‘Last place’ Suwon Samseong will be looking for a win this time around, and their opponents are the second-place Pohang Steelers, who are ‘on the rise’.
Suwon and Pohang will face off in the 33rd round of the Hana OneQ K League 2023 at Suwon World Cup Stadium at 3 p.m. on Aug. 8.
After 32 matches, Suwon is last in the 12-team field with five wins, seven draws and 20 losses and 22 points. They are four points behind 11th-place Gangwon (26).
If Suwon finishes last, they will be relegated directly to the second division without a relegation playoff. It would be the club’s first relegation since its inception. The 10th and 11th place finishers will play a relegation playoff.
Even if they beat Pohang on Sunday, Suwon will still be in last place after 33 rounds of the regular season. If Suwon fails to rebound in the five Group B games of the final round, which will be played between 7th and 12th place, they will not be able to avoid an unprecedented relegation to the second tier.
Suwon is desperate to avoid relegation. In a bid to turn things around, the team fired head coach Kim Byung-soo on March 26 and appointed “Legend” Yeom Ki-hoon as interim coach.
However, Suwon still hit rock bottom. In Yi’s first game in charge, Suwon lost 0-2 against Incheon United on March 30. The record is even more disastrous. During their recent five-game losing streak in the league, Suwon has conceded a whopping 11 goals compared to one. Scaled to the entire season, that’s 28 goals scored and 51 goals conceded. This shows that the offensive and defensive balance is completely out of whack.
If Suwon continues to play poor defense against Pohang, it’s easy to calculate that the number of goals will increase. 레모나토토