The glory days of Korean coaches are back in the Chinese Super League. Seo Won-jung and Choi Kang-hee are battling for the ‘de facto number one’.

On 8 August, two South Korean managers, Choi Kang-hee (Shandong Taishan) and Seo Won-jung (Chengdu Rongcheong), faced off in a tactical battle in the 21st round of the 2023 Chinese Super League regular season. The result was a 1-0 victory for Chengdu, thanks to a 33rd-minute goal from Kim Min-woo, formerly of Sagan Dos, Suwon Samsung and Shanghai.

Choi Kang-hee’s Shandong Taishan also brought in naturalised players Fei Nanduo (Fernando) and Magalhães to try and pull off the upset, but were unable to break through Seo Won-jung’s Chengdu, who had a VAR goal cancelled out. It was Seo’s first scoreless game since taking over.

Before the match, both coaches expressed their excitement to meet each other in another country, saying, “I’ll see you after the game” (Choi Kang-hee) and “Yes, sir” (Seo Jung-won).

After the game, Seo said, “I already knew Choi Kang-hee well in Korea. Today, we took advantage of the gap between the opponent’s defence and attacked,” said Seo Jung-won, sharing her impressions of meeting Choi and the factors that led to the victory.

“We didn’t have a rotation, and the players weren’t mentally awakened by the winning streak,” Choi said of the loss, adding, “We can lose, but we will try not to make the same mistakes. I hope the fans weren’t disappointed. We will work hard in the future.”카지노

With the win, Seo’s Chengdu Rongcheng moved into the “de facto number one” position.

Of course, the top spot is occupied by Shanghai Haigang with 16 points, but due to the inexplicable “refereeing privileges” they have received several times this season, football fans other than Haigang supporters refuse to acknowledge Haigang’s top spot and instead point to Chengdu (36 points, second place) and Shandong (35 points, third place) as the de facto leaders.

Meanwhile, a small minority of fans have called for these two coaches to be appointed to the national team, saying they are “the most suitable people to be national coaches”.