K-League enjoys more success in Asia
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Jeonbuk Motors forward Lee Dong-gook, right, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his team’s fourth goal during the second leg of the AFC Champions League quarterfinal match against Shanghai SIPG at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By John Duerden
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There are good weeks and bad weeks in football and the past seven days have been very good indeed for Korea.
Coming after two uncertain performances from the national team in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers against China and Syria, K-League clubs reasserted their regional preeminence in the Asian Champions League.
In the quarterfinals of the continental competition Jeonbuk Motors and FC Seoul were drawn against Chinese opposition. As even casual football fans know, Chinese Super League clubs have been making international headlines lately with sustained spending of big money on big-name players that is only matched by the English Premier League.
Shanghai SIPG and Shandong Luneng are no exception but they are both licking their wounds after being sent packing from Asia's biggest club tournament.
Shanghai was the first. The first leg of the quarterfinal with Jeonbuk took place in August in China and ended 0-0. It is the kind of score line that offers hope for both teams.
The Motors were happy not to lose away from home while Shanghai was happy not to concede an away goal because, if the score line is level after the two legs, the team that has scored the most goals away progresses.
Led by former England national team boss Sven-Goran Eriksson and containing Hulk, a Brazilian international who cost over $60 million in June, Shanghai arrived in Korea in a confident mood.
Yet it was destroyed by a rampant Jeonbuk team that put in a performance_ watched by almost 30,000 fans at Jeonju World Cup Stadium on Tuesday_ that was as good as anything seen in the Asian Champions League for years.
In the end, it was 5-0 to Jeonbuk and Eriksson and his team were desperate for it all to finish. There were some great goals and performances from Leonardo, Lee Jae-sung and Kim Shin-wook. Hulk was anonymous. The $60 million star was overshadowed by Lee Dong-gook, 37, who scored goals 33 and 34 in the Asian Champions League, extending his record.
It was the perfect home game, said coach Choi Kang-hee, who was in charge when the team won the title in 2006. Moving into the semifinal, Jeonbuk had to wait until Wednesday to find out its opposition in the last four.
FC Seoul had won its first leg at home 3-1 to Shandong. The Jinan club had signed Italian international Graziano Pelle in the summer to play in front of talented Argentine playmaker Walter Montillo.
Shandong, led by former Bayern Munich boss Felix Magath, pushed the Koreans hard at its own stadium. Montillo headed a goal in the second half and the Chinese team started to believe. Yet a fantastic assist from Dejan Damjanovic and a fine finish from Yun Ju-tae made it 1-1, producing a 4-2 result for Seoul on aggregate.
For the K-League against the Chinese Super League, it was 9-2 overall. Jeonbuk and Seoul will face each other in the semifinal, the first leg of which is on September 28.
Jeonbuk is a favorite and 13 points clear of Seoul at the top of the K-League and preparing for a third successive domestic title.
That gap had meant that there was little interest in the title race at home but with the two meeting in the Asian Champions League to play it out for a place in the final, the season is suddenly looking much rosier.