There is no better day than 8 May 2020 to kick start its 37th season of the K League. Rather than focusing on the country’s battle with the coronavirus, let’s celebrate the new Korean football season together with the world.
The South Korean professional football league, which started on 8 May 1983, is one of the very few professional football leagues that are resuming in the midst of this virus outbreak.
This kick off has garnered the attention from the world football fraternity. To which, Kwon Oh-Gap, the president of the K-League has expressed his desire to show the world what Korean football is all about.
“Live football is really rare these days. It is a great opportunity to let the world know about Asia’s top league. We hope fans will forget about the virus when they watch the K League,” explained president Kwon via an interview with The Guardian.
The first fixture on Friday will see defending champion Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors facing off with Suwon Bluewings in Jeonju. There is no denying the team from Suwon will be the underdog coming into this highly anticipated opening match
“Suwon did try to play a high pressing game against Jeonbuk last season but that did not work well for them. Eventually, Suwon was 3-0 down by half time. So for this opening match between the two teams, I reckon Suwon will be cautious and probably will be playing more defensively to start off the new season,” commented Lion City Sailors’ Korean striker Song Ui-Young.
As a former youth footballer plying his trade in South Korea, Song does hope that Suwon Bluewings can give their newly appointed Coach Lee Lim Saeng his first win in charge although he knows that this opening match will not be easy for either team.
K League will be broadcasting the first match of the season live on YouTube and Twitter. If there is any specific reason why we should be catching this match, it has to be Suwon’s newly appointed head coach Lee Lim Saeng who used to coach in Singapore. Lastly, this match will also feature our all time favorite South Korean footballer, Jeonbuk’s Lee Dong Gook!
With no disrespect, as much as we do not believe in K League’s effort in pushing their game out to the international market in the past, we hope that this season will be a successful season both domestically and globally.
It is time for some long overdue top Asian football action. We are all ready for Friday’s evening. So is our soju.
To catch the Live Streaming of Opening Match, Click Here.
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