[Preview] Jeonbuk vs Sailors – An Impossible Task?

I am writing to you from Korea. LCS has put us up in a nice cosy hotel right in the heart of Jeonju, where tomorrow’s action will take place. I will admit first that this preview may not be as useful to you as some of the other preview articles put out in the past. The reason for this is that I was not able to ask any of the Korean football experts to comment on their team in a meaningful way.

I don’t think anyone is under any illusions about the magnitude of the task that faces our Sailors tomorrow. There is a huge gulf between the standard in the K-League and that of the SPL. However, in the wise words of Singaporean singer Linying – “we did it before, and we’ll do it again”. We faced K-League side Daegu twice last year and came away with 3 points, impressively beating them 3-0, before losing narrowly in the torrential rain 2-1. Could we do it again? Let’s dive into the preview.

The Mad Green Boys

If the following paragraphs about the fans sounds very complimentary, please forgive me for being nice to our very hospitable hosts. It’s 1am here in Korea and they have taken us out and about for the past 6h, first to a charcoal-grilled chicken place, and then to a seafood place. Copious amounts of alcohol were also consumed at each place, making the writing of this article a little harder – but write it I must, so let me tell you why this is relevant.

The results achieved against Daegu were fantastic, but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that out of the 6 fixtures in this group, this is by far the hardest. Supporters can sometimes be the 12th man, and numerous studies have shown that referees tend to give better decisions to home teams due to the pressure and atmosphere created by the crowd. The biggest difference between beating Daegu last year and attempting to beat Jeonbuk this year is an actual home advantage enjoyed by Jeonbuk. This is incontrast to last year’s centralised tournament held in Buriram.

Part of the advantage stems from the Mad Green Boys, who are permanently given the no. 12 in the squad, underlining their importance to the team. I watched on TV their game against Daegu – away from home, and they were LOUD. It is no wonder that they were voted by their fellow fans as the most intimidating set of supporters in the K-League in 2016.

There’s something quite intimidating about a large bunch of people in green jumping up and down with wild abandon, and having witnessed first-hand their enthusiasm and vigour throughout this evening’s festivities, I can say for certain that the Crew is gonna be outshouted for sure tomorrow.

While the numbers may not be as impressive as for weekend games, I expect a healthy number to still turn up and create a formidable wall of green. It will be intimidating.

Jeonbuk’s Struggles This Season

Tipped by many to be the winner, and automatically assumed by most to challenge, Jeonbuk have been disappointingly off the pace.

Their attack in particular, seems to have suffered following the departure of former Swansea forward Modou Barrow. He notched 13 goals and 8 assists for Jeonbuk in his final season, from a mere 28 games. That is not easy to replace. His style of play also helped to create chances and relieve the pressure for his team because his supreme pace meant that teams dared not press as high up.

You add to that the mid-season departure of Cho Gue-sung to the Danish league, and then it becomes even more telling why the attack has sputtered this season. If the name rings a bell, Cho was the Korean striker who scored 2 goals against Ghana at the World Cup in 2022, announcing himself to the world.

Of course, they still have Gustavo, and other attacking threats. However, their scoring numbers fill me with 1% of hope that perhaps we can do well to shut them out. You be the judge –

Remember that Cho Gue-Sung is no longer there, and Gustavo is not a striker who can create his own chances upfront too. However, given adequate service in the box, he is absolutely deadly, so we have to keep a close eye on him. It is fair to say that we are lucky they are not the force they were last year, or in the years prior, where they made mincemeat of Tampines Rovers.

How will the Sailors line up?

I think the squad pretty much picks itself. For me, the only doubt would be whether Shawal Anuar features after his superb cameo at the weekend.

If you go with 5 at the back, that necessarily means you need 2 central midfielders and those will be Rui Pires and Anu. That leaves 3 spaces up top and it will not be surprising for LCS fans to see Diego Lopes, Lestienne and Zivkovic picked as the starters.

Having watched Jeonbuk play, they like to press very high onto their opponents. Led by Boateng in the middle, they tend to want to snap into challenges in or around the penalty area. This of course leads to turnovers – something that we need to watch out for.

However, it also gives us an escape route. Should we be able to evade the press somewhat, we can try to go long, and hope that there is enough space behind the backline for our forwards to deal with. This is where perhaps keeping Shawal on the bench may help. He very seldom lasts the whole game anyway, so it’s good to keep him in reserve, and then release the secret weapon against tiring legs in the second half.

One thing I noticed while watching Jeonbuk this season is that they seem to have an inability to clear their lines properly when they defend their goal . I think if we get the right deliveries into the box, something will happen.

One player who will most definitely be missing is Bailey. Not only did his injury on Saturday look bad, he also did not seem to feature in the team photo taken at Changi Airport pre-departure. We wish him all the best in recovery and hope he comes back soon.

Conclusion

Once again, apologies. Wish I could’ve spoken to a Korean expert before the trip so that my preview can focus on a few key individuals. I will give you a few to look out for anyway. Paik Seung Ho, Han Kyo Won, Gustavo and Boateng.

The reality is this – the K-League side is used to competition at a level several levels above us right now. We should thus walk into this game with a feeling of excitement, but also healthy levels of expectation as to what our team can possibly do. This is gonna be a task that is close to impossible.

We will try our best to shout our lungs out tomorrow, and we hope the team can hear us and be inspired to do their best too. Win lose or draw, you will always hear us roar.

COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!

Score Prediction

Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king!

3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw).

Eddy’s prediction: Jeonbuk 2 Sailors 2

Joseph’s prediction: Jeonbuk 1 Sailors 2

And here’s the leaderboard –

Written by Eddy Hirono 

If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!