The main topic of this year’s professional football K-League is the fall of Ulsan HD. At the start of the season, most of the team’s managers listed last year’s winner Ulsan as the number one favorite. But when I opened the lid it was completely different. As the season draws to a close, Ulsan is fighting to stay, not to win.
The gap between Ulsan, ranked 9th, and Suwon FC, ranked 10th in the relegation zone, is only two points. If Ulsan falls below 10th place after the last game of the season on the 30th of next month, it will face a bigger crisis: it will have to face K League 2 (second division) teams in promotion and playoffs.
Ulsan, which was at the top of K League 1 from 2022 to last year, fell into a long slump due to the aging of the team and the inability to recruit foreign players. But there is a bigger problem. The mutual trust of Ulsan members was broken and mutual respect disappeared.
The real problem Ulsan faced was known after head coach Shin Tae-yong resigned as head coach. Ulsan described the reason for Coach Shin’s dismissal as “poor performance.” However, Coach Shin claimed in various media that Ulsan players and the club were on one side and ruled him out. Regarding the photo of the golf club on the away bus, published and controversial during his nomination, he explained: “It’s different from what we know.”
On the 15th, Director Shin said on his social network (SNS): “It’s my fault that I couldn’t turn back. Now I will support Ulsan from behind,” he wrote, and the incident seemed over. However, Ulsan veteran Lee Chung-yong scored a goal on the 18th and reignited the controversy by holding a “golf ceremony”. Both incidents made it even clearer that there was a gap between the coach and the team.
Organizations that produce the best results in any field have one thing in common. All members fulfill their assigned roles perfectly. In this regard, Ulsan showed nothing this year. The club said it will stay in K League 1 and disclose everything that has happened so far. What Ulsan should instead show their fans first is the change in behavior and mentality of all members.
(Lim Jungwoo, reporter from the Department of Culture and Sports)
