Not really a fan or anything but i'm rooting for Pohang Steelers, for some unusual reason. I found an interesting story about this club's current situation.
FYI before the story, until 2012 season, Pohang had 4 K-League titles, tied with Suwon Bluewings and Busan I'Park and only behind Seongnam FC(7) and FC Seoul(5). And they are the only club who have won Asian top club competition 3 times. (twice in 90's ACC era and 2009 ACL) Plus, 3rd place in 2009 FIFA Club World Cup.
Despite all this proud history, around 2012, the club started to suffer serious financial problem and they had no choice but to sell several key players out and release every foreign players after 2012 season. So last year, initially before the season, it almost looked like they were gearing up for the season with their B team. No star player, no foreigner, and almost the entire squad were the club's youth products. Anyone could easily imagine they would kiss somewhere at the bottom of the league table but only one person, the club's coach, Hwang Sun-Hong, thought otherwise. He said his team wouldn't be as easy as people might expect and that they were ready to show why Pohang Steelers is considered to have the best youth system in the league, which seemingly is in fact a general consensus among football fans in the country. And it didn't take long for him to prove it. The individual players were clearly out-famed by other contenders in the league, but they showed why football is a team sport. Beautiful passing games and well organized defense with strong team chemistry under the coach Hwang's master control kept the club's position, to everyone's surprise, within top 3 all throughout the season, and at the very last 38th round vs Ulsan who was 2 points ahead, they won it and snatched the club's 5th K-League title. Miracle, magic, drama, and all the praising words overflowed, and they got some witty new nicknames from fans and media, such as "compelled-to-be Bilbao" or "Steel-taka".
But nonetheless, the club's financial situation didn't really get well, and after the season they again had to sell another couple of players and, of course, no recruits from outside. So this year, their squad looks even more modest in terms of individual name values. The predictions are roughly divided 50/50, like, Steel-Taka will still be alive enough to be in top 3 again / No, last season was just literally a miracle and other clubs will now know how to handle them tactically.
So yeah, this is why. It will be fun to see whether they are able or not to reproduce last season with even weaker squad. The coach Hwang admitted that their squad depth is too shallow to do well in both the league and the ACL so he would like to concentrate more on the league. But ironically, they started the league with a loss, while they had decent start in ACL collecting 4 points in first 2 games.
Al kuwat and al quadsia both lost in 3rd round of qualifying playoff to both Qatar clubs both the clubs got steamrolled ...wow looks like sab ka baap hota hai :-O
Pohang's policy is quite contreversial but we'll see how that plays out.
Qatari clubs gettigm steamrolled? Al Sadd just had their asses handed to them by a really good Al Hilal side. Lekwhiya are losing their star player due to injury and Al Rayyan just sucks even with The Yak and Lucho.
Comments
both the clubs got steamrolled ...wow looks like sab ka baap hota hai
:-O
AFF:
Clearly states the sorry state of South Asian Football!