SFS-GSIS futbol series-to-end-all-series settles … nothing
Published: April 14, 2012
Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Council’s boys soccer league had never seen anything quite like what occurred in something of an 18-hour span on Friday and Saturday, a home-and-home weekend series with first place on the line between longtime power Seoul Foreign and rising power Gyeonggi Suwon International.
It was certainly the Pacific’s most competitive boys league’s most crucial regular-season series of our time and maybe for all time (Seoul Foreign’s Jack Moon, the league’s unofficial historian, could speak on that subject). Had one team or the other swept the two matches, it would likely have meant earning the top seed in the KAIAC tournament April 27-28 at GSIS.
Instead, the series solved … nothing. SFS won 2-0 on Friday and GSIS replied 4-1 on Saturday, each winning on its home turf. The Crusaders remain in first place at 10-2-1 with 31 points, while the Purple Knights remain one step to the rear, 10-1 with 30 points.
To find any sort of advantage, one must dig ’neath the standings point totals and final scores:
-- In terms of team possession and control of the action, GSIS held a 2-1 advantage, outshooting SFS 21-10 in Friday’s match. It was a matter of finishing. The Knights failed to do so on Friday, getting what coach Andrew Wiese called “poor play” from his wings. On Saturday, GSIS came back and finished the job, getting a hat trick from Won Ho Park.
“The wings took it to heart that they played poorly on Friday” and came back to finish strong on Saturday, Wiese said.
“That was the turning point,” Wiese said.
-- The Crusaders head to Kobe, Japan, for the Asia-Pacific Activities Conference tournament this week, and have but one KAIAC regular-season match remaining, while the Knights have three and can ultimately catch SFS for the top KAIAC tournament seed on its home turf.
Stay tuned, though. This could get really good.
