Daegu FC vs. Pohang Steelers Betting Preview With Pick – K League 1, May 16

Two of the clubs thought to have the best chance of challenging Jeonbuk and Ulsan at the top of the league this year meet on the second weekend of the new K League 1 season.

Pohang Steelers will feel as though its AFC Champions League experience will count for a lot this year and might believe that a second win of the season is certainly achievable in Daegu.

Read on for my Daegu FC vs. Pohang Steelers prediction and betting pick.

BetOnline has made the home side the slight favorite for this one, but it is a very close-run thing, and that is probably fair considering how impressive Pohang Steelers looked last week. Its resurgence towards the end of last season was obviously just a taste of things to come, and the Steelers do look like doing well this term. The draw — or even the away win — might be of interest here.

After managing to keep hold of Brazilian midfielder Cesinha and surprisingly bringing in Montenegrin striker Dejan Damjanovic, the goalless draw that Daegu played out last weekend with Incheon United was a little bit of a disappointment. It was the first game of the season, so the team should not be criticized too much, but I feel more was expected from this team.

A comfortable home win would have been very welcome for manager Lee Byeong-geun, but he will probably be happy that his side was able to keep a clean sheet at least, considering that South Korea international keeper Jo Hyeon-woo left the club for Ulsan in the offseason.

But there will need to be another strong defensive showing from the home side this week if Pohang Steelers is not to record its second successive win of the season. Busan IPark was the spirited opponent last week, but the newly promoted club was no match for the speed of the Steelers’ play.

Busan could also not deal with the towering heading ability of Stanislav Iljutcenko, who met cross after cross, from the right hand side of the pitch in particular. He scored the first with a perfectly timed glancing header before a penalty confirmed the result in the second half. It looks like the Steelers mean business this year.

This could be one of the games of the weekend in South Korea, as these two sides have an enormous amount of talent at their disposal. Pohang has been the quicker of the two out of the blocks, but I believe that Daegu will want to up its game from last week and should be able to match its opponent this Saturday.

You can find more betting opportunities in our predictions and picks blog.