Good afternoon from a hazy Beijing as our boys take on Ulsan Hyundai in Korea today. The game sort of snuck up on me after the long holiday weekend here (although I spent it in rather lovely, spring-ey Beijing), so this will be relatively short, sweet and to the point. Yes, I'm standing up like a Guoan defender (or forward) and taking the blame instead of simply passing the buck to Guoan's locker room gag order leading to limited news. Sure, there's the story of Lee Jangsoo heading back to Korea to face his university friend Kim Hokon, there's also the fact they have a Newcastle Jets defender who will be going up against the fabulous Griffiths boys, and then there's that they are sponsored by Hyundai, who briefly were lead sponsors of Guoan a few years back and....well, that's that. Oh wait, they're also coming off a draw this weekend, though they've only earned 2 points in 3 games so far this year.
In the Champions League, Ulsan has struggled so far, losing in their first two matches and there have been accusations that the manager is ignoring this competition and picking sides packed with reserve players. Guoan, currently sitting tied for top of the group with Osaka can certainly make their road a lot easier with a full 3 points in this match.
Lee has declared he's excited to be coaching a match in his homeland and that his side won't be afraid of their Korean counterparts, despite the trend in Chinese football, mainly at the national team level, of "fearing Korea". I would expect Lee to make more adjustments to the lineup than usual, using this as a chance for some of his recently recovering players to get match fit while resting some of the players who've been regulars in the lineup so far this campaign. Expect significant time for Zhou Ting, Zhang Yonghai, and Tao Wei in this match. What will be more interesting is how Lee handles the attacking setup, Joel Griffiths who was out with a red card suspension on Friday is likely to feature, but will Lee try to experiment a little and sit Martinez? Will Paul finally be removed from Lee's doghouse?
Get home from work early (or find a bar with the game on), as its a 6 pm (Beijing time) kick off tonight!
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