Some one explain it to me,What happened to them this year, Is A3 champion a curse? like last year's Kashima Antlers
partially to do with the comment by the AFC president, saying that next year's winner, not this year's, will get the right to the FIFA world championship. i guess it was previously thought that this year's winner would be getting the ticket.
Seongnam is quite a different team this year to the one that won the K-League last year, and that was shown in this year's K-League season where they only finished in the bottom half of the ladder. Basically they were a worse team than Jeonbuk whom Ittihad beat in the semi-finals, and for some reason one of the main defenders was also ineligible to play in the finals. But the main factor was probably their mental approach to the game. Unlike Ittihad who had their backs to the wall, Seongnam players knowing that even a 2-0 loss would give them the championship probably became too complacent and passive with their plays. I guess you can't really blame the players in that regard, as the most Korean football forums were also in a similar mood, preparing to celebrate the ACL championship victory. Anyways, neither Jeonbuk(Chunbuk) nor Seongnam will be making an appearance in the next year's tournament, so hopefully other clubs will learn from this game and go one step better than Seongnam did this year.
Nothing really happened to Seongnam, its just that Al Itti was the better team to begin with. Personally, although I wasn't expecting a five-zero scoreline, I was kinda expecting Al Itti to come back.
When did he make this comment? You got a link? This could be big news if he made such comment right after the 1st leg thinking ( back then ) a Korean team would win the 2004 ACL and not a Saudi team.
It was already announced before the first leg. Ittihadis at least knew about it (and protested about it)
I dont think the whole world clubs cup thing is a very good excuse. The coach supposedly ended speculation of retirment because he wanted a chance to play in next years AFC CL, so he could win it and participate in the World Club Championship. At least thats what this site says... Souce.
One of either Suwon, Chunnam, Pohang or Ulsan as K-League champions, and then whoever wins the Korean FA Cup (keep an eye on this FA Cup thread ) In theory Cheonbuk or Seongnam could compete in the 2005 ACL if they won the FA Cup.
I'm not sure. I heard that Suwon would be involved regardless of if they were champions, but then I also heard that the two teams who reach the Championship playoff final would be involved.