by Liam Birch at Jeju World Cup Stadium
After suffering morale crushing home defeats at the hands of FC Seoul and Gyeongnam earlier in the season, Daejeon headed to Jeju island in good spirits after a hard fought 2-2 draw away in Gangwon last weekend. Jeju on the other hand had made an unbeaten start to the K-League season and were full of confidence following credible draws against champions Jeonbuk and away at Gyeongnam.
Unfortunatly for Daejeon and their quite sizable number of travelling fans, Daejeon simply never got going in this match and Jeju picked up a deserved win that they barely had to break out of first gear to achieve.
Defensive blunders had cost Daejeon dear in each of the opening 3 games of the season and in a bid to rectify this, coach Wang Seon Jae bought in former FC Porto defender Santos, who made his debut in a much changed Daejeon defense. Despite the change in personnel, Daejeon's defensive frailties were clear for all to see as they fell behind early on.
A needless free-kick was given away close to the edge of the area which was taken short and accurately placed into the bottom right corner of the Daejeon goal by Lee Sang-Hyup. Amazingly, the Daejeon wall remained static, totally failing to close down Lee, giving him all the time in the world to fire past Yang Dong-Won.
Just as Daejeon were coming to terms with falling a goal behind, 4 minutes later it was 2. Another horrendous piece of defending which has to be seen to be believed, gifted Park Hyeon-Beom the easiest goal he will ever score in his career. A long throw launched into the box should have been easily dealt with, but Kwon Jib completely mistimed his jump, with no pressure from any Jeju forward, and the ball sailed over his head, on to the foot of the unmarked Park, who from 3 yards out, toe poked the ball past the hapless Yang in the Daejeon goal.
From that moment on there was only going to be one winner. Daejeon, with lone striker Gwak Chang-Hee, looked devoid of ideas going forward. For all the nice build up play, the final ball was alarmingly lacking. Usual striker Park Sung-Ho was deployed on the left wing, in a tactical move that seems questionable at best. Park, with the turning circle of a caravan and speed of a snail, would have surely been better used as an out and out striker.
For the remainder of the first half, Daejeon were forced to shoot from distance, with the Jeju goalkeeper rarely having a save to make. And then, just before the half time whistle, Daejeon had a glorious chance to get back into the game. When a Daejeon shot could only be parried by the Jeju keeper, the ball fell to Kim Seong-Jun, who from 6 yards out, conspired to miss a completely open goal.
The second half started much as the first finished, with Daejeon having lots of the ball but failing to create any real chances of note. Ko Chang-Hyeon missed with a trademark free kick that sailed just over the bar and Lee Hyeon-Woong missed a glorious opportunity when clear through on goal, that the Jeju keeper did very well to deflect around the post.
Jeju had numerous chances to improve on their lead, particularly after Brazilian midfielder Ale received a straight red card for petulantly lashing out on a Jeju player mid-way through the half. A combination of poor finishing and the Daejeon post kept the score at only 2.
It was a desperately poor showing from Citizen, devoid of ideas and in some cases, willingness. Understandably annoyed after traveling so far to see such a poor performance, one Citizen fan said something to striker Park Sung-Ho which infuriated him to the point that he attempted to confront the fan in the stands. Other Daejeon players managed to pull Park away, after a considerable stare-down between player and fan. It was a sour end to a hugely disappointing game for Daejeon, which leaves them languishing in 13th place with just one point from four games.
Daejeon host bottom club Daegu FC at the Purple Arena on Sunday.
MOTM: Daejeon Fans
