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| Ulsan Hyundai winger Um Won-sang, right, celebrates after scoring a game-winning goal against Jeonbuk Hyundai during a K League 1 match at Munsu Stadium in Ulsan, Saturday. Courtesy of K League |
By John Duerden
The 2023 K-League season has not turned out to be another straight fight between Ulsan Horangi and Jeonbuk Motors, as has been the case since 2018. That would have been welcome before it all started but it looks instead as if Ulsan is strolling towards a second successive league title.
After 27 of the 38 games have been played, the Tigers are on course with 60 points from 27 games, 11 ahead of Pohang Steelers and a massive 19 clear of the old rival Jeonbuk. With just 11 games left in the season, it would take a collapse of major proportions to stop Ulsan from celebrating once more.
Ulsan is actually dropping points and has lost three games in the last six to Incheon United, Suwon Bluewings and Gangwon FC, the latter two are sitting at the bottom of the standings. Yet there is such a gap at the top that these defeats are not yet too dangerous especially as they have come against teams that are not rivals for the title. In July, Ulsan went to Pohang and won and then, last Saturday, defeated Jeonbuk.
There were over 30,000?there to see Um Won-sang get the only goal of the game with 18 minutes remaining. "It was great to see so many fans come to the stadium and this victory was for them," said coach Hong Myong-bo. "The players worked hard all week to prepare for the game and we saw the results."
Pohang is still in with a chance but only just. The Steelers have been an entertaining team to watch and no more so on Sunday as the second-placed club defeated Daejeon 4-3. With ten minutes remaining, it was 3-0 to Pohang with home fans at the Steelyard sitting back and enjoying a comfortable win.
Then Daejeon's Brazilian attacker Tiago Orobo stepped up. He scored two goals in the space of three minutes to inject some nerves into the occasion, the first was a towering header and the second a delicious curling half-volley from the edge of the area. Then, in the sixth minute of added time, he made it a hat-trick to put the score at 3-3, this time a header from close range that had the traveling fans in raptures.
Incredibly, there was still time for the host to score once more to break Daejeon hearts as Hong Yun-sang?clinched a memorable victory. It was hard on the visitor but at least kept Pohang's faint hopes of catching Ulsan alive. It was also a great advert for the K-League.
The league will be without An Ik-soo, for a while at least, as he resigned as head coach of FC Seoul. Despite taking just three points from the last five games Seoul stays in fourth, an improvement on recent seasons but a title challenge is still beyond the team.
Seoul's old rival Suwon Bluewings has improved in recent games to climb off the bottom of the table but is still not free from fears of relegation. The same can be said of Gangwon and the other Suwon club. Then there are a clutch of clubs in mid-table, not in the title hunt and free from relegation worries. Jeju United is in 9th and then, going up, it is Daegu, Daejeon, Incheon and Gwangju.
Ulsan is still the team to beat, however.
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