FC Seoul will play Oz team in ACL semifinal

FC Seoul, led by Coach Choi Yong-soo, will face the Western Sydney Wanderers FC of Australia in the first-leg semifinal of the Asian Champions League (ACL) at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

The Australians are the biggest surprise of the tournament after having beaten the defending champion Guangzhou Evergrande FC of China, who defeated FC Seoul in last year’s ACL final.

“I really wanted to take revenge against Guangzhou, but we will face an opponent that we didn’t expected to,” Coach Choi said yesterday. “But this Australian team also is a great team and hard to beat. We will carefully prepare for the match.”

FC Seoul, however, can’t field its star midfielder Yun Il-lok, as he is playing for the Korean national U-23 football team in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

Spanish defender Osmar Barba will also miss the match due to accumulated yellow cards.

One thing that FC Seoul has on their side is that they have beaten another Australian team in the ACL twice, the Central Coast Mariners. FC Seoul’s home game win percentage for ACL games since 2009 is 74 percent - 13 wins, five draws and three losses.

By Kwon Sang-soo