With the scorching heat and the occasional cool breeze, it’s time to determine the ‘best of the best’ in K League 1. There are only six games per team left in the regular round. After that, six teams will play the Final Round (five games per team) to determine the final standings.
The goals of most teams are clear. With Ulsan Hyundai leading the pack, and the mid-table race unusually tight, the Pohang Steelers, who are keeping their hopes of an ‘upset win’ alive, and the Daejeon Hana Citizens, who are aiming for a spot in Final A (1st-6th), faced off in the 27th round of the Hana OneQ K League 1 2023 at the Pohang Steelyard on the 20th.
The tense 90 minutes were intense, and the result was impressive. Pohang won a dramatic 4-3 victory to consolidate second place with 13 wins, 10 draws, and 4 losses, and 49 points. With the score tied at 3-3 at the end of regulation, Hong Yun-sang, a returning European player, scored the winning goal. Daejeon Hana stormed back from a 0-3 deficit in the second half with Thiago’s hat-trick, but a lack of backbone kept them in seventh place (9W, 9D, 9L – 36 points).
The balance was broken in the 41st minute. A long ball from Pohang’s Wandelsson was headed home by Zeca. The ball bounced off the crossbar and crossed the goal line, and the Pohang bench, which has been plagued by bad luck in front of goal lately, could only smile after seeing the final trajectory of the ball. Zeca didn’t stop there. Six minutes into the second half, captain Kim Seung-dae, playing as a wing forward, got his head on a ball from the flank and converted.
In the 31st minute, Seung-Dae Kim calmly slotted home a ball from the left side of the box. Hong Yun-sang, who returned from Germany and Austria, was the hero of the final goal in his debut. “I will run towards the goal that the team wants. I will continue to grow,” he said.
Pohang coach Kim Ki-dong shared his thoughts on the upset win before kickoff. “I am satisfied with the performance,” he said, although he admitted that it was not easy to push Ulsan, who had already accumulated 60 points. “I think anything is possible if we keep our own spirit and move forward.
What Pohang has always lacked is firepower, 바카라 which seems to be 2% short. In the end, it’s all about scoring goals. Fortunately, Zeca’s first goal in August, his sixth and seventh of the season, and Kim Seung-dae’s third goal (six assists) came at just the right time. It even worked when he boldly gave Hong Yun-sang a chance, even though he was worried that he was “still not up to par.” It was unfortunate to concede a 3-3 tie in the midst of the chaos after flanker Park Seung-wook went off with an injury, but Pohang deserved the victory until the goal parade and carding.