Seongnam

The Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma club, founded in 1989, is a professional football team in South Korea. With seven league crowns, it is the most successful K-League club in terms of Championship victories. The club is the most successful in Korean football history, having won the K-League Championship 7 times, and twice winning 3 consecutive wins. Seongnam placed 5th in the IFFHS best Asian Clubs of the 20th Century.

Colours and crest

The current crest has been used since 2006. The number of stars (7) indicates the number of league trophies the club has lifted. The flying horse(Korean: 천마 (Chunma), Korean Unicorn) on the crest is the mascot of the club, which is a legendary animal in Korean mythology. The colours have meanings as well; yellow means progressive attitude, red shows passion, and blue means the world as it is the colour of the sky.

Connection to Unification Church

There is controversy over Seongnam, since it is owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Therefore, some Christians in Seongnam have been against the club, being hostile to the club's plans to construct a new stadium and a club house.

History

The club's original franchise was Seoul and its club name was Ilhwa Chunma. The club was successful from its beginning, winning the Adidas Cup in 1992 and three consecutive titles from 1993 to 1995. But the club was forced to move in 1996, as part of the K-League's decentralization policy. This policy was carried out due to two reasons. In 1995, Korea was under bidding for the2002 FIFA World Cup. So the first reason was that the KFA and the K-League wanted to build a soccer-specific stadium in Seoul and the second reason was that the KFA and the K-League wanted to spread football fever to the provinces. Three clubs based in Seoul- Ilhwa Chunma, LG Cheetahs, Yukong Kokkiri didn't accept this policy. But the Korean government gave eviction orders to the 3 clubs. But they guaranteed if clubs built a soccer-specific stadium in Seoul, clubs could have a Seoul franchise and then return to Seoul. As a result, three clubs were evicted from Seoul to other cities, Ilhwa Chunma moved to the city of Cheonan, and changed its name to Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma.

Several unsuccessful seasons followed, and when they finished at the bottom of the league for the second time in 1999, the club moved up to the Seoul satellite city of Seongnam and renamed themselves Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. The move worked out very well, as the rejuvenated club went on to win the 2001, 2002 and 2003 K-League championships.

A disappointing 2004 campaign saw them meekly relinquish their title, but they reached the final of the Asian Champions League, where despite winning the away leg 3-1, they lost the home leg 5-0 to the Saudi Arabian team Al-Ittihad and lost the tie 6-3 on aggregate.

The club bounced back to the forefront of Korean football in style as they claimed their seventh K-League championship in 2006, defeating Suwon Samsung Bluewings 3-1 on aggregate in the championship playoff final. This was their 7th time to become K-League champions which is the highest championship record of all time in the K-League.

Before they were defeated by Suwon Samsung Bluewings 2-1 on 15 July 2007, they had not lost for 22 consecutive league matches. It was the third longest streak in the history of the K-league.

In the championship playoff final 2007, they were defeated by Pohang Steelers 4-1 on aggregate. Despite finishing first place in the K-League, they failed to become a champion which brought up the controversy of the playoffs.

In 2008 they have moved their home stadium to Seongnam 1 Stadium for their summer season, due to the rebuilding of Tancheon Sports Complex. However, due to the delay of reconstruction of Tancheon Sports Complex they came back to their home stadium.

Brasileiros do Al Wahda pegam Seongnam visando semifinais (11/12/2010)

Abu Dhabi (Emirados Árabes Unidos)

O anfitrião Al Wahda, com a força dos brasileiros Magrão, Fernando Baiano e Hugo, e o Seongnam Chunma, da Coreia do Sul, se enfrentam neste sábado, às 14 horas (horário de Brasília), no Estádio Mohammad Bin Zayed, em Abu Dhabi, em confronto que vai definir o rival da Inter de Milão nas semifinais do Mundial de Clubes da Fifa. Para os coreanos, o confronto marca a estreia na competição. Já o time da casa se credenciou ao fazer 3 a 0, no meio de semana, no Hekari United, de Papua-Nova Guiné, no jogo de abertura deste Mundial.

O austríaco Josef Hickersberger, técnico do Al Wahda, pediu aos seus jogadores que esqueçam esse confronto de estreia, pois entende que sua equipe vai encontrar muito mais dificuldades contra o Seongnam.

"Respeitamos o Hekari, mas o nível do futebol de Papua-Nova Guiné é muito diferente do que vamos encontrar pela frente contra os coreanos, que têm velocidade e muita habilidade. Para nós a competição começa agora", garantiu Hickersberger.

O treinador do time anfitrião aposta na boa fase dos brasileiros. Além de jogarem bem, o meia Hugo e o atacante Fernando Baiano marcaram os gols que abriram o caminho para a vitória da equipe dos Emirados Árabes, que chegou ao torneio por ser a atual campeã do país sede.

Já o Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma se classificou para o Mundial após derrotar os iranianos do Zob Ahan na final da Liga dos Campeões da Ásia. Foi o primeiro título continental do clube, fundado em 1989 e que se tornou uma das principais forças do futebol sul-coreano, tendo conquistado por duas vezes consecutiva o tricampeonato nacional.

A equipe atual tem como principal atração o meia colombiano Mauricio Molina, que até o ano passado defendia as cores do Santos. Outra estrela da equipe é o atacante montenegrino Dzenan Radoncic, conhecido pela frieza com que conclui as jogadas. O comando do Seongnam pertence ao técnico Shin Tae-Yong, muito ligado ao clube por já ter sido seu capitão quando atuava como atleta. Ele esbanja otimismo para essa estreia.

"Nós nos preparamos muito para esse Mundial e chegou a hora de colocarmos em prática tudo aquilo que treinamos. Como o trabalho foi muito bem feito, estou confiante", explicou o comandante.

FICHA TÉCNICA 

AL WAHDA-EAU x SEONGNAM CHUNMA-COR

Local: Estádio Mohammad Bin Zayed, em Abu Dhabi (Emirados Árabes Unidos) 

Data: 11 dezembro de 2010, sábado 

Horário: 14 horas (de Brasília) 

Árbitro: Victor Carrillo (Peru) 

Assistentes: Jonny Bossio e Jorge Yupanqui (ambos do Peru)

AL WAHDA: Adel Al Hosani, Basheer Saeed, Haidar Ali, Mahmoud Al Hammadi e Eisa Ahmed; Hamdan Al Kamali, Magrão, Fahed Masoud e Hugo; Ismaeil Matar e Fernando Baiano 

Técnico: Josef Hickersberger

SEONGNAM: Sung-Ryong Jung, Sasa Ognenovski, Byung-Kuk Cho, Jae-Sung Ko e Sung-Hwan Kim; Kwang-Jin Cheon, Sang Hee Park, Dong-Geon Cho e Molina; Sung-Kuk Choi e Radoncic 

Técnico: Shin Tae-Yong