By Kim Jae-won
Staff Reporter
Three Korean professional football clubs are preparing for Wednesday's second round match-ups in the Asia Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League East Asia division.
Pohang Steelers, Suwon BlueWings and FC Seoul will all be in action in the AFC Champions League round of 16 as the tournament moves to a one-game knockout format.
The Steelers will host Australian club Newcastle Jets in Pohang. The Steelers enter the game after having crushed Incheon United 4-1 in a 12th round K-League game on the road on Sunday. The Sergio Ricardo de Paiva Farias-led club also finished atop Group H in the preliminaries of the AFC Champions League.
``We are a team that always wins,'' Farias told the-afc.com last week. ``We have the K-League title and the FA Cup title and now it is time we try to be number one in Asia.''
Brazilian striker Denison Martins Nascimento led the Steelers during the preliminaries with four goals, including a hat trick, and the team will look to him to continue his strong play.
Nagoya Grampus will host the BlueWings in another round of 16 match. Suwon was mired in a slump for most of the first half of the K-League season but will enter the game after beating Daegu FC 1-0 on Saturday. Key player Eduardo Goncalves de Oliveira returned from injury and set up a goal by midfielder Park Hyun-bem.
``We will do our best in the league for the pride of Korean football,'' BlueWings manager Cha Bum-kun said in a recent press conference in Seoul.
Grampus recently struck a deal with Australian national team striker Joshua Kennedy, but the former Bundesliga club Karlsruher SC player is ineligible to play in the match.
Grampus, one of Japan's most well-known clubs, finished third in the J-League last season with a record of 17-8-9. Former Yugoslavia national team captain and star player Dragan Stojkovic of Serbia has led the club since 2008.
Meanwhile, FC Seoul visits the Kashima Antlers, who won Group G in the preliminary round. Seoul looked to be finished in the Champions League but advanced thanks to a dramatic 4-2 upset win by Indonesian club Sriwijaya FC over China's Shandong Luneng in the last match in the preliminaries in Jakarta on May 20.
The Senol Gunes-led club also enters the elimination match on a win, as Seoul came from behind to beat Jeju United 2-1 at home on Saturday. FC Seoul is ranked second with 26 points on 8-2-3, trailing Gwangju Sangmu only by goal differential.
``One of our top priorities this season was to win the Champions League title. As such, we will have to focus on facing the Kashima Antlers in the final 16,'' Gunes said.
In an all-Japanese match-up, Gamba Osaka hosts Kawasaki Frontale. The game will feature Osaka's South Korean striker Cho-Jae-jin and Frontale's North Korea national team attacker Jung Dae-se.
Meanwhile, the West Asia second round held on May 26 and 27 saw Uzbek clubs Bunyodkor and Pakhtakor, as well as Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad, and Qatari club Umm-Salal advance to the quarterfinals.