JEJU WEEKLY

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No time to give up on United, despite mediocre seasonManager Park Kyung Hoon has vision for his soccer club's future
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½ÂÀÎ 2011.11.12  04:57:11
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The difficult second season, eh? It would have been a big ask for Park Kyung Hoon to surpass the achievements of his first season. To do this he would have had to do one of three things: finish top of the league, win the playoffs, or make significant progress in the Asian Champions League. None of which has happened.

The season didn’t start too well; Jeju lost their first-ever Champions League game 1-0 at home to the unfancied Chinese-side Tianjin Teda after dominating the game. This result would, as things turned out, prove crucial. However, after this inauspicious beginning Jeju’s form picked up markedly in the league and they won 5 drew 3 and lost 2 of their first 10, which was definitely playoff form. In the Champions League they responded brilliantly to their early setback recording a cracking 2-1 victory in Melbourne and the best win in Jeju’s history.
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This game, their third in Champions League, came on a spring evening at the beginning of April. The opponents were Japanese-side Gamba Osaka, true giants of Asian football, who in the last four years have won the J-League, The Emperors Cup (twice) and the Asian Champions League. The official attendance was 2,167 and to me it seemed like five times that. There was an atmosphere, an intensity, a seriousness that isn’t usually apparent at Jeju games (I think having the game in the evening helped).

Jeju were magnificent and won the best game of football I’ve ever seen at the World Cup Stadium, 2-1. Sadly that was the high point of United’s season after they set off on a steady downward trajectory.

With 6 points from their first three Champions League games Jeju were in a strong position to qualify from the group but consecutive away defeats in Japan and China effectively put them out. They still had a mathematical chance to qualify if they beat Melbourne at home in their last game, which they couldn’t even manage that and limped out of the competition drawing one-all. The Champions League and the disappointment that it brought didn’t have a direct effect on Jeju’s league form. They continued their early season top six form until the beginning of July and then the wheels really came off.

Following a 2-0 away win in Daegu on July 6, Jeju failed to win for 8 straight matches, losing 4 and drawing 4 including a 3-0 home thumping by last season’s title rivals FC Seoul. They finally arrested this decline on October 22 beating Incheon 2-1 at home but by then they were already well outside the chance of a playoff spot.

Jeju’s latest defeat away to Suwon all but confirmed the mid-table mediocrity that had been looming for almost three months. With two games to go Jeju needed to win both six or seven nil and hope that everyone else in the league lost to make the playoffs, which putting it lightly is relatively unlikely.

So, what happened? Did Jeju overachieve last season? Probably. Was losing talismanic attacking midfielder Koo Ga Cheol a bigger loss than previously assumed? Was it impossible to fill the hole he left? Yes on both counts. Did the burden of a first season in the AFC have a negative effect on their league form? By crunch time (the second half of the season) were Jeju too fatigued to challenge considering their relatively poor resources when compared to the mainland powerhouses? Again yes and yes.

All of these factors contributed to a rather underwhelming season and it was doubly disappointing considering the optimism that was generated last term. So is it time to despair? To give up? To consign your orange jersey to the second hand store of history? No.

Jeju has one huge asset that could make the club great during the next few seasons, and his name is Park Kyung Hoon. The manager has a vision and he’s intelligent and positive enough to see it to fruition, he just needs time, patience, and money.


¨Ï Jeju Weekly 2009 (http://www.jejuweekly.com)
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