Monday, April 20, 2009

Champions League Matchday 4 Preview : Ulsan Hyundai

We are blessed with a Wednesday clash this week as Guoan gets back to the Champions League and tries for revenge against the only team to beat them so far this season, Korean side Ulsan Hyundai.

Today's a beautiful day in this the Imperial City and tomorrow night is expected to be just as nice as our Boys in Green battle it out for 3 points.  This is an extremely tight group with a mere 2 points separating first and last.  Guoan has a slight advantage, playing two out of the three remaining matches at home.  If you draw on the road and win your home matches, its typically enough to put you through, we got the results on the road, now its time to win.

Ulsan's not a pushover, though, despite their weak Champions League performances going into the Guoan match and their poor domestic form.  Plus, there's the whole issue of a Chinese team playing a Korean one, be it at the club or national team level, Korea just knows how to beat China.

As far as I'm concerned, there's only 1 key to this game, controlling Kim Shinwook.  Lee Jangsoo, please, please take Paul out the doghouse and put him in the lineup, we need him.  Lang Zheng will do, too, but Paul's build leads me to believe he'll play Kim physically and make him think twice when going up for those headers.  I'm not so sure Lang is cut out for the job.  No matter if its Paul or Lang, in no case should Zhang Yonghai be among the starters, he already proved he couldn't deal with Kim's height and the only strategy Ulsan had in the last match was knock the ball up field and get Kim in the air.

After how Du Wenhui and Yan Xiangchuang played in the last match, can we expect to see them in the lineup?  It seemed Du suffered a minor injury in the last match, is he fit for this one?  What about Zhou Ting, who now will be out of our next league match after being red carded?  Lee's squad that faced Shandong was one of the better ones we've seen this year.   Part of it is obviously building up teamwork as they get a few more matches under their belts, but a major part of it is getting the right mix of 10 guys.

I'd like to see Tao Wei remain up top with 2 attacking forwards, Yan played hungry against Shandong and he deserves a start on the wing, the question is do you choose strength and give Ryan Griffiths another run out after spending so much time on the bench lately or do you go with Yang Hao's speed, or Du Wenhui's attacking prowess.  Then there's the small matter of what you do with Huang Bowen.  Kind of a nice problem to have so many strong midfielders, Lee just has to find the right mix.

Considering its at home and 3 points are needed, Guoan has to put out an attacking formation, though going with both Du and Yan on the wings would be a bit much, perhaps.  The key to this match will be neutralizing Kim, Ulsan relied on him heavily in the last match, if they don't get many free kicks near the box or corners and a taller defender can keep him from getting long balls, 3 points aren't out of reach.

The song us fans always sing is "Guoan is Always Number 1", let's get 3 points and put ourselves in the driver's seat in this competition.

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