On Saturday at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, some 240 kilometers south of Seoul, K-League's Jeonbuk will host Al Sadd of Qatar in the final of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League. The kickoff is at 7 p.m.
The Motors are seeking their second AFC title in five years, having beaten Al Karamah of Syria in the 2006 final. Al Sadd is after its first championship.
Jeonbuk, which reached the K-League final after finishing first in the regular season, has been an offensive juggernaut in the Champions League. In 11 games through the semifinals, the club has netted 31 goals and given up 10, winning nine of those games.
But to return to the top of Asia, Jeonbuk will likely have to do so without forward Lee Dong-gook. The former national team striker leads the Champions League with nine goals but missed the second leg of the semifinals against Al Ittihad with a calf injury. He remains doubtful for the final and has not yet practiced with the club this week.
The Motors will also miss defender Cho Sung-hwan, their captain, and Croatian forward Krunoslav Lovrek. Cho, who scored in the first leg of the semis, received his second yellow in the second leg and is ineligible. Lovrek was sent off in the dying moments of the second leg, earning himself an automatic one-game suspension.
But Jeonbuk head coach Choi Kang-hee said he still has an abundance of talent that can get the job done.
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