K League end of season drama at bottom, not top

Ulsan Hyundai FC players celebrate after clinching the team's second consecutive K League 1 title following a 2-0 win over Daegu FC at Munsu Football Stadium in Ulsan, Oct. 29. Yonhap

By John Duerden

Ulsan Horangi is champion of the K League for a second successive season and while the Tigers were unstoppable earlier in the season, in the end the team stumbled over the finishing line.

To say ‘stumble’ may be strange as Ulsan have secured the prize with three games of the season still to play but before last weekend’s 2-0 win over Daegu FC that clinched the championship, Ulsan had been in poor form. Incredibly, Hong Myong-bo’s men had won just two of the last ten league games.

It is the kind of run that is usually costly for any team chasing the championship. Not this time. Despite that poor streak, Ulsan (who had been unstoppable earlier in the season) kept a commanding lead at the top of the 12-team competition.

Title rivals failed to take advantage of Ulsan’s dip in form. Pohang Steelers is in second and ten points behind after a run of five games without a win. Just a couple of victories in the last few weeks would have made things very interesting indeed.

The reason for the lack of a title race is not, however, Pohang. Jeonbuk Motors had been fighting it out at the top with Ulsan for the past years but this time, the Jeonju club, the most successful in the league’s history, has struggled and is currently in fourth, 17 points behind Ulsan. Fans will be hoping this season is a blip rather than the start of longer-term decline.

While Ulsan will celebrate finishing first, as any team should after a gruelling 38-game season, the focus will move to who will finish second. It could be an unfamiliar name.

At the start of the season, few predicted that Gwangju FC would be in the running to finish in the top four, never mind challenge for second. As things stand, the southwesterners are having a campaign to remember under coach Lee Jung-hyo who relishes being underestimated..

"Well, I guess we're not supposed to be here," Lee, who has steered the team into third, said. "This only motivates us. And this kind of disrespect is exactly why we are where we are right now."

"As the season went on, our collective confidence kept growing," Lee said. "After the first couple of matches, we felt we weren't going to just be pushed around so much. And our goal was to win at least 15 matches out of the first 33, and we accomplished that. I personally had high expectations and I can't say I am surprised."

In the bottom half of the 12-team table, the focus is on whether Suwon Samsung Bluewings, one of the giants of Korean soccer as well as Asia –with two continental championships in its trophy cabinet –can avoid the automatic relegation spot and slip down into the second tier.

With three games to go, Suwon is bottom, a point behind Gangwon FC. The two teams meet on the last day of the season and this is now the most-eagerly-awaited game of the season and could provide the late drama that the title race has failed to do.