K League 1 Ulsan Hyundai clinched their second consecutive title with an early 2-0 victory over Daegu FC in Round 35, leaving each team with just two games in hand at the end of the season. The 2023 season has been a mixed bag for teams in the K League 1, with Suwon Samsung's automatic relegation to K League 2 and Gwangju FC's meteoric rise to prominence at the center of it all. Incheon United, a civic club, has been the center of attention throughout the season. After making an upset last season with a fourth-place finish in the overall standings, Incheon has remained consistent this season, sitting in fifth place so far, and will have their sights set on even higher heights next season.
In fact, Incheon got off to a flying start after the league kicked off on Feb. 25 with their first win of the season in three games against Jeju United, but a shocking 0-5 defeat to newcomers Gwangju, a team promoted to K League 1, in Round 4 left them in the bottom half of the table alongside Gangwon FC and Suwon Samsung with two wins, three draws and four losses through Round 9. Incheon then went on to defeat the Pohang Steelers 2-0 in the 10th round to go unbeaten (5 wins and 4 draws) and stay in contention with Ulsan Hyundai at the top of the standings, but then fell into a winless streak of three draws and two losses from Suwon Samsung in the 11th round to Daegu FC in the 15th round.
The root cause of this crisis is Incheon's poor financial foundation and thin player base, which has been in place since its founding in 2003. Therefore, every season, Incheon has played soccer not based on name value, but on the spirit of desperation and desperation. Still, as a civic club, Incheon has never been relegated from the K League 2 since the introduction of the promotion system in 2013, earning them the nickname "survivors". The phrase "opportunity after crisis" is a perfect fit for Incheon. So it didn't take long for Incheon to climb out of the winless hole.
From a 1-0 win over Gangwon in the 20th round in July to a 1-0 victory over FC Seoul in the 24th round, Incheon has turned around its fortunes, amassing 13 points from four wins, one draw and no losses in five games to sit in fifth place in the league standings, well ahead of the K League Two relegation 'survival' race. The turnaround is due in no small part to the outstanding leadership of head coach Cho Sung-hwan, 53, who took over the reins during the 2020 season, with a strong sense of team organization, competitive drive and motivation. Incheon has struggled to compete in the K League standings due to player turnover in previous seasons, so the club has been looking to rebound in the summer transfer market.
As a result, Incheon has succeeded in stabilizing the team's strength by playing a competitive game that brings out the cohesion of the team's player composition, which was like a grain of sand since last season, and is now able to win against strong teams and win against weak teams, awakening a sense of ownership and pride in about 3 million Incheon citizens. This change in Incheon has become even more pronounced since the inauguration of CEO Lee Jae-soo in 2019, and with the stability of political and administrative support unparalleled in the past, as well as an advanced system for fostering linked players and a valuable stadium, Sungnyung Arena, Incheon's upward trend is expected to continue in its 20th year of existence.
Certainly, Incheon has put the finishing touches on the tagline that no-name players always seem to come to the rescue of teams in dire straits. This is evidenced by the fact that Incheon used a 3-1 win over Daegu in Round 26 as a springboard to a 0-0 draw with this season's champions, Ulsan, in Round 33, the final round of the regular season, a remarkable run of just one loss in eight games. Incheon doesn't have a single player in the top 10 goalscorers in the K League 1 for the 2023 season. However, Gerso (32, Guinea-Bissau) is ranked sixth in assists with six.
Nevertheless, the fact that Incheon stayed in Final A and reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 Korean Football Association (FA Cup) and the 2023-2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League (ACL) eight years after finishing as runners-up in 2015 is comparable to Leicester City's miraculous win in the English Premier League in the 2015-2016 season and the FA Cup in the 2020-2021 season. Not content to rest on their laurels, Incheon used a rotation of seven U-22 'young bloods' in the 35th round of the K League One to take another leap forward with a 2-0 victory over perennial contenders Gwangju, securing another three wins and four draws.
In their first-ever ACL appearance, Incheon surprised everyone in Group G with a 4-2 win over last season's Japanese J-League champions, the Yokohama Mariners, in the first leg of the group stage, followed by a 4-0 win over Kaya FC Iloilo in the Philippines in the second leg. However, a 0-2 defeat to China's Shandong Taineng in the third round left Incheon tied with all three teams on six points from two wins and one loss, but with Shandong trailing on goal difference, Incheon finished second in the group and will look to regain the lead in Group G with an away fourth leg against Shandong on November 7 to qualify for the round of 16.
Although Incheon's dreams of reaching the FA Cup quarterfinals once again were dashed in a 1-3 loss to Jeonbuk due to a confluence of injuries and a lack of focus, 2023 will be remembered as a year of triumphant ascendancy for the club that will go down in fond memories. Incheon's two remaining Final A matches are against Jeonbuk (Nov. 12) and Ulsan (Nov. 24), where they 바카라 currently have 13 wins, 13 draws and nine losses (52 points) and are just one point behind fourth-place Jeonbuk. For Incheon, the match against Jeonbuk in the 36th round is not only an FA Cup revenge match, but also a guillotine match to defend their fourth place finish from last season.
Incheon's matches against Jeonbuk in Round 36 and Ulsan in Round 37 are both at home, which is certainly a favorable condition for Incheon given the fact that the remaining matches between fourth-placed Jeonbuk and sixth-placed Daegu (12 wins, 13 draws, 10 losses, 49 points), who are chasing Incheon, are at home and away, respectively. Incheon has been a team that has been known to end up in crisis situations by triggering a special ability that is stronger in the second half than the first. However, Incheon's growth since last season has been remarkable, and they are now an iconic team among the 12 teams in the K League 1. As such, they are the 'center of attention' rather than the 'focus of attention', and soccer fans, along with their owner, Citizen, will be eager to see how they perform in the final season and how ACL will perform in the challenge.
