First, huge win today for Korean Olympic team, beating Mexico, albeit with a huge amount of luck and despite a poor performance. They face Honduras on Saturday (still trying to find exact time and channel as sources conflict).
Back to club play, another season starts and disappointingly, Hong Jeong Ho drops from the schedule as he goes to China. As I had mentioned in last season's recap, leaving for China was highly possible given his health problems and uncertain role at Augsburg. He had a fair amount of talent, but hearing comments made by Reuter and Koo show that HJH didn't have the mental makeup to progress. He struggled to fit in and acclimate years later despite having comforts of 2 Korean teammates, lack of competition at least for 3rd CB role, and no fan negativity. Disappointing to see our best CB show the lack of mental fortitude. And given his move to China, did he hide behind Augsburg to avoid going to Olympics too?
The season full preview will come later. Right not there's too much uncertainty with guys like Suk certainly playing with a new club this season, roles for players missing most of preseason (Son/Ki), and so forth.
German leagues start next weekend with DFB Pokal so a bit away from the heat of full suite of league action.
| Day | Time (ET) | Player | Club | Opponent | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | 3:30 PM | Suk Hyun Jun | Porto | Rio Ave | None |
| Saturday | 10:00 AM | Lee Chung Yong | Crystal Palace | West Brom | NBC Extra Time |
| Saturday | 10:00 AM | Ki Sung Yueng | Swansea | @Burnley | NBC Extra Time |
| Saturday | 10:00 AM | Son Heung Min | Tottenham | @Everton | CNBC |
| Summer Break | n/a | Ji Dong Won | Augsburg | ||
| Summer Break | n/a | Koo Ja Cheol | Augsburg | ||
| Summer Break | n/a | Park Joo Ho | Dortmund | ||
| Summer Break | n/a | Kim Jin Su | Hoffenheim |
Suk Hyun Jun -- In Brazil for Quarterfinals
Lee Chung Yong -- He's been featuring more and more this preseason and probably a lot is due to possible and maybe even probable departures of Bolasie and maybe even Sako. He should make the bench and has a chance of coming on depending on how the game goes.
Ki Sung Yueng -- He only came back recently and similar to Euro stars, has not had a minute of preseason live match action. And as we saw last season, if he's not starting, he's often not even on the bench. For now, with a lot of shuffling pieces to settle in, I expect him on the bench this weekend.
Son Heung Min -- In Brazil for Quarterfinals
