Asia Comment: Pohang Steelers A Team With No Stars But The Most Successful Club In Asian History

 Back in April, few would have thought that the Pohang Steelers would, before the year was out, become the most successful team in Asian history and represent that continent on the world stage at FIFA’s Club World Cup. 

At the end of April, the Steelers were languishing in tenth place in the K-League and in the group stage of the Asian Champions League, were struggling to score with just two goals from the first four games. 

It is hard to imagine now especially after the four-time Korean champions have won an unprecedented third Asian title. The 2-1 victory over Al Ittihad in Tokyo on Saturday night is sure to be the highlight of the Steelers’ season.


It is a season that is not yet over however. Pohang, who have lost just once in Asia this season, have also lost just once in 20 K-League matches and are in with a great chance of winning a fifth domestic title.

They also have a possible match with European champions Barcelona to look forward to - not bad for a team from an unfashionable industrial city on the south-east coast of South Korea.  

The final in Tokyo on Saturday not only ended Al Ittihad’s perfect record against Korean teams in the competition, it extends East Asia’s dominance. Two Korean and two Japanese successes since Al Ittihad’s 2005 triumph mean that the round trophy is becoming a permanent fixture in East Asia.

It was a finely-balanced match and the prize could have gone back to Jeddah. Al Ittihad had chances but as the game progressed, it was Pohang who took the lead, took the initiative and started to take control. Al Ittihad pulled a goal back with 15 minutes remaining but the expected onslaught on the Steelers goal never really happened.


As far as the Korean media is concerned, the Steelers’ strength comes in part from the ‘Farias Magic’. This term was coined back in 2007 when Pohang came from nowhere to win the K-League title. A series of unexpected wins at Gyeongnam, Ulsan, Suwon and Seongnam gave the Gyeongsang Province team an unlikely title.

The Steelers lacked consistency last season and were disappointing in the Asian Champions League but ever since winning 2-0 at Kawasaki Frontale in the final game of the group stage in the 2009 version, they have been a revelation at home and abroad. 

In the five knockout games before the final, Pohang scored fifteen times. Six came in one match against Newcastle Jets of Australia with five coming over 180 minutes against the highly-fancied Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan in the quarter-final.


Players such as Denilson, Kim Hyung-il and Choi Hyo-jin were starting to become known around Asia. Still, especially when Pohang faced Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men, the Seoul media painted the team as one with no stars.

In some ways it was true. No Pohang player has been a regular squad member for the national team for some time, never mind an automatic starter.  

That has been a plus for Pohang. With 49 games already played in less than eight months since the season started, the Steelers have benefitted from the fact that none of their best travelled the continent to help the national team qualify for the 2010 World Cup.  

With Pohang crowned champions of Asia, the likes of Choi and Kim, and the hitherto completely unsung Kim Jae-sung, may have a chance of breaking into the first team. They deserve a try. 

Pohang  also deserve praise for the way they have played and the fact that the team, not one of Korea’s biggest or richest, has improved as the season has progressed.

They deserve praise for playing attacking and aggressive football and they deserve praise for becoming the most successful club in Asian history.

John Duerden

Asia Editor

john.duerden@goal.com