Jeju United maintained their status as the only K-League side to have gone undefeated at home in 2010 as they defeated Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 1-0 at the Seogwipo World Cup stadium on Sunday to set up a two legged championship playoff final clash with table-toppers FC Seoul this week.
Although the pre-match build-up focused on the race to the 100 K-League career goal mark between Jeonbuk’s Lee Dong-guk (99 goals) and Jeju’s Kim Eun-jung, it was a Brazilian forward who stole the show for United, who finished second overall and three points behind FC Seoul in the regular season standings.
Danilo Montecino Neco was the goal hero for the home side, having entered the fray just two minutes before half time following a disappointing display from Lee Hyun-ho in the Jeju forward line. With fifteen minutes remaining the Brazilian was fed the ball just outside the penalty box by Kim Eun-jung and he fired a powerful shot low past Kwon Soon-tae in the Jeonbuk goal.
Defending champions Jeonbuk replaced defender Sohn Seung-joon with Croatian forward Krunoslav Lovrek soon after conceding the goal, but despite pushing forward for the remainder of the match they were unable to find an equaliser.
Jeju will host FC Seoul on Wednesday December 1st in the first leg of the championship playoff final before travelling to the Seoul World Cup on Sunday December 5th for the decisive second leg when the 2010 K-League champions will be crowned.
2010 K-League Playoff Semi-final (Sunday November 28th, 2010)
Jeju United 1-0 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
