2015 K-League Season Review

We look back at the 2015 season, looking at the defining events and star players of this year's K-league campaign:

Great Start for the Reigning Champions

Before the season started, Jeonbuk were favourites for the K-League title. The 2014 champions had strengthened their squad, bringing in former Schalke 05 striker Edu to increase their goal-threat. Alongside Edu up-front was the evergreen Lee Dong-Gook who, along with Ulsan’s Kim Shin-Wook, was predicted by many Korean pundits to finish the season as the league’s top goal scorer. Jeonbuk started the season where they left off from the year before, only dropping two points in their first seven games to put themselves in a strong position early on. Suwon Bluewings, Jeonbuk’s closest rivals from the previous season, managed to keep hold of their top players from 2014 but didn’t add too much to the team, relying on their youth set-up to provide them with some extra quality. Their season started with an opening day defeat to Pohang, but the Bluewings then went on a good run, culminating with a five-one win over local rivals FC Seoul. That result was already Seoul’s fourth defeat as they once again started the season appallingly. With several key players leaving in pre-season and not being properly replaced, Seoul lost their first three matches of the season and needed a hero to turn things around. The man they brought in to play that role was former Monaco and Arsenal striker Park Chu-Young. Park, whose career had been spiraling downhill ever since his big money move to North London, was hoping that Seoul would be the place to reboot his career. To be fair to him, after a few games getting match-fit, he did perform quite well, showing some excellent movement at times and scoring seven goals in twenty-three matches before a hamstring injury prematurely ended his season in July. 
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Early Season Surprises

​The two teams that surprised early on were Cheonnam Dragons, and for different reasons, Ulsan Hyundai. Cheonnam started the season brightly, with Lee Jong-Ho, and young Croatian midfielder Mislav Orsic, providing plenty of excitement and goals. At some stages in the season it looked as though they could sneak into the Asian Champions’ League places, but a disastrous run in the late summer and early autumn left them stranded in the bottom half of the table. Ulsan, who came so close to the 2013 title, were looking to improve on 2014’s sixth place finish, and started the season well with three wins from their first four games. From then on, everything turned south for the club and they only won twice more between then and the end of August. If not for the abysmal form of Busan and Daejeon then Ulsan would have been in serious danger of getting relegated. Luckily for them, star striker Kim Shin-Wook rediscovered his form and led Ulsan to an eleven match unbeaten run at the end of the season. Kim ended the season as the league’s top scorer, and will be once again angling for a big money move abroad in the off-season. Despite his goals, Kim Shin-Wook has found himself out of favour with national team coach Uli Stielike. Stielike has instead preferred Lee Jeong-Hyeop to lead the line for the national team. Lee started the season on military service at Sangju Sangmu before returning to Busan once his service was complete, but injury prevented him from making a positive impact on Busan’s fortunes this season. Whilst Lee has been injured, Stielike has favoured Vitoria Setubal striker Suk Hyun-Jun or Seongnam striker Hwang Ui-Jo rather than Kim Shin-Wook. Hwang Ui-Jo had the best season of his career this year, netting fifteen times in the league for Seongnam, who despite their small budget managed to finish fifth in the K-League, a vast improvement from their relegation battle in 2014.

Seoul got a second club this season with the formation of Seoul Eland

Title Race Hots Up in the Summer

Suwon's Civic Stadium will see top-flight action in 2016 after Suwon FC won the play-offs

