K leagues Vegemite Rankings

An Australians Guide to the K League.

1^st Place

Busan I'Park– With Fyfe (Adelaide), Shin (Adelaide) and Bas van den Brink (Gold Coast) Busan are as close as it gets to the 12th A League side, they even play in Rovers colours! Ex Socceroo Ahmad Elrich also spent some time there before moving to Fulham….but best not to mention him as he left in acrimonious circumstances. Perhaps don’t mention everyone’s favourite Bra – zillion Reinaldo either as the Roar sold him to Busan and then took him back for free later.

2^nd Place

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma – Home of the great man and current AFC player of the year Sasa Ognenovski who played a large part in inspiring the recent A league fetish amongst Korean clubs. Manager Shin Tae-Yong was a member of the inaugural Roar side but only made one appearance due to injury. Trying to get value out of him the Roar kept him on as coach and now he’s off winning the ACL…  can’t help but think that he’s already got a better resume than his then boss Miren Bleiberg. Seo Hyuk-Su who was much more successful on the field and one of the Roar’s most popular players also came to Brisbane via Seongnam.

3^rd place

Gyeongnam FC – The new home of Brisbane Roar Starlet Luke Devere and former home of the current South Korean coach….. always lose to Sasa’s Seongnam. They were also one of the former clubs of Kim Sung-Kil who is now strutting his stuff for Gold Coast United.

4^th place

Incheon United – The former home of Socceroo Jade North who did well on the field but fell out with the President to the point not even Soju and a trip to a norebang could sort out there differences.

5^th place

Pohang Steelers– Adelaide’s bitches and former Champions of Asia have yet to sign an Aussie player but are rumoured to believe in the adage “if you can’t beat em, sign em” and to be looking at Adelaides Robbie Cornthwaite.  If they look carefully they will probably decide to shop elsewhere.

6^th place

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors - Seo Hyuk-Su of Brisbane Roar fame spent a little time there and Hyundai sponser the A league so that’s just enough to lift Jeonbuk above the pack.

7^th place

Jeju United– Former club of Sydney FC’s left back Byun who managed to score the winning penalty that secured Sydney the double over Melbourne last season. I often wonder as one of his trademark long distance shots sends the ball into the clouds never to be seen again if he isn’t trying to send a message back to his old club.
Hosting Melbourne in the 2011 Asian Champions League

8^th place

Chunnam Dragons – Heavily linked with Simon Colosimo until visa problems intervened…are they a football club or a hagwon?

9^th place

Suwon Samsung Bluewings – Samsung are nearly as evil as FC Seoul but haven’t yet signed an Aussie to my knowledge. Look set to give Sydney FC a spanking in the Champions League, so they can’t be all bad.

Equal 10th place and need to do better

I’m probably missing something from somewhere but I can’t find a record of vegemite ever being sold at these grounds and they probably mistake Australia for Austria too.

Daegu FC

Daejeon Citizen

Gangwon FC

Gwangju FC

Ulsan Hyundai

Sangju Sangmu Phoenix (The army team)

Last place

FC Seoul – Former club of Former Jet Song Jin-Hyung they famously bagged the A league as a destination for young Koreans. Reason enough for last place on this list, If the fact they are evil was not enough for you. Anyang forever!

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …through a combination of fixturing and the floods it means we will go weeks without a Brisbane Roar game since the thrilling 3 all draw with the Mariners. 

Two of our three remaining home games have now been switched from Suncorp Stadium to the Gold Coasts Skilled Park. Even the final home game of the regular season is in doubt and may need to be moved. Ironically though the game most suited for Skilled Park (the  derby between Gold Coast and the Roar) may be played at somewhere like QSAC because Rugby League has already booked rthat date for the NRL all stars game.

If Suncorp isn’t available hopefully the FFA can sort something out date wise so that what is looming as a fantastic fixture (local derby with Roar needing a point to clinch first place) is played in front of the biggest audience possible.

The break between games has had some positives for the Roar. The team looked to be needing a rest and the break coming at this time has meant reducing the games the side has had to play without Franjic (injured) and Mckay (national duty) who have both been missed.

On the flip side while the fans have to watch the Mariners close the gap game by game and now loom as the team most likely to spoil the Roars premiership party, by far the worst news is that the side looks set to lose Luke Devere who used the break to travel too Gyeongnam of the K league to negotiate a transfer. A key part of the Roars success this season he would be a massive loss no matter when he left but we all know it would happen eventually ....just not so soon. The Australia day match against Wellington will be his farewell game.

Like Luke I’m leaving for Korea at the end of the season so I can’t be too judgemental and I hope conquering a fresh challenge puts Devere closer to a spot in the national team as well as provide an oppurtunity to young Daniel Bowles. A central defender as composed and threatening with the ball at his feet as Luke is a rare and precious commodity.

Fortress Suncorp fianlly breached!!

The Roar remain undefeated at Suncorp this season but the fortress has been breached. Tougher than a Matt Simon elbow old mother nature is impossible to mark.

The flood water has now receded but the pitch still looks quite a way from being playable again. The Wellington game has been optimistically postponed until Australia day and I would be shocked if the Heart game isn't postponed or moved as well. 

East Asian fifa executives get the chop- Qatar rides again

While we all felt sorry for ourselves coming in last in world cup bidding with a single vote (thanks Franz) it seems losing so badly and perhaps being a part of the Asean zone has spared us some nasty reprucussions.

Within 24 hours of Australia getting to host the 2015 Asian cup Korea and Japan were losing their spots on the Fifa executive.

If you hadn't realised it allready then lets make it clear, the golden rule in football is "don't **** with Qatar!"

Some are speculating an East West fallout over this but I am not so sure. I think it's pretty clear the Asean zone is in the MBH camp. So while very powerful Korea, China and Japan look very isolated.

Most amusing about the news " before voting - overseen by Australian and North Korean scrutineers - produced another Arab coup for FIFA."
Strange bedfellows indeed :)