SEOUL– The K League 1 football season will keep chugging along with two matches Friday, but most eyes will turn to Saturday’s fixtures, with the league’s top two clubs in action.
Ulsan Hyundai FC, whose lead atop the tables has shrunk to five points, will visit Daegu FC at 8 p.m. Saturday at DGB Daegu Bank Park in Daegu, some 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Kicking off one hour prior to that match will be the showdown between Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Incheon United at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, 200 kilometers south of the capital.
Jeonbuk, five-time defending champions, have been doing everything they can to try to make the race for the title more interesting. Ulsan once led by as many as 11 points, but Jeonbuk are now five points back, 43-38, through 20 matches. Teams will play 18 more matches this year.
In recent weeks, Ulsan haven’t looked close to being the dominant force that they had been earlier in the year. They were held to a scoreless draw by the league’s worst team, Seongnam FC, and they needed a last-minute goal just to beat another club facing possible relegation, Gangwon FC.
Daegu are working on the longest current undefeated streak in the league with 11. That run only includes three victories, which explains why Daegu are still just in seventh place with 25 points. No team has more draws than Daegu’s 10 this season.
Ulsan beat Daegu 3-1 in their first meeting of the season in April.
Jeonbuk’s opponents, Incheon, have not scored in the two matches since the departure of Stefan Mugosa, who was leading the K League 1 with 14 goals before signing with Vissel Kobe in Japan. Facing Jeonbuk, which have conceded only four goals in their past five games, will be another test in the life without Mugosa for Incheon.
On Friday, Jeju United will try to snap their two-game losing streak when they face last-place Seongnam FC. With 30 points, Jeju have fallen to fourth place, closer to eighth place than they are to second place.
A disastrous season continued for Seongnam after their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Pohang Steelers on Tuesday. They have just two victories all season.
Another Friday night matchup will see Gangwon FC hosting Gimcheon Sangmu FC. Gimcheon ended their nine-match winless skid Tuesday and will now chase their first winning streak of 2022.
On Sunday, Pohang will bring home Suwon Samsung Bluewings, and Suwon FC will host FC Seoul.
An Byong-jun, a Japanese native of North Korean descent, made his Suwon Samsung debut as a substitute Wednesday, and the two-time reigning MVP and scoring champion in the K League 2 will be seeking his first goal in the top division.
Teams have been busy since coming out of an international break in mid-June, and they will have played three matches in July by the end of this weekend.
There are no midweek matches next week, with a team of K League All-Stars facing Tottenham Hotspur in an exhibition game in Seoul on Wednesday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency