Korean clubs look to retake AFC throne

Two Korean football clubs are eying to take back the Asian Football Confederation Champions League title as they advance to the final 16 stage.

Seongnam Ilhwa and Ulsan Hyundai topped their groups to take No. 1 seeds and a home field advantage.

Seongnam is one of Korea’s most successful football clubs with seven K-League titles, two FA cup titles and two AFC titles. And true to their reputation, Seongnam beat China’s Tianjin Teda 3-0 on Tuesday. Despite ending the majority of its matches in draws, Seongnam leads the group, topping Nagoya in goals scored. This gives the team the home field advantage against Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor on May 29 when it plays at the Tancheon Sports Complex in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

Ulsan, relative newcomers to the Champions League, came out on top after a 1-0 win against group runner-up FC Tokyo last Wednesday. Ulsan will now take on Kashiwa on May 30 at the Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium in Ulsan. However, Ulsan may have their work cut out for them as Kashiwa demolished their compatriot, Jeonbuk, in the group stage.

Not all Korean clubs made the cut over the week.

The 2011 AFC runner-up and K-League champion Jeonbuk walked into the final group match on top but was quickly pushed out by Japanese and Chinese clubs.

Jeonbuk suffered a 2-0 loss against Kashiwa, which drove the final nail in the coffin after the Japanese team routed Jeonbuk in their first face-off last March. Jeonbuk would still have been a runner-up in the group had Guangzhou not won over the Thai club Buriram United.

The Pohang Steelers went into the final group match against Bunyodkor as the underdog and lost 1-0 against the group’s runner-up. The loss was a repeat of a match last March where Pohang suffered a 2-0 defeat.

Korea dominates the AFC Champions League, established in 1967, with nine wins. Trailing is Japan with five wins.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)