Week 22: Big Review of K League 2 | OneFootball

Leaders FC Anyang suffered a surprising home defeat to Busan IPark, despite dominating most of the game. Rodrigo Bassani is probably the league's most underrated player, and heart-break for Cheonan, Ansan, and Seongnam who all lost at the death. These are the main talking points from Round 22.

Jeonnam Dragons 3 (Ha Nam 26 and 34', Choi Seong-jin 45')

Chungnam Asan FC 2 (Choi Chi-won 82', Kim Jong-seok 96')

Gwangyang Football Stadium

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Asan players react to their narrow loss.

2nd vs. 3rd in Gwangyang went the way of the hosts, Jeonnam, who look like the real deal this season. Their 11th win of the year helped in no small part by Ha Nam's first half brace, moving him on to seven for the campaign. His first came from an hilarious defensive blunder. The brilliant Valdivia, as ever, was the difference maker. His right-footed deliveries caused endless problems for the Asan backline. His cross for the third goal, especially, was a peach.

Asan, the surprise package of the season, will be bitterly disappointed with all three first half goals they conceded. The first one, especially, was absolutely appalling, and not what we've come to expect from the playoff contenders this year. But credit where it is due; the fightback gave us a realistic indication of where they are this campaign. The fightback began on 82 minutes, thanks to a wicked deflection from Choi Chi-won's long range effort. The second, with three minutes to spare, gave Asan an unlikely fighting chance.

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Late drama was the theme of the day, across both leagues on Saturday. Much like Suwon below, Cheongju stole all three points deep into injury time. The win keeps Cheongju firmly in the play-off picture and ensured they didn't draw their 11th game of the year. After 44 minutes of toiling and half-chances, Cheongju scored a beautiful team goal on the stroke of half time. Cheongju worked some space but the timing of the pass, and then the run, were perfection. Kim Byeong-oh slotting home.

When the winning goal went in, every Ansan player sank to their feet. It was a cruel blow but, on balance of play, deserved. The winner wasn't something special like the opener. A soft cross from the right struck Jeong Yong-hee's leg, wrong-footing Chu Hyeon-seong in goals. Ansan aren't a good team, but then neither are two or three ahead of them. The gap to tenth is just four points.

Cheonan City FC 1 (Paulinho 45+2')

Suwon Samsung 2 (Lee Kyu-dong 77', Kim Sang-jun 91')

Cheonan Stadium

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The proverbial game of two halves on a stormy Saturday evening in Cheonan. The hosts absolutely dominated possession in the opening half, but had to wait until the stroke of half-time before their endeavors reaped rewards. The brilliant Paulinho scored his eighth of the season. Both he and Mota, who went agonizingly close twice, were by far the two best players on the pitch. If they were in the dark blue corner, Suwon would be in the top 3.

Suwon, however, turned it around in the second half. If Cheonan's plan was to sit back and hang on, it certainly didn't work. They were overpowered and outrun, especially down Suwon's left. Park Seung-su was destroyer-in-chief, causing havoc alongside the overlapping debutant Bae Seo-jun. It was a poor day for Serbian striker Fejsal Mulić. In the warm-up, fans were laughing at the number of times he missed the target but they weren't laughing when he spurned two great chances in the opening half. Mulić was replaced at the break. Is this the last time we see one of the league's great entertainers?

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All smiles in Mokdong after a late rally seals three points.

Seongnam are so awful right now that it must have come as some sort of shock to the 3,000 inside Mokdong on Sunday night that, with three minutes remaining, they were in a position to win a game. Instead, they shipped two late goals to record their fourth defeat in five before they embark on a midweek Cup adventure to Gwangju. At this point, Seongnam, now 12th, looked like the worst-managed club in professional Korean football, on and off the field. To think they were seen as play-off dark horses four months ago.

Seoul E-Land jumped up to third on the back of this win, and with Anyang dropping points, automatic promotion is again on the table. They opened the scoring a minute into the second half, conceded two minutes later, before relying on a peach from Kim Kyul to seal the three points. Osmar made it comfortable at the end.

[READ: What Daejeon going down means for the club]

FC Anyang 0

Busan IPark 2  (Lamas 45+3' and 63')

Anyang Stadium

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Busan celebrates a smash and grab win.

This was a bad day for the table-toppers but it could have been so different. Busan keeper Gu Sanng-min pulled off a world class save on 30 minutes from Kim Dong-jin. From the resulting corner, Jo Wi-jae cleared a volley off the line. Eight minutes later, Danrlei smashed the crossbar. The Brazilian would later be stretchered off. Anyang's lead is cut to two points. They need to rebound immediately.

Busan performed a coup of sorts by hiring former Incheon United manager Cho Sung-hwan on Friday. This is a man who led Incheon to back-to-back top six finishes, a Cup semi-final, and their first ever Asian campaign. Park Jin-sub was incapable of sorting out their wildly chaotic form and paid the price. Cho had talent to work with in Incheon, and he certainly does at Busan. Lamas knocked home the match winning brace.

Bucheon FC 1994 1 (Rodrigo Bassani 58')

Gimpo FC 0

Bucheon Stadium

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Bucheon and Gimpo get ready for a corner.

A disappointing result for Gimpo as they prepare to host Jeju United on Wednesday, Worryingly, they selected as close to a first eleven as possible. Does this mean Ko Jeong-eun will rotate his squad on Wednesday, especially given the difficult weather conditions? Hopefully not as the second division club has, in my opinion, more than a 50/50 chance of causing another upset this week. Their defending for the free kick was comical, and that decided the game.

Rodrigo Bassani created and scored the game's only goal. The Brazilian forward charged towards the Gimpo box before Conor Chapman cynically ploughed him down. The incident took place an inch from the penalty box but that didn't matter to Bassani. Despite an intricate defensive wall designed to prevent a low shot, Bassani's free kick never left the turf and rolled into the net. That's five goals and four assists for Bassani this season. Did Suwon make a mistake letting him go?