​The other outstanding striker of the season was Adriano. His goals had propelled Daejeon to promotion in 2013, but even he couldn’t undo the damage caused by Daejeon’s leaky defense. His summer transfer to FC Seoul extinguished any hopes of survival that Daejeon’s fans had left. Seoul on the other hand were revitalized by Adriano’s arrival and went on to have a very strong end to the season, finishing fourth in the league and winning the FA Cup, beating Incheon United three-one in the final with their other summer signing, Yojiro Tagahaki, scoring a wonderful volley to open the scoring in that match. The summer transfer window also led to two key departures at the top of the table, with Edu, the league’s top scorer at the time, leaving Jeonbuk for China. Suwon couldn’t take advantage of Edu’s departure, and also lost key player Jong Tae-Se, who moved to struggling J-League side Shimizu S-Pulse. Their direct replacements, Spanish striker Urko Vera for Jeonbuk, and Bulgarian Iliyan Mitsanski for Suwon, did little of note during the remainder of the season. Jeonbuk did however bring back former player Luis Henrique, along with former Asian Footballer of the Year Lee Geun-Ho. Luis made the difference in a crunch match between the two clubs in late July. Suwon, on good form were desperate for a win to close the gap on Jeonbuk, and took an early lead when Brazilian forward Santos beat Kwon Sun-Tae on his near post with a shot from the edge of the penalty area. As the minutes ticked away, it was looking as if Suwon could get the victory needed to boost their title chances, but in the eighty-second minute Luis scored a fantastic goal, playing a quick one-two with Kim Dong-Chan before smashing the ball in off the far post to equalize for Jeonbuk. Lee Jae-Sung, who had an excellent season for Jeonbuk, scored a late winner to give Jeonbuk all three points, making their lead at the top of the table almost unassailable. 

Hwang Ui-Jo, Lee Jae-Sung, and Kwon Chang-Hoon impress as the Korean national team wins 16 of its 20 matches in 2015, losing just once.

FC Seoul fans endure another poor start to the season.

So Close, yet So Far

​A dip in form right at the end of the season almost saw Suwon squander second place. Pohang, who started the season slowly, were undefeated in fourteen matches when they faced Suwon in the season’s penultimate game. Suwon, who had just lost their previous match by four goals to three against FC Seoul in a remarkable game that saw Yun Ju-Tae score all four of FC Seoul’s goals, had fallen to third in the league. Goals from the season’s breakout star Kwon Chang-Hoon, and by Cho Sung-Jin, meant that Suwon managed to beat Pohang by two goals to one and reclaim second spot. A final day victory against Jeonbuk left Suwon finishing six points behind Jeonbuk and thinking what might have been if they had have finished Jeonbuk off back in the July match or if they had managed to keep hold of Jong Tae-Se.
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Drama in the race for Promotion

or fAt the bottom of the table, Busan’s tenure in the top-flight came to an end with a three-nil aggregate defeat to Suwon FC in the promotion/relegation playoff match. Suwon FC landed the surprise signing of the summer when former Spanish Under-21 international Sisi left Osasuna for the Korean second tier. His signing gave Suwon the edge over many of their rivals, and they finished the season two points off automatic promotion in the K-League Challenge. Suwon’s first playoff match saw them come up against Seoul Eland, who finished fourth in the league despite having only been formed that season. Although a five-one win over Suwon FC had provided the catalyst for a great run of form that led many to think that Eland could win the league in their first full season, the two most recent fixtures had gone Suwon’s way, with a four-one defeat in October effectively ending Seoul Eland’s title chances. The one-off play-off fixture finished three-all, a result that saw Suwon FC reach the next round of the playoff’s where they faced Daegu. Daegu missed out on automatic promotion on goals scored after dramatically finishing level on both points and goal difference with Sangju Sangmu. Sangju had led the table for long periods of the season but had let Daegu back in with some poor form towards the end of the season. Daegu however failed to win any of their final four matches and ended up missing out on promotion. Daegu’s season ended when Japa scored a late goal for Suwon FC to knock them out of the play-offs. Suwon then beat a toothless Busan one-nil in the first leg, and two-nil in the second leg to win promotion to the top-flight for their first time in their history. Their manager Cho Deok-Jin has done a great job but survival in the top flight will be difficult for the team next season. 
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Disappointment for Korean Teams in Asia

​Korean sides were underwhelming in this year’s Asian Champions’ League with Suwon Bluewings, Seongnam, and FC Seoul all going out in the first knock-out round. Jeonbuk went one round further before losing to a last minute goal against Gamba Osaka. Jeonbuk, Suwon Bluewings, and FC Seoul will all represent Korea in next year’s competition, and will be joined by Pohang, provided that the Steelers manage to win their playoff match in February.

Kleaguefootball.com 2015 Awards

Player of the Season
Lee Jae-Sung (Jeonbuk Motors)

Rookie of the Season
Kwon Chang-Hoon (Suwon Bluewings)

Manager of the Season
Cho Deok-Jin (Suwon FC)
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Disappointment of the Season
Urko Vera (Jeonbuk Motors)

by Steve Price