{"id":25992,"date":"2021-07-02T23:30:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T14:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=25992"},"modified":"2021-07-02T23:32:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T14:32:49","slug":"nagoya-pohang-closer-to-promised-land-with-vital-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2021\/07\/02\/nagoya-pohang-closer-to-promised-land-with-vital-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Nagoya, Pohang Closer to Promised Land with Vital Wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

East Asian sides Nagoya Grampus and Pohang Steelers are now one step closer to the round of 16 after successfully dumping their Group G opponents from Southeast Asia out of the AFC Champions League on Thursday. South Korea’s Pohang managed to thoroughly outplay Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim to eliminate them with a 2-0 win, while Japan’s Nagoya held off a brave Ratchaburi Mitr Phol side of Thailand to win 3-0 and knock the Dragons out of the ACL as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johor Darul Ta’zim (Malaysia) 0-2 Pohang Steelers (South Korea)<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the first meeting between the two was marred by controversy thanks to a questionably awarded penalty for Pohang<\/a>, the second clash between JDT and Pohang was a testament on how far the Southern Tigers are still lagging behind their more illustrious East Asian peers.<\/p>\n

And while JDT did have their moment in the sunshine at the Rajamangala National Stadium – a Safawi Rasid effort in the 16th minute striking the crossbar – in the end Pohang thoroughly outmatched their Malaysian opponents, dominating possession slightly and having the fair share of chances. The Steelers ended the match with 12 shots, 4 of them finding the target, while JDT could only muster 4 shots, none of which were on target.<\/p>\n

Unlike the first encounter that was shrouded in controversy, this time Pohang managed to punish an off-color JDT quite emphatically.<\/p>\n

After Borys Taschy and Lim Sang-hyub had threatened Farizal Marlias’ goal in the opening stages of the first half, Pohang went ahead in the 33rd minute through Lee Seung-mo, who managed to latch onto Go Young-joon’s weighted pass before beating his defenders and firing a shot past Farizal and into the net.<\/p>\n

Four minutes later Pohang went two goals to the good, with captain Kang Sang-woo taking advantage of a Borys pass to slot home past Farizal.<\/p>\n

No further goals were scored afterwards, however Pohang did came close to widening the gap between themselves and the Malaysians a couple of times throughout the second half, with Gwon Wan-gyu, Seung-mo, and Alex Grant being guilty of squandering their chances.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the Steelers managed to hang on for three valuable points that kept their chances of qualifying out of Group G alive, while the defeat meant that it’s the end of the road for JDT.<\/p>\n

Nagoya Grampus (Japan) 3-0 Ratchaburi Mitr Phol (Thailand)<\/strong><\/p>\n

To say that Ratchaburi’s maiden Asian campaign was a disappointment is a severe understatement.<\/p>\n

Still without a win and without a goal coming into Matchweek 4, Ratchaburi’s ACL head coach Siripong Sek-san dropped a bombshell during the pre-match press conference that the Dragons will be deploying an all-Thai starting lineup for the match against an ominous Nagoya side who has been flawless throughout their campaign.<\/p>\n

The announcement came as the latest chapter in the Mitr Phol circus at the Rajamangala National Stadium, which includes the inclusion of actor-singer Phakin Khamwilaisak in Ratchaburi’s ACL squad as well as the Dragons’ disastrous performances throughout the campaign. Siripong’s decision to deploy an all-Thai lineup for their second match against Nagoya – who thrashed them 4-0 in the first meeting – suggested that Ratchaburi are putting the blame for their poor performances on their foreign players – Steeven Langil, Sebastien Wuthrich, Junior Mapuku, and Vafa Hakhamaneshi.<\/p>\n

Much to everyone’s relief,\u00a0Monkey Twins\u00a0<\/em>star Phakin did not get a sniff at Ratchaburi’s squad for the Nagoya match on Thursday and surprisingly Siripong’s all-local squad performed quite decently against a ruthless Nagoya.<\/p>\n

Granted Nagoya dominated proceedings but goalkeeper Kampol Pathomakkakul kept Ratchaburi alive throughout the game, denying the likes of Yutaka Yoshida, Yoichiro Kakitani, and Mateus in the first half.<\/p>\n

It took Nagoya 50 minutes to find a way past the impressive Kampol, with Mateus blasting home a half-volley past the goalkeeper after receiving a deflected cross from Kazuki Nagasawa.<\/p>\n

The Dragons responded positively after going behind, with Nukoolkit Krutyai blasting high in the 51st minute and substitute Mapuku coming close in the 65th minute, drawing a fingertip save from Nagoya custodian Mitchell Langerak.<\/p>\n

However, despite Ratchaburi’s best efforts, Nagoya killed off the game in the closing 20 minutes with a six minute double whammy. Kakitani made it 2-0 with a close-ranged finish in the 73rd minute, before Ryogo Yamasaki confirmed the win in the 79th, inching Nagoya closer towards a ticket to the round of 16 while at the same time eliminating Ratchaburi from their maiden ACL campaign.<\/p>\n

Both Nagoya and Pohang will now fight it out to claim top spot of Group G that guarantees qualification out of the group, with Pohang facing-off against Ratchaburi and Nagoya taking on JDT on July 4th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

East Asian sides Nagoya Grampus and Pohang Steelers are now one step closer to the round of 16 after successfully dumping their Group G opponents from Southeast Asia out of the AFC Champions League on Thursday. South Korea’s Pohang managed to thoroughly outplay Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim to eliminate them with a 2-0 win, while Japan’s Nagoya held off a brave Ratchaburi Mitr Phol side of Thailand to win 3-0 and knock the Dragons out of the ACL as well. Johor Darul Ta’zim (Malaysia) 0-2 Pohang Steelers (South Korea) While the first meeting between the two was marred by controversy thanks to a questionably awarded penalty for Pohang, the second … Continue reading “Nagoya, Pohang Closer to Promised Land with Vital Wins”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":25094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,25,30,32,867,857,26,38],"tags":[130,926,57,65,64,1267,1312,280,95,70,68],"class_list":["post-25992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afc-champions-league","category-asia","category-east-asia","category-japan","category-korea","category-malaysia","category-southeast-asia","category-thailand","tag-afc-champions-league","tag-asia","tag-japan","tag-johor-darul-tazim","tag-malaysia","tag-nagoya-grampus","tag-pohang-steelers","tag-ratchaburi-mitr-phol","tag-slider","tag-south-korea","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25994,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992\/revisions\/25994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}