FC Seoul Pistol Whip Incheon United: Go Top At The Halfway Mark

By: Brett | July 15th, 2009

Fifteen rounds ago FC Seoul opened their 2009 K-League campaign with a demolition job in Chunnam. The six goals they scored that day are still the most scored by any team in a single match and the 6-1 score line is, along with Jeonbuk Hyundai’s 5-0 smashing of Jeju United, the season’s biggest away win.

Last season’s runners-up can now also boast the biggest home. FC Seoul versus Incheon United FC at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The team from the port city hasn’t looked like climbing or falling from fourth spot for much of the season. Consistently inconsistent, a point highlighted by their goal difference of zero, no one was quite sure which Incheon outfit would come out to play.

They were just 58 seconds in. On the spin, and his wrong side, Jung Jo-Gook rifled home from outside the area to give Seoul the lead and himself the honour of scoring the fastest goal of the season to date. They were 2-0 up seven minutes later. Jung’s second a routine tap in after a team move which tore the Incheon defense to pieces. Seoul were rampant.

The shell-shocked visitors managed to pull themselves together after this initial onslaught and the score line remained unchanged for the next half hour. Then, in minute 37, Seoul’s other strike weapon, Montenegrin Dejan Damjanovic, got the decisive touch on a Ki Sung-Young free kick. 3-0. A piece of calamitious defending from Incheon allowed him to score his second six minutes later, moments after Yoo Byoung-soo had pulled one back for his team courtesy of a nice header. 4-1 at the break.

Four minutes into the second stanza it was 5-1. Kim Myoung-Jin’s tapped in after the Incheon United keeper’ fine save from Lee Choung-Young bobbled into his path. ‘Super Juniors’ first was also his teams, and the matches, last. As often happens in games which are absurdly one-sided, both teams had little to play for remainder of the match and were happy to play kick around and watch the clock wind down.

Round 1 was also the last time the team from the capital had sat a top the K-League standings. Indifferent form, due largely to their inaugural participation in the Asian Champions League, saw them hover between fourth and second spots for much of the next 14 rounds.

They are now back where, in their minds at least, they deserve to be. On top. Their impressive victory, combined with Jeonbuk Hyundai’s fortunate 1-1 draw at home to Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Gwangju Sangmu’s 2-1 defeat to the competition’s form team, Pohang Steelers, allowed Seno Gunes’ chargers to leap frog both clubs into first spot.

It’s been 12 rounds since it was a team other than Gwangju Sangmu or Jeonbuk Hyundai occupied first spot in the K-League. Only four teams have been top all season – Gangwon FC briefly enjoyed number one status, but that was way back in round 2. There hasn’t been a lot of change in the the top five at all really. After round one it was FC Seoul, Gwangju, Pohang, Incheon United and Gangwon FC. At this moment it is FC Seoul, Gwangju, Jeonbuk Hyundai, Incheon United and Pohang.

Things are similar at the bottom. Daegu FC and Suwon Samsung have had wretched first halves, spending a combined eleven weeks in the bottom two spots. Thanks to the mere six points between sixth and fourteenth, Suwon, fourteenth on fourteen points, is amazingly still in with a shot at making the play-offs. Daegu, however, need a miracle. They’re 3-1 loss at Ulsan leaves them a clear bottom on seven points, with just a solitary win. Things are looking grim indeed for Byun Byung-Joo’s men.

Unlike in the capital, where all is rosy at the minute. But, with teams from England and Holland circling around young starlets Lee Chung-Young and Ki Sung-Young, things could quickly change should one, or both, of them be sold in the next couple of months. The powers that be would be loathe to lose both of their big guns, what with an Asian Champions League quarterfinal on the horizon, and thirteen more league matches to play, but Europe and its fat check book may have the final say.

K-League 2009 has been a beauty so far and with fourteen teams still in the hunt for a play-off spot, the second half of the season is shaping up to be a cracker. VIVA K-LEAGUE!!

Results: Pohang Steelers 2-1 Gwangju Sangmu, Jeju United 1-1 Chunnam Dragons, FC Seoul 5-1 Incheon United FC, Daejeon 2-2 Gangwon FC, Ulsan Hyundai 3-1 Daegu FC, Jeonbuk Hyundai 1-1 Suwon Samsung, Seongnam Ilhwa 3-1 Gyeongnam FC. Bye – Busan I’Park.

Top 5: 1. FC Seoul (30) 2. Gwangju Sangmu (29) 3. Jeonbuk Hyundai (28) 4. Incheon United (23) 5. Pohang Steelers (22).