Seoul Tops Rival Suwon

“Seoul, Seoul, Seoul…”

FC Seoul continued their no-defeat streak after moving home from Anyang to Seoul.

At Samsung Hauzen K-League in Seoul World-Cup Stadium on May 23, Seoul defeated Suwon Samsung with a score of 1-0 by keeping the winning goal by Brazilian Ricardo. It was their first win in their home stadium after two draws this season. Seoul kept their no-defeat streak going with 3 wins and 4 draws to rank in a high position in the standings with 13 winning points.

The match between Cho Kwang-rae, coach of Seoul, and Cha Beom-geon, coach of Suwon, who were both national players in the 70`s, was the first rematch in 10 years since 1994 between the two coaches. A Crowd of more than 30,000 watched the seesaw game.

The Seoul victory came down to Ricardo’s winning goal at 15 minutes. Ricardo received an excellent pass in front center from Kim Eun-joong at the right, and slashed left net against goalie, Lee Un-jae. Afterwards, Kim Eun-joong and Ricardo had critical chances to score for Seoul, but were blocked by Lee Un-jae’s good catch and a mistaken shot.

Suwon put Brazilian Nardson, Marcell, and Kim Dae-ui in at second half as replacements to tie, but couldn’t break the Seoul defense line of Kim Dong-jin and Park Yo-sep.

Last year’s K-League Champion, Seongnam Ilhwa, beat Daegu FC by 3-2 with Lee Seong-nam’s winning goal escaping 2 streaking losses and last place. At 87 minutes and a 2-2 score, Lee Seong-nam scored with his left foot in the left corner penalty area.

Seong-nam had 7 winning points with 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses to push Incheon United (6 winning points), ending in a tie with 0-0 against Bucheon SK, back to bottom.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com