Korean Job Discussion Forums

[scott1985]

Has anyone adopted a Korean football team? Im looking to move to Incheon feb/march time and have noticed they have a team. I know it wont be the same buzzz I get from following Aston Villa, but it will do for my weekly fix!

[Steelrails]

First off, thank you to Agbonlahor and his massive amounts of fantasy points...

As for adopting a team- It all comes down to location, location, locations. Never betray where you live. It's all about your roots, be they new or old. Roots are roots.

[scott1985]

Agbonlahor is a great player and im sure he will bring more fantasy football points.

I will probably support my local team, none of this glory hunting nonsense for me.

Are you supporting a Korean team at the moment? Do the Koreans get a good atmosphere going? Are tickets expensive or hard to come by?

[maladict23]

Tickets are cheap as chips, about a tenner and you don't need to worry about not getting in. Plenty of empty seats to go around in the world cup stadiums.

[johnnyrook]

Incheon United aren't that great, so I won't blame you if you wanna cheat and support FC Seoul since they're not that far away and they have cool jerseys.

I'm nominally a supporter of Suwon Bluewings since that's where I lived for two years, although I admittedly went to only one home game in that whole time. I actually really wanted to go to more, but something always came up (usually my girlfriend scheduling something else for us to do).

I tried to watch games on tv whenever they happened to be on, but even with three dedicated sports channels the coverage of K-League is abysmal. The best time to find it being broadcast is before and after baseball season, although sometimes the Korean basketball league will be shown instead (which I can't really fathom since football is more popular here than basketball, and because comparatively the K-League is actually a higher standard globally than the KBL in their respective sports). And sometimes you'll discover a K-League game being broadcast on all three sports channels concurrently (they also do that with other sporting events sometimes, goodness knows why).

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but basically coverage of sports in Korea, outside of the KBO, doesn't seem to follow any logic. The only thing you can rely on is that if a Korean athlete is performing in any competition that has global prestige it'll be shown (and preempt other stuff). Sometimes I feel Korea really isn't a nation of fanatical sports followers, and most of them only get interested when Korean pride is at stake (which is consistent with their culture in general).

The one game I did get to was a little over a month ago, Suwon vs FC Seoul. It's considered one of the big rivalries in the league and it was played on a public holiday, so in this instance Maladict's assertion that seats are easy to come by couldn't be further from the truth, I ended up having to sit on the stairs. I can see why they don't do reserved seating given that the stadium, even for a well supported club like Suwon, is usually only half full, but on that occasion it was a real nightmare without it.

Anyway, I really can't devote myself fully to Suwon as my number one team is Brisbane Roar, who will come head to head with at least one K-League team in next year's Asian Champions League, possibly even Suwon (although they have an uphill battle to qualify ahead of FC Seoul). I'm a pretty passionate follower of Australian football and Asian football in general so it's pretty hard to throw my support behind Korea at the international level or their domestic teams given that they're direct rivals.

[jackson7]

IUFC aren't great, but they've had some bright spots, especially as one of the very few (maybe two?) city-owned sides. The others are company-owned with flush pockets and large payrolls. We're moving to a brand-new, smaller stadium this next season, which will be much nicer, as the atmosphere will improve, and you'll be much closer to the pitch.

Being in Incheon, I'd recommend supporting your local team. You could go to Incheon and support the Seoul team (also known as the North Shame, for their history of moving from a smaller area), but why not enjoy the ups and downs (more of the latter at Incheon, unfortunately, these days) of supporting YOUR team as a temporary Incheonite? You'd never consider bailing on Aston Villa during a rough patch. Adopt a team and follow it through all its agony and glory (I have my adoptees in the SPL, MLS, and K-Leage).

As far as uniforms go, in Incheon you get Inter's kit, and in Seoul you're wearing AC Milan's. Both pretty cool, unless you're a hoops kinda guy.

J7

[sonicmatt]

where are incheon united moving to? i went one of their matches and it was pretty fun. super cheap to go to. i am also looking to support a team not sure who though. the only team i really knew about before coming here was pohang so maybe them.

[Murakano]

support your local team mate...Incheon United.

As someone mentioned before, you don't bail on Villa if they're doing crap.

If you want to be a glory hunter, then go for FC Seoul (The Man Utd of Korea...everyone hates them )

Tickets are around 10,000 won

[Hootsmon]

Of course, support your local side!

I'm also an Incheon United fan, have been for 5 years, and despite having moved from Incheon to North Seoul, I still travel down for home games when I can.

I'll be trying to get to more games now we're moving into the new stadium. As said above, it should make the games more fun as it's much smaller than the World Cup Stadiums (it'll be about 20,000 capacity, as opposed to Munhak's 50,000, which we never came close to filling) so the atmosphere should be better. Also, unlike most of the other stadiums in Korea, the seats will come down right to the edge of the pitch - no running track, thank god - so it will make the games more entertaining to watch.

As a team, we're not the best...got into the play-offs a couple of years ago but since Huh Jung-Moo, the former Korea manager, took charge we've struggled to do anything but draw. We do have some exciting younger players coming through though, so I'm hopeful for next season. Should be fun.

[Steelrails]

[jamesy]

I think the new stadium is near Dowon station (Line 1 between Dongincheon and Jemulpo). It's going to be the football stadium for the 2014 Asian games. I passed by the other week, and although not completed it looks pretty good. I would estimate a capacity of around 20,000, and the pitch will be much closer to the stands than Munhak. I think it's going to be a massive improvement as it was really difficult for 3,000 fans to get any sort of atmosphere going at Munhak. I used to go to Munhak a few years back, but haven't been for a while. I think I may make a return next season when they move.

[maladict23]

[deizio]

[eat_yeot]

[Landros]

check out the outside view for all things K league http://outsideview.podbean.com/