Best teams

[John]

Helo all. I am moving up to Seoul from China soon and wanted an idea of which are the decent tems there. I have seen a few matches on TV and the like of Seongnam seem OK. Prsesumably, given how well the National team did in thel ast World Cup, there must be a few decent players around.

[nyujeelandsaram]

Do you simply want to support a team that will have success or a team that is near to where you are living?

[teppic]

it's a toss up between bucheon and gwangju.
daegu are pretty good too. incheon not bad either. wouldn't bother with the rest.

hope this helps.

[Holyjoe]

Aye depends where you are in Seoul really. If you're south of the Han river then you probably won't be far in either direction from Seongnam or Suwon/Bucheon/Incheon. Anywhere else and FC Seoul would probably be your nearest K-League side.

Alternately if you're in the north-west then K2 side Goyang could be for you, Uijeongbu if you're in the north-east. Hallelujah, KNR and Suwon City Hall aren't too far away if you're south of the river either.

Or there's the pretend team Seoul United at the Olympic stadium...

[John]

Thanks for the suggestions. Can't say I've heard of half of these teams, though. I'd really like to support a team that has a reasonable chance of winning something, but being reaonably accessible from where I will leave (an area called Sunbukdong I think) would be nice. Which teams are contenders for winning the league?

[nyujeelandsaram]

So your'e a bloody glory hunter?!

Go for Bucheon then.

[Holyjoe]

nyujeelandsaram said:

So your'e a bloody glory hunter?!

Go for Bucheon then.

Definitely, they just added another superstar Brazilian striker (Sergio Ricardo) to their squad so it's all systems go in 2005.

[John]

Thanks for the suggestions. But where is Bucheon? Easy to get to from Seoul by car? And what about the new Seoul FC team? Any good?

[nyujeelandsaram]

Seoul is shit. They just upped and moved the team and shat in the fans faces. Which is why the envisaged millions of supporters in Seoul just never happened.

Go out to Bucheon. You can drive there pretty easily. It's sort of in south west Seoul.

[MinnesotaUlsan]

John...you'll have to forgive NJS, his favorite team was Anyang LG. They were a good team with a large number of loyal fans out in Anyang. Then the team's parent company (LG Group) and the brain-wizards in the K-League thought it would be a good idea to move them to Seoul change the name and have them play at the Seoul World Cup Staidium. They thought that the fans would follow the team. Needless to say they didn't and FC Seoul have yet to draw the numbers everyone thought they would.

The stadium is nice and it's easy to get to. The team is...so-so at best. Cheer for someone else and keep NJS happy
( 'Cause he tends to get bitter when you mention FC Seould; as he calls them.)

[nyujeelandsaram]

Nice summary.

I'll have to use that as my signature.

The sooner Seoul gets a couple more teams the better. It'll spice up the local derbies and it'll mean Anyang can get a new bloody side!!!

[mikey]

glory glory

[IconsFanatic]

Mikey, you're not a Charleston Battery supporter by any chance, you are?

[Holyjoe]

John said:

Thanks for the suggestions. But where is Bucheon? Easy to get to from Seoul by car? And what about the new Seoul FC team? Any good?

Bucheon's west of Seoul and pretty easy to get to by car (I think). I would recommend leaving early though as the volume of matchday traffic going to the stadium can be extremely high and the massive stadium car park fills up early.

Queues at the small ticket office can be horrendous too as innumerable groups of teenage girls clamour to see all the Bucheon superstars along with the thousands and thousands of regular fans.

Good luck.

[John]

Said tongue-in-cheek? What's the average crowd?
I'll be cheering on Shenhua (Shanghai) to win their first match of the nw CSL season on Saturday. I have never seen their Hongkou stadium even 1/4 full. Is it better in korea?