Pohang Steelers vs Gangwon

Pohang Steel Yard is the venue as Pohang Steelers and Gangwon lock horns in the Korean FA Cup quarter-finals.

The last FA Cup round offered Pohang Steelers plain sailing as they netted twice within an opening half an hour in a 3-0 demolition of second-tier Geongnam. But a lack of consistency has since troubled Kim Gi-dong’s side as they’ve alternated between winning (3) and not (D1, L1) in their last five outings. Even those victories lacked conviction, with each featuring a single-goal margin, suggesting a place in the semi-finals is anything but a foregone conclusion. For the sake of argument, the hosts have played Gangwon twice without winning in 2023 (D2), failing to find the net before halftime on both occasions. On a more positive note, they’ve reigned supreme at Pohang Steel Yard lately, stitching together three straight wins since a 2-0 defeat to Incheon United in April.

In the meantime, a come-from-behind 3-2 win at lower-league outfit Gimpo in the last FA Cup round toward the end of May looks like distant history following Gangwon’s recent rotten patch. The visitors have lost winning touch in the aftermath, going winless across their last five matches (D2, L3), four of which saw them score under 1.5 goals. Since that cup victory stands as their solitary success on six competitive travels since the start of May (D2, L3), Gangwon can get an understanding of why the odds are stacked against them. And if that’s not enough to dampen their spirits, a humiliating 11-game winless streak away to Pohang may amplify the sense of powerlessness (D4, L7).