Jeollabuk-do 1 - 5 Balocana (371515129)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 7000 had shown up at Jeollabuk-do for the match. Massimo Bergonzoni was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Patrik Norrer and Anto Ivcevic. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Jeollabuk-do. Starters: Choi - Jung, Park, Kim, Baek - Kim, Ko, Won, Cho - Ji, Jang.

Balocana tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. They fielded: Yun - Lee, Ahn, Sun, Lee - Kim, Kim, Park, Park - Kim, Kim.

Some good play on the left wing created an opportunity for the visitors 15 minutes into the match, and W. Kim wasn't about to let it go by. He got past the defenders and fired a shot that the keeper just missed. 0 - 1 for the visitors. Almost all the way down to the corner flag, Jeollabuk-do's B. Kim somehow managed to get a perfect pass into the middle, impossible to miss for Y. Ji, who struck for 1 - 1. Jeollabuk-do could have put themselves ahead after 32 minutes but J. Won missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right. The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when E. Park was unable to put the ball in the net after his show of skill down the left 33 minutes into the match. He was seen beating the pitch in frustration at missing such a good chance to give his team the lead! D. Kim of Balocana received a yellow card after 37 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. The visitors grabbed the lead after S. Lee's free kick succeeded, resulting in a score of 1 - 2. J. Lee received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 43 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 1 - 3. The Balocana fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 3. Balocana had most of the ball, with 55 percent of possession.

Some things can only be learned through experience, and N. Park should take his lesson to heart after nearly gifting Balocana a goal with 62 minutes of the match played. K. Park of Balocana took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 63 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 4. By now, the players in Balocana felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. After 70 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for E. Park who increased Balocana's lead to 1 - 5. Balocana claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

Jeollabuk-do's best player was S. Cho. J. Kim on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Balocana player was without a doubt D. Kim. On the other hand, K. Sun's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 5.