Kim warns of Koreans’ quality

Thursday 26 January 2017

HONG KONG – Auckland City FC defender Daewook Kim knows just how tough FC Seoul will be when the two sides meet in the Nike Lunar New Year Cup in Hong Kong on Saturday.

After rising through the junior ranks of his hometown club Pohang Steelers, Kim eventually ended up at Daejoen Citizen where he made his K-League debut in 2010.

That same season, Seoul clinched the fourth of their six national titles on the final day of the season at home to Kim and his Daejeon teammates who tried unsuccessfully to play the spoiler role in a packed Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Kim, whose goal against J-League winners Kashima Antlers gave the Navy Blues hope of another famous FIFA Club World Cup upset in December, believes the two-time AFC Champions League finalists Seoul will present just as challenging a task.

“They have quality. They have a lot of good players and they can challenge for the FIFA Club World Cup,” Kim said.

“FC Seoul were K-League champions last season. Obviously, they’re a big team and most of the time they’re in the AFC Champions League and a couple of times they were close to being champions.

“They’ve got national team players and this season they’ve got a couple of new signings from Japan and from Suwon Bluewings.”

Drilling down a bit more to offer New Zealand fans a reference point, Kim says Seoul will offer a contrast in style to Kashima.

“They’re quite a physical team, with tall centre backs and fast wingers. They’ll play more long balls than Kashima Antlers so we’ll need to be strong.

“The main striker is very skilful and they are clever in midfield so we’ll need to be very careful when defending.”

Auckland City have met Korean opposition only once previously – a 3-0 defeat to Jeonbuk Motors at the 2006 FIFA Club World Cup but do have a strong Korean connection with former Korean international, and FC Seoul alumni, Ki-Hyung Lee playing over 50 games for the Navy Blues.

When not battling Auckland traffic to get to training from his home on the North Shore, Kim runs coaching clinics for juniors and while they are open to everyone his clinics have naturally attracted a lot of interest from Korean New Zealanders.

Kim says he and his family love their Auckland lifestyle and he loves to think one of his students might one day fulfil their football ambition in the city he now calls home.

“Who knows? One day hopefully one of the kids I coach could play for the All Whites or for Auckland City, that would be fantastic.”

Auckland City FC face FC Seoul in the Nike Lunar New Year Cup opener at 3pm local time (8pm NZDT) on Saturday at Hong Kong Stadium. Later, hosts Kitchee SC take on SCG Muangthong United FC in the second match of the four team invitational tournament that coincides annually with New Year celebrations in Hong Kong.