Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Weekend Preview - August 10th

A new season is about to start but sadly there's a reduction in the number of Korean players in a high enough tier of European football to be on US TV.

That said, it seems Suk Hyun Jun is on the verge of moving back to L1 with Reims but I'll wait until confirmation on that front. I have KCH on here as a reminder to myself about status but I'm not going to dig around on BeIn's terrible website to see if Dijon will be televised.

As for moves, I don't foresee anything right now. The PL window is relatively moot for Korean players given difficulty in getting a permit. Ji is probably the highest probability to move but even there I don't see him moving in this window.

And as usual, its very difficult to know how these teams will line up in the first match, and doubly so after WC where players have not had the usual integration time.



DayTimePlayerClubOpponentTV
Saturday7:30 AMKi Sung YuengNewcastleTottenhamNBCSN
Saturday7:30 AMSon Heung MinTottenham@NewcastleNCBSN
Saturday2:00 PMKwon Chang HoonDijon@Montpelier
Summer BreakJi Dong WonAugsburg
Summer BreakKoo Ja CheolAugsburg



Ki Sung Yueng-- A bit surprising to see Ki Sung Yueng move to an at-risk club like Newcastle which is in limbo with its owner, struggled to survive last season and has a variety of DM/CM players. Of course, Ki's in a different phase of his career so the desire to play for Rafa Benitez may have been a factor as might have been worse offers otherwise. He's been very slow in his recovery from WC and the injury he suffered. He did play a lot in the final friendly when Diame got hurt and looked pretty good except for a continued lack of mobility. Was it enough to start? I don't know but Ki should be in the squad.


Son Heung Min-- Son should start given limited alternatives though he may have to play up front with Kane only just returning. Son's had a mixed start to his preseason after a good WC. He'll only have a match or two before he goes and plays for his freedom from military duty so hopefully he makes them count.


Kwon Chang Hoon-- Out with torn achilles and to keep myself from getting sad, I won't post this repetitively until he seems nearer to a return.


Ji Dong Won-- He started the last friendly and played a half with a baby born and an arm injury in between  the two. In the half, he played well and did ok in the latest as well, though Augsburg really struggled in general to get any offensive players involved. With lots of injuries, Ji could have a big role to start this season... except he picked up a knock of his own in the final minutes of the latest friendly. We'll see where he's at in the coming weeks.


Koo Ja Cheol-- He was late to arrive after WC and picked up some sorta injury in between so I'm not sure where he's at in his preparation.