Park’s Goal Worthy of Assist

“Soccer Genius” Park Ju-young (20, FC Seoul) enjoyed the victory of his team as well as his first assist in the professional league.

In the match between FC Seoul and Busan I-Park in the Samsung Hauzen Cup 2005 Professional K-League, Park Ju-young came in to replace Jung Jo-guk 13 minutes into the second half, and greatly contributed to the 3-0 victory of his team by making a perfect assist on his team’s third goal, scored by Lee Won-sik after shaking off two Busan defenders, just before the match ended.

Park, who scored his first goal as a professional soccer player in a match against Sungnam Ilhwa on March 13, failed to make a goal against Busan, but achieved his first assist by stirring up the Busan defense with his high speed and great penetration ability.

Seoul won its first victory this season, after one draw and two losses, thanks to Brazilian striker Nonato’s consecutive goals in the 28th and 31st minutes of the first half, as well as Lee Won-sik’s additional score in the second half. Nonato, who has scored a total of five goals, is the league leader in goals scored. Busan’s record is one draw and one loss.

Park had initially been scheduled to join the national youth soccer team after the match along with Kim Seung-yong, Baek Ji-hoon and other teammates, but his recruitment to the Suwon International Youth Tournament was cancelled as Park Sung-hwa, the head coach of the youth soccer team, announced, “I excluded three Seoul players from the entry, as I already mentioned before, who failed to take part in the draft on March 17.”

In Suwon, “Korean Real Madrid” Suwon Samsung won its second victory in a row. In its home match against Incheon United, Samsung achieved a 3-0 victory led by Nadson, the first foreigner to win an MVP award in the K-League, who scored one goal and one assist. Song Jong-guk, “Iron Legs” who came back from the Netherlands, scored his first goal in two years and eight months in the K-League.

Suwon, who was playing in its second match of the season that day after participating in the Asian Champions League, scored the opening goal 15 minutes into the first half when Nadson made a strong right-footed shot in the left side of the net. Kim Dong-hyun scored an additional goal off of Nadson’s pass 43 minutes into the first half, and Song scored the third goal for his team four minutes into the second half. Suwon has won two games, while Incheon has one won and lost three.

Song Jong-guk, who recently came back from the Netherlands’ Feyenord team and joined Samsung this year, recorded a goal after a long drought dating back to when the then-Busan player scored in a match against the Daejon Citizens on July 27, 2002.

In Daegu, Daegu FC won its third straight victory, beating Gwangju Sangmoo 2-0 as Yoon Ju-il and Jin Soon-jin with consecutively scored goals. Daegu has won three victories but lost two games, while Gwangju has two draws and three losses this season.

Soon-Il Kwon stt77@donga.com