From Macedonia, With Love
Last week the Pohang Steelers soccer team traveled to Tashkent to play FC Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan. After a bit of extremely poor refereeing in the first leg - a Korean player gets elbowed by an Uzbek and it's the Korean who gets kicked out of the game, wtf - the two sides met once more, this time at The Steelyard in Pohang city. The match took place at 18:30 on a weekday but there were still quite a few fans in attendance. Pohang needed to win the match 2:0 or score three more goals than their opponents from Central Asia in order to advance. And what happened?
46' Kim Jae-Sung scores for Pohang (1:0, aggregate score of 2:3)
57' Denilson scores for Pohang (2:0, aggregate score of 3:3)
77' Denilson scores for Pohang (3:0, aggregate score of 4:3)
89' Victor Karpenko scores for Bunyodkor (3:1, aggregate score of 4:4)
Bunyodkor scored in the final minute of the match, leaving both sides with a 3:1 victory in their home stadium. Next came extra time, with Pohang's Macedonian striker Stevo (Stevica Ristić) grabbing the winner in minute 102. Exciting stuff, and I'd be remiss if I didn't include a video of the highlights. Understandably, after Denilson's first goal the Pohang crowd goes absolutely apeshit:
Click to view112' Stevo scores for Pohang (4:1, aggregate score of 5:4) Pohang are through to the semi-finals!!