The crushing defeat in the Jeonbuk Hyundai match was the result of Suwon FC’s summer transfer market, which was close to failure. The termination of Son Joon-ho’s contract was a factor that revealed this more clearly.
Suwon FC, which played the 30th round of Hana Bank’s K League 1 2024 at Suwon Stadium, lost to Jeonbuk 0-6. Suwon FC failed to catch up with the leader Ulsan HD (54 points), staying in the third place (48 points) in the league.
Suwon FC faced a major negative factor ahead of this game. Son Jun-ho’s “China risk,” which he caught in the summer transfer market, became a reality and he took steps to terminate the contract. On the 10th, the Chinese Football Association permanently expelled Son Jun-ho from the Chinese soccer community, announcing that he was involved in match fixing and receiving money and valuables. Currently, disciplinary results have also been reported to FIFA, and if the FIFA disciplinary committee cites them and delivers them to each member country, Son Jun-ho can no longer play as a soccer player. Therefore, Son Joon-ho held a press conference in person on the 11th, but only questions arose, eventually leading to the termination of the contract with Suwon FC.
Suwon FC players, who had already been thin due to Son’s departure, have turned into a piece of paper. Among the 11 players who started on the day, Kim Tae-han, Kim Joo-yeop, and Han Kyo-won played consistently while most of them were in Jeonbuk. Hwang Soon-min, Kang Kyo-hoon, and Lee Hyun-yong also did not play at all this season. Considering that Lee Yong and Ahn Byung-joon are injured, they do not have sufficient bench resources.
Coach Kim Eun-joong also acknowledged this and expressed his intention to play as a starting player as much as possible. “We focused on recovering during the break due to lack of resources,” he said in a press conference before the game. “I think we should bring the best 11 players throughout the game as much as possible,” he said. “We will make the most of the 11 players.”
The game did not go as Kim intended. Jeonbuk has been pushing Suwon FC strongly throughout the game based on its strong squad. Since leading the game with Lee Young-jae’s first goal in the 18th minute of the first half, the team has never lost sight of its lead. Coach Kim had to remove Ji Dong-won and Yoon Bit-garam and deploy Han Kyo-won and Noh Kyung-ho just 10 minutes into the second half. In addition, Jeonbuk had different quality of bench resources, but its players on the day were Hernandez, Kwon Chang-hoon, Lee Seung-woo, Kim Jin-kyu and Jeon Jin-woo. Players who have played in the K-League for a long time can rank higher than the main level in any team.
Paradoxically, it shows that Suwon FC’s squad has become extremely small. The lack of proper reinforcement in the transfer market this summer was crucial. He also dispatched key airborne resources such as Lee Seung-woo and Kwon Kyung-won, as well as several promising resources such as Lee Young-joon, Lee Joon-seok (lease), and Jung Jae-min. Monreal and Trindaji terminated their contracts, and Lee Kwang-hyuk left the team for social service.
On the other hand, only Son Joon-ho, Ahn Byung-joon, and Han Kyo-won were recruited properly. Noh Kyung-ho is a player who needs to adapt to the K-League 1, and the same applies to foreign center back Sota who joined the team at the end of the transfer window. Jung is more of a candidate goalie. While sending out two foreign strikers, he failed to recruit foreigners to replace them, and strictly speaking, all players except Son were not as good as those who were released. As even Son, the only player who paid for his meal, left the team due to “China risk,” the Suwon FC transfer market was close to a crushing defeat like the game on the day. 메이저사이트
The disastrous result compared to the performance he complied with was also caused by the team’s poor quality. Coach Kim said in a post-match press conference, “I feel sorry for the players. I tried to pull them out of their resources as much as I could, but the players believed in me and followed me despite their difficulties, and I endured well. I think I will have to do the same in the future. I don’t know how far it will go to pull everything out of the stadium and hang in there, but there is no way,” he said, expressing regret that proper reinforcement has not been made.
He also said, “The result is determined by whether to score or not. Jeonbuk is a team of good players, so the difference has determined the outcome.”