The Central Coast Mariners are all set to enter the AFC Asian Champions league for 2012. This edition will be the 31st, and the second time the Mariners have taken part in Asia’s premier club competition.
For this edition, they have been matched up with a team from each of East Asia’s main leagues: Tianjin Teda of China, Korean Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, and Japan’s Nagoya Grampus. The first game in this group will see the Mariners travel to China on March 7.
Central Coast will be confident leading into this campaign, as they sit comfortably top of the A-League table. Last year’s runners-up in both the league and finals series sit in a group with a distinctive Australian feel.
However, the Mariners’ form has been shaky recently, having to come back from several deficits. The departure of talismanic striker Matt Simon to the K-League will be a big loss to them, and if they make it through to the Round of 16, they will lose Mustafa Amini, who will return to parent club Borussia Dortmund.
Seongnam are a former winner of the tournament, triumphing in 1996 and most recently 2010. They are captained by Socceroo defender Sasa Ognenovski, who won man of the match in the 2010 victory.
Seongnam had a disappointing 2011 though, finishing 10th in the league, and only qualifying as winners of the Korean FA Cup, with the big Australian defender finishing the season as second top scorer with seven goals in all competitions. The man to watch out for is Cho Dong-Geon, with the South Korean international leading the scoring with 11 goals in all competitions.
Next up are Nagoya Grampus, who finished a close second in the J-League, trailing Kashiwa Reysol by only one point. They also reached the round of 16 of the 2011 Champions League, as well as semi-final and quarter-final appearances in Japan’s two domestic cups.
Nagoya has a fearsome forward line, with three players scoring over 10 goals. The biggest threat though is Australia’s Josh Kennedy, who has been prolific at both club and international level, finishing with 19 goals in all competitions for Nagoya, and picking up the J-League Golden Boot award.
Last but not least are Tianjin Teda, coming up from 10th position in the league, but like Seongnam, qualifying as winners of the Chinese FA Cup.
They appeared in last year’s Champions League as a result of a second-place finish in the 2010 Chinese Super League, reaching the round of 16. During this, they faced Melbourne Victory twice, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 1-2 in Melbourne.
With this in mind, I believe that Nagoya will top the group, with the Mariners qualifying a close second. Seongnam and Tianjin are inconsistent teams, and while their last year has shown that on their day they can provide an upset, their poor league record leads me to believe that the runners-up in from the Japanese and Australian competitions will be the ones to reach the round of 16.
Keep checking in in the coming days for detailed previews of Brisbane and Adelaide’s ACL chances.
Tom Seungmin Lee
Guest
Great! thanks for the article. and.. I wrote a long comment for describing Seongnam detailed but it is awaiting moderation. I'm really looking forward to this season's ACL!
Tom Malone
Roar Rookie
I wrote this piece about a week ago, before the transfer madness. i then wrote up this: http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/01/30/how-will-our-a-league-teams-fare-against-asias-best/ I noted in that to disregard this article as it was not fully up to date, and is pretty much a repeat of the last one
Tom Seungmin Lee
Guest
ah and.. for Brisbane Roar, I can give you the info about Ulsan if you want.. hehe
Tom Seungmin Lee
Guest
As a Seongnam fan, I can give you add for this column. I'll let you know that Seongnam is totally different team from last season. 2009, 2010 and 2011 are the three agony seasons in terms of finance, particularly 2011 was the worst, but Shin Tae-yong have made miracles. In 2009, his first year in charge, Seongnam was not everyone's favourite but been to Grand Final (we call it K-League Championship) and runner-up for FA Cup also. 2010, as you well know, even the financial support declined more, SIFC won the AFC Champions League. 2011 the worst, Shin said it's the worst ever season in decades for Seongnam in terms of finance, but he aimed for winning FA cup and did it. Now, Seongnam's sugar daddy came back up front and they bought really good players - Yoon Bitgaram, some of you might remember he was a candidate of AFC player of the year and recorded AFC goal of the year from Gyeongnam, Vladimir Jovancic who was described by Shin '40 Goal for a Season striker' from Partizan Belgrade, Han Sang-woon one of the most prominent young striker in Korea and current Korean international defender Hwang Jae-won and so forth. I've mentioned above Shin achieved his goal in even his worst-supported season, now his objective is winning K-League and AFC Champions League at once. I'm not sure is there anyone who watched Seongnam's 2012 Asian Challenge Cup games, it was truly amazing regarding they have only been 2 weeks together - for only physical training. They had thrashed out Shimizu S-Pulse and Guangzhou R&F 5-1. Yes, maybe those teams were not the best teams in Asia but the performance Seongnam has shown - made them as one of best candidate for K-League title for this season. Highlights against Shimizu : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrtMpQVgFAg Moreover, one last tip is, what Shin said about AFC Champions League is, they are more focusing on ACL for 1st phase this year. and after Summer they are going to climb the ladder in K-League. That's what they thought. So I think Mariners would never get any easy game in Tancheon Sports Complex.
Tom Seungmin Lee
Guest
Unfortunately, Tom.. Cho Donggun moved to Suwon this monday. :)
Midfielder
Guest
Tom Nice write up hopefully the players in the youth team will come good as well to support the senior team...