Daejeon Hana Citizens will play their first Korea Cup match.
Daejeon Hana Citizen will face Jinju Minsan Football Club in the third round of the 2024 Hana Bank Korea Cup at Jinju Stadium on Sunday at 7 p.m. The team’s first match of the tournament will be against the Jinju Minsan Football Club.
The team has been on a bad run since the start. After seven rounds of the ‘Hana Bank K League 1 2024’, the team has only one win and is down to 12th place. Their schedule is also tight. They have already played three games this month. 현금홀덤사이트 The team has been struggling with injuries.
It’s definitely a crisis. But if we don’t overcome this crisis, we could face even bigger challenges. We need to recover our momentum and get results.
This is why we are looking forward to the Korea Cup despite the tight schedule. We’ve been lacking in wins, so we need to use these matches to boost our confidence.
There is another motivation. The Korea Cup champions will qualify for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League (ACL) in the 2025-26 season. If they finish in the top four of the league, they will go directly to the Champions League Elite (ACLE), while if they finish fifth or lower, they will play in ACL2.
Their first opponent in the Korea Cup will be Jinju of the K4 League. They upset Chungnam Asan FC in the second round. The team has a number of former K League players who are currently serving in the military. Key players include Lee Kwang-joon, Park Jae-woo, and Kim Bo-yong, as well as Daejeon native and current Pearl captain Gong Gong-hoon.
Daejeon has to juggle the league and the Korea Cup at the same time. It is likely that the team will use a rotation that takes fitness into account. In the third round of the Korea Cup last season, they utilized their B team players.
New faces are expected for this match as well. First up are players from the club’s affiliated Chungnam Machinery High School. There’s midfielder Lee Jun-kyu, who has scored three goals in four K4 League games. Striker Kim Min-ki, who has one goal and two assists, is also expected. The club’s second semi-professional signing, Yoon Do-young, is also looking sharp. It doesn’t end there. There’s also Bae Seo-joon, the mythical hero of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Argentina 2023 quarterfinals. Add to that players who have been used as rotation resources rather than starters in the center of the first team. Expect a renewed sense of goodwill among the squad.
Daejeon will use the Korea Cup victory as a confidence booster and will look to carry the momentum into the eighth round match against Daegu FC on Sunday, April 21 at DGB Daegu Bank Park.