Daejeon Citizen 0 - 1 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
by Liam Birch at the Purple Arena
Daejeon Citizen battled proudly against the K-League champions Jeonbuk, but their endeavour ultimately counted for nothing as they lost a narrowly contested contest by a single, late goal.
This was a marked improvement on Citizen's first outing where they meekly rolled over against Gyeongnam. Coach Yoo selected a more adventurous line-up and was rewarded with a display that showed that Citizen will not go down without a fight this season. Jeonbuk could not have expected that they would be given such a test by a team they had not tasted defeat against since 2008. Likewise, Daejeon fans who expected a drubbing can leave satisfied that they took the champions all the way in this incredibly close encounter.
Of the notable personnel changes, Choi Hyeon was the real surprise inclusion. At 34 years of age, he now has the chance to cement his place as a first team regular in the Daejeon goal, something that was denied him last season by the form of Choi Eun-Sung. With Choi gone, it was expected that Kim Sun-Kyu, who played in the 3-0 loss to Gyeongnam, would continue to be nurtured into first team action. Yoo decided to go with experience, however he will not have learned much considering the lack of action Choi saw during the game.
A more exciting addition to the side was attacking midfielder Ji Kyeong-Deuk who, making his Citizen debut, ran the Jeonbuk defence ragged and was a constant source of attacking creativity for Daejeon. His display should ensure that he remains in the squad for next week's game against FC Seoul.
The atmosphere was once again tense, as Citizen fans remained silent for 21 minutes in honour of former goalkeeper Choi Eun-Sung who was so unceremoniously shown the door in pre-season. Indeed, before the game, a high-ranking Daejeon official came onto the pitch to apologise to the fans and encourage them to get behind the team.
In a first half of very few chances, it was Kim Jae-Hoon who came closest to opening the deadlock, with a thunderous drive from outside the area that the Jeonbuk keeper did incredibly well to turn around the post. It was the closest that either side came to opening the scoring, in a cagey first half that neither side seemed able to fully get a grip on. Daejeon were defending well, in particularly captain Lee Ho, who was an absolute rock at the back. If Lee can stop being so inconsistent and show this kind of form on a regular basis, Daejeon will be a much stronger defensive unit this season.
Frustrated at their lack of opportunities, Jeonbuk introduced Lee Dong-Guk at the start of the second half. His introduction almost had an immediate effect. A long ball played over the top caught the Daejeon defence asleep and from outside of the area, Lee lifted a gorgeous lob over Choi Hyeon, only to see his effort strike the bar and go out for a goal kick.
Citizen were not shy in front of goal either, and almost went ahead themselves via the head of Kevin Oris. The Belgian forward rose highest in the box, but saw his looping header brilliantly turned over the bar by the Jeonbuk keeper. Oris almost put Citizen ahead fifteen minutes later, but after being teed up on the break, he curled his effort a little too high and it sailed over the crossbar.
As the clock counted down, it seemed sure that Daejeon would earn a well-earned point, until, with just 5 minutes remaining, Jeonbuk struck the killer blow. Chilean international Hugo Droguett pounced on a loose ball in the Daejeon area to fire home with pinpoint accuracy into Choi's bottom right corner to send the sizeable Jeonbuk contingent home happy with all three points.
It was an unjust end to a game in which Citizen had shown such a huge improvement in both performance and desire. However, playing like this, Daejeon will cause some of the lesser teams in this league some problems this year. Unfortunately, Citizen's fixture list has been unkind to them to say the least.
Next up is an away trip to K-League powerhouse FC Seoul followed by a trip to Incheon Utd. Daejeon's next home game is on April 1st against Jeju Utd.
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