Getting to K-League second stage games

[druss]

Hi, I'm sure there have been similar posts on this forum previously, but i was unable to spot any, so any help would be appreciated. ;D

I am hoping to travel to Korea for a few weeks in September. And like all right minded individuals i thought i might as well see some matches while i'm there. (I was originally planning on going over for the World Cup so i'm a bit behind schedule )

From Holyjoes helpful thread i would reckon that means my best chance of getting to a game is on the weekend of Sept 11th..and i should be in Seoul around then.
That probably limits me to FC Seoul, Suwon, Incheon, Bucheon and Seongnam.
I also haven't officially decided who i'm supporting yet, (apart from a liking for Ulsan because i used to always sign Lee Chun Soo from them in CM4 )

So of the following fixtures, do any games stand out?

September 11th (Sunday)
Cheonbuk V Incheon
FC Seoul V Seongnam
Bucheon V Pohang
Daegu V Ulsan
Suwon V Gwangju
Busan V Chunnam

Also is it difficult to get tickets for second stage games?
Is it viable to travel to Suwon or Bucheon from Seoul and back on match day?
Where is likely to have the best atmosphere?
And if anyone wants to tell me who i should support, i'll give it due consideration.

[SteveW]

Hey there,

To answer your first question.... No, none of those games stands out

If you want to see some goals then Pohang should score a few against Bucheon - but Bucheon have a horrible habit of getting 0-0 draws.

Seoul v Seongnam might be an interesting game and at least you'd get to check out the WC Stadium and its easy to get to. Seoul are evil though and there'll only be about 8 Seongnam fans there.

Suwon v Gwangju will probably have the best atmosphere since the Suwon fans try pretty hard and there's usually plenty of them. It'll take about an hour from Seoul on the subway to get there.

Tickets for all the games will be available on the day at the grounds.

[druss]

Thanks for that. I'm slightly prejudiced against Seoul because of their record of moving about. At the moment i'm thinking of doing the pilgrimage to the Seoul World Cup Stadium on a non match day and going to the Suwon game.

[SteveW]

Well I'd say there's a better than even chance that me and Holyjoe will be at that game at Suwon so if you buy us loads of beer we might talk to you

[Holyjoe]

FC Seoul v Seongnam is scheduled at the moment for a 7pm kick-off, so it's possible that Bucheon v Pohang might be on at 3pm and you could do both games on the same day.

Also as far as I know they haven't announced the K2 League schedules yet, but there will probably be games on around the time you're in Korea. A lot of the K2 clubs (Suwon City, KNR, Hallelujah, Goyang, Uijeongbu) are in the Seoul area so you could probably get to a game or two there.

I'd recommend going to Suwon not only because I support them ( ) but because there's a really interesting football museum in the Suwon stadium that's worth checking out.

Both Bucheon and Suwon are on the subway line and shouldn't take any more than an hour or so to reach from central Seoul - it takes me just around 45 minutes to get to Suwon from my house in Seoul on a good day.

If I'm right in thinking then 4th and 8th September are international football dates. Asian World Cup qualifying will be over by then but the Korean FA might organise a friendly or two so you could get a national team game if you're lucky.

[druss]

SteveW said:

Well I'd say there's a better than even chance that me and Holyjoe will be at that game at Suwon so if you buy us loads of beer we might talk to you

Hey i'll be the impoverished traveller, shouldn't ye be doing the buying?? ;D

Nice idea re the two games Holyjoe. But i plan on spending most of the day in Suwon.
The K2 game is a definite option if its on a different day though. And i would really be into the idea of going to an international game as well if thats an option.
I thought that was unlikely with the K league in full swing though.

Do any league games sell out? My local club would only have had a full gate at about three or four games last season (and thats with a capacity of only 10,000)

[Holyjoe]

druss said:

Do any league games sell out? My local club would only have had a full gate at about three or four games last season (and thats with a capacity of only 10,000)

Nope, the stadiums are basically far too big for them to sell out. The official attendance for the title decider in Suwon at the end of the season was around 36k, which is decent enough but still 8k short of capacity.

And probably about 8k bigger than it actually was