minute subway ride back to Yeoksam. If you are going to Hwaseong for the football I’d recommend catching a cab from Osan rather than Suwon. Apart from it being cheaper it’s a much more direct route on busy roads and you won’t piss the farmers off anything like as much.

The point each was enough to keep Hwaseong in second place in Group B, whilst Gyeongju climbed to third in the table.

Wednesday was a public holiday so I knocked off work early on Tuesday afternoon and Jen and I caught the train to Singyeongju. It’s the newish KTX station on the edge of Gyeongju and it means that you can be there in not much more than two hours from Seoul. You’ve then got to take a cab into town but it still makes it a lot quicker than getting the train to the old Gyeongju station or catching a bus.

Our cab dropped us at the bus terminal where they are plenty of motels. We went for the Dollar Motel, although at 50,000 won its name was somewhat misleading. For our money we got a smart room, fast wi-fi and a packet of condoms carefully presented in a stand on the bedside table.

The Dollar Motel, Gyeongju.

The following afternoon we walked for half an hour up to the stadium. We’d been there as recently as six weeks ago to watch an FA Cup first round game featuring fourth tier Gyeongju Citizen and so it would have been a little disappointing if we’d managed to get lost.

Photobombed by an old lady and her dog.

Gyeongju Hydro and Nuclear Power moved to Gyeongju at the start of the season. Previously they had been Daejeon Hydro and Nuclear Power. I’ve a feeling that with a team already playing in Gyeongju then the new fellas are unlikely to attract many locals. Not to worry though, there’s always the option of busing in one hundred and fifty employees for a team-building day out.

Whilst if I had worked there I wouldn’t be too keen on giving up my public holiday, I can think of worse team-building activities than an afternoon at the football. As you would expect, they all showed commendable enthusiasm, waving flags, banging inflatable sticks together, blowing vuvuzelas and proudly wearing matching tee shirts.

“We all love our jobs!!”

I’d estimate there were another seventy or so people sat in the main stand apart from those seeking to improve their career prospects and that left the rest of the bowl to Jen and I. We’d watched the first of the new seats being installed six weeks ago and now that it was finished it looked very impressive. Completely pointless, but impressive nevertheless.

Never to be sat on.

Hydro Nuclear Power were in red shirts and shorts whilst Yongin wore all blue with a red trim. The teams seemed fairly evenly matched over the opening half hour, although with them occupying third and fourth places in the table I suppose that’s not too surprising.

Ten minutes before half time the ref awarded the home side what I thought to be a fairly dodgy penalty. We then had a four minute hold up whilst the ref and fourth official argued with the Yongin bench. Eventually one of the coaches was sent to the stand.

Off you go.

The Yongin keeper then added to the delay by walking twenty yards away from the goal and adjusting every bit of kit he had on. He just stopped short of removing his socks and trimming his toenails.

Eventually Ju Song hwan sent the keeper the wrong way to open the scoring.

One – Nil.

At half time most of the people on the team-building exercise disappeared and we didn’t see them again until the game was nearly over. I presume that they wouldn’t want to have to walk home or miss the roll call on the bus.

Gyeongju had the better chances early on in the second half, Yu Joon Soo going close with a shot that was deflected out for a corner.

A few minutes later the coach who had been sent off in the first half was spotted back on the bench and so received his marching orders for the second time. Having shown that he couldn’t be trusted to stay in the stands he was sent to the changies instead. Unfortunately the door was locked and so a compromise was reached whereby he could loiter at one of the stadium exits and smoke a fag.

And stay away this time.

Yongin upped their efforts as time ran out whilst the Gyeongju players did their best to take the sting out of the game by rolling around on the floor for a minute or two every time one of the opposition got within a yard of them.

The visitors almost equalised in the final minute when Jeong Hui Jin found himself clear on goal but he tamely rolled his shot straight at the keeper.

Yongin on the attack.

At the final whistle the HNP employees celebrated as if they’d just  been told that they could spend the next public holiday with their families. The result kept Gyeongju in third place and dropped Yongin down to fifth.

I’ve been to this stadium at least twice in the past to see Goyang KB. They don’t exist anymore though and so it meant a repeat trip to see the new K2 League tenants, Goyang Hi. It’s pretty straightforward finding the place, you just take Line 3 as far as you can in the direction of Daewha and the stadium is about a hundred yards further down the road.

Nice new banner.

It’s nine thousand won to get in. I’m not really sure about how successful clubs in the second tier will be at charging for admission. On the one hand I’m sure they are trying to portray the event as something of value whilst on the other they are competing with the K-League proper as well as baseball and basketball which charge similar prices but take place in front of much bigger crowds.

99% empty.

Goyang had attracted around four hundred fans which whilst poor for the league they are in still struck me as a reasonable turnout. They were spread around the forty thousand capacity stadium, most in the main stand with a handful behind the goal. There were a couple of extremely vocal foreigners just along from us, their shouts of “Come On Goyang” making a welcome change from the more traditional “Goyang Fighting!”

Goyang fans behind the goal.

The Army team had brought thirty or so fans with them. Some of them may have been the parents or grandparents of the players, others perhaps Korean War veterans showing their support for the military, some more than likely thinking that they’d signed up for a bus tour to the Azalea fields. Whatever, they seemed to be enjoying themselves with their drums and monk bells.

Oldest fans ever.

And the game? Nothing much happened in the first half whilst in the second Goyang had more of the better chances with their right-winger Yu Man Gi posing the main threat.

It was Sangmu that opened the scoring though with twenty minutes left. A cross from the left found the keeper on the wrong side of the ball and as he dived back towards his goal he could only palm the ball into the net.

Yu Man Gi levelled for the home side ten minutes later, bursting into the box and burying his shot into the far corner.

It’s like Maradona and the Belgians all over again.

Goyang almost sneaked it at the death when Yu Man Gi cut inside again but just failed to keep the ball in play before sending his cross over.

The two points dropped by Sangmu saw them fall from second to third whilst the point gained by Goyang took them off the bottom and up to the dizzy heights of seventh place.

This was the second of the three matches that I saw in a fifteen minute groundhopper frenzy. It took place at Icheon Practice Pitch B and featured a couple of schoolgirl teams, Da Hang Gge and Seol Bong. As with the game that I’d just left on the Practice Pitch A, it was part of the 8th Annual Icheon Tournament. Or at least I think it was, it would have been a bit odd though if fourteen year old girls were to take on a team of eighteen year old lads later in the tournament.

Icheon Practice Pitch B

The standard wasn’t up to much, with most of the players tending to chase after the ball rather than keeping to anything that resembled a formation. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves though and I suppose that’s what matters.

I’ve not seen very much women’s football over the years. In fact the only game I can remember seeing live was the German Cup Final in 2009. I was in Berlin to pay for a house that I’d bought on ebay after coming home pissed and discovered that the cup final was taking place at the Olympic Stadium that weekend. The men’s cup final that is. By holding up a cardboard sign, I managed to get a ticket from a fella that had a spare and once inside I discovered that they play the women’s final as a curtain-raiser to the main game.

The standard was decent, as you might have expected, although I thought that it was a shame that more people hadn’t got there early enough to give the match a bit more of an atmosphere.

Olympic Stadium, Berlin.

There wasn’t much of a crowd at the Icheon Practice Pitch B either, but a fair proportion of the ones who had turned up made some noise with the inflatable sticks that you see at the baseball games.

Perhaps they were in detention.

I paid even less attention to this game than I had to the one next door and so couldn’t tell you which team was which or even what the score was. Don’t suppose it matters really.