유지호
| 2021-02-25 10:29:30
football-prognostication
Jeonbuk, Ulsan likely to continue K League rivalry in 2021: pundits
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Yonhap) -- The past two seasons in the top South Korean football league have been dominated by two alpha dogs: Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Ulsan Hyundai FC.
And local pundits believe the narrative will remain the same in 2021, as Jeonbuk chase a record fifth consecutive championship and Ulsan try to prove the third time's the charm after finishing runners-up to Jeonbuk in 2019 and 2020.
Incidentally, both clubs have new bench bosses this year. For Jeonbuk, top assistant Kim Sang-sik was promoted to the head job. Ulsan parted ways with Kim Do-hoon after his four-year contract expired, and they hired Hong Myung-bo, former national team captain and one of the country's biggest sporting icons.
On top of that, there were significant changes to both rosters. Jeonbuk lost the reigning K League 1 MVP, Son Jun-ho, to China. Ulsan saw the 2020 scoring champion, Junior Negrao, walk as a free agent.
But both teams also made other acquisitions to fill those holes, enough to convince Hahn Jun-hea, commentator for KBS and SPOTV, that they should once again make it a two-horse race for the title this year.
"I think there's a clear gap between those two clubs and the rest of the league," Hahn said.
Hahn in particular liked Jeonbuk's signing of Stanislav Iljutcenko, who finished second in the league with 19 goals for Pohang Steelers.
Hahn said Ulsan will obviously miss Junior Negrao's firepower but added they probably needed to go in a new direction, anyway.
"They brought in some good players, like (Austrian international) Lukas Hinterseer and (Georgian international) Valeri Qazaishvili," Hahn said.
Hyun Young-min, former national team player providing commentary work for JTBC, said Jeonbuk and Ulsan appear to be neck and neck with their starting lineups, with Jeonbuk holding a slight edge in overall depth.
"These teams will also have to play in the FA Cup and the Asian Champions League," Hyun said. "Jeonbuk should have enough depth to survive the grind, but the battle will go down to the wire."
Pohang Steelers, which finished in fourth place in 2019 and then third place last year, are expected to be in that mix once again, a tier below Jeonbuk and Ulsan.
Freelance analyst Park Moon-sung said Pohang should be able to survive Iljutcenko's departure thanks to the leadership of Kim Gi-dong, the 2020 Coach of the Year winner.
Pohang lost another key attacking player in the winter, with their second-leading scorer, Aleksandar Palocevic, joining FC Seoul.
"Palocevic is a good fit for FC Seoul," Park said. "They've also addressed their unstable coaching situation, which was their biggest problem last season."
Park was referring to FC Seoul going through three caretaker bosses last season after Choi Yong-soo stepped down in July. In December, they put former Gwangju FC head coach Park Jin-sup in charge.
For all of FC Seoul's new signings, Hahn said he'd like to see more oomph from some incumbent forwards, such as Park Chu-young (four goals in 23 matches) and Cho Young-wook (three in 20).
Two clubs have jumped in from the second-tier K League 2, with Jeju United having earned a direct promotion as the league champions and Suwon FC joining them after winning a promotion playoff match. And Hyun and Park Moon-sung picked those teams as dark horses.
"Jeju's head coach Nam Ki-il has proven his chops in both the K League 1 and 2," Park said of the former boss for Gwangju FC and Seongnam FC. Jeju United are the third team that earned a promotion to the top division under Nam's tutelage.
Suwon FC had a busy offseason, acquiring national team-caliber players Jeong Dong-ho, Park Joo-ho and Lee Yeong-jae to shore up their defense and midfield.
"They were the top-scoring team in the K League 2 last season (with 53 goals in 28 matches) and then added some veterans on defense," Hyun said. "There is still a question mark on how their offense can hold up, but they will still be a team to keep an eye on."
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