Incheon United finished the regular season league as the lowest ranking team. If the team remains sluggish in the remaining five games, it will be hard to avoid relegation.
Incheon lost 1-3 to Gangwon in the final 33rd round of the regular season league held at home on Sunday. It was a shameful game in terms of content.
Incheon is the lowest ranking team among the 12 teams with seven wins, 11 draws and 15 losses and 32 points. Incheon will play with five teams one at a time in each of the B groups (ranking 7th to 12th in the lower split). The fate of the teams will be determined by their final ranking. The 12th place will be immediately demoted to the second division. If the 10th and 11th places lose against the top teams in the K League 2 (division 2), they will also be demoted. At least one of the top teams in the first division and up to three teams can be demoted.
Incheon changed its head coach twice this year. Coach Cho Sung-hwan quit the team with four wins, nine draws and eight losses. There is still a controversy over whether to voluntarily resign or be sacked. Since then, acting coach Byun Jae-sup had one win, one draw and two losses, while current coach Choi Young-geun had sluggish performance with two wins, one draw and five losses. When Cho resigned, he ranked ninth to 12th. The two replacements have been a total failure so far.
Incheon needs to upgrade its ranking by at least one level to avoid direct demotion. Ranked 11th with 35 points for Daejeon. Ranked 11th with Jeonbuk, it has 37 points. Incheon needs to secure at least two to three wins in the remaining five games to escape from the last place. However, the problem is poor scoring ability. Incheon has scored only 32 goals in 33 matches. It has less than one goal per game. It is tied with Jeju in scoring ability. It can be tied in defense, but needs a goal to win. However, Incheon did not recruit any players to prepare for the second half of the season. Incheon’s current play is as simple and loose as before. In addition, some say that Choi’s inconsistent leadership is causing complaints from players. 안전놀이터
Incheon often survives dramatically at the end of each season. So the nickname “survival king” was born. Of course, fans would like Incheon to revive, but the reality does not seem that easy. Survival does not seem easy with the difficult-to-understand decision of a club like now and the ability of a coach who lacks professional experience. If the team is demoted, someone must take responsibility unconditionally, but even if it survives, it seems that it will be hard to avoid criticism given the irresponsible decision made by the club.
Why did the club hire a coach who has little experience in professional soccer in the face of demotion? Whether it replaced Cho Sung-hwan or let him quit by mutual agreement, why did the club fail to prepare for the next manager? Then why did it not recruit anyone to rebound in the second half of the year? Was it lack of money or will? On the SNS of Incheon supporters, there are many articles criticizing high-ranking officials in recent months. It seems that reporters are not the only ones who feel doubts about Incheon’s moves over the past few months.
