Osmar Ibáñez believes that unity and having a well-balanced team will be key for Seoul E-Land when they face ?? in the 2024 Haa Bank K League 2 playoffs this Sunday.
Osmar has the opportunity to be a part of Seoul E-Land history, should the decorated Spaniard guide the Leopards into the top flight for the first time.
Osmar made his name in Korea just north of the River Han, but departed FC Seoul in the winter with the club seemingly deciding to start a phase of rebuilding.
FC Seoul’s loss is Seoul E-Land’s gain, though, and Osmar’s calm-headedness, his experience and quality have helped the Leopards claw their way up to third in the K League 2 table. That in itself is a club record having only ever reached the playoffs once before in 2015.
Since then, it’s been a bit up and down, mostly down. After the 2015 fourth-place finish, Seoul E-Land finished sixth the year after, eighth the year after that, then bottom for two seasons in a row. The club rebounded in 2020 and only just missed out on the playoffs but then in the following three years the club recorded ninth, seventh, and 11th place finishes.
Seoul E-Land could’ve finished as K League 2 runners-up which would have secured a place in the promotion-relegation playoff with 11th in K League 1, but a 4-0 loss to Jeonnam on the final day, coupled with Chungnam Asan’s win over Chungbuk Cheongju, meant Kim Do-kyun and his team had to settle for third and a place in a final of sorts for the K League 2 playoffs.
What Osmar and his teammates aim to do now is overcome Jeonnam Dragons/Busan IPark but what’s the mood like in the camp after that shock 4-0 reverse at home?
“I would say that obviously, after the game, directly, the mood was bad. Then we had a few days off to forget about it. And since we came back for training, everything looks fine. I think we are all aware that what happened was a mistake, it cannot happen the same thing again. And I can see the players more involved in training, having more intensity so I think we know what the situation is and actually, we had yesterday (Sunday 17th) another day off. So I’m looking forward to coming back to training this week and seeing where we are in terms of mindset and these kinds of things.”
With the international break, Osmar admits he’s had a lot of time to think: “I spent some time regretting the last game, to be honest. We’ve had some time to think about what we could have had, we could have had more if we won the last game. So yeah, it was a bit of everything, regretting and thinking what went wrong, what the next game might look like, who, who we might play against, a little bit of everything.”
At the time of the interview, 10 AM on Monday 18th November, Seoul E-Land didn’t know who they’d be facing. Jeonnam Dragons vs. Busan IPark didn’t kick off until Thursday 21st November, but although there isn’t a lot of time before Sunday’s game once it is known who their opponents are, Osmar says that it’s important not to completely focus on the opposition.
“Not really,” he says when asked if he had a preference. “Because, I truly believe that we are a good team, good enough not to worry too much about the opponent. I know we have not a good history against Jeonnam. We haven’t beaten them this year, but again, I really trust our team, our qualities, our strengths. And, in my opinion, there is this little difference between changing everything on your identity according to the opponent, and preparing for the opponent. We have to prepare. Obviously have to regardless of who it is, we know we have played already three games against each team. So when we kind of know what might come and we have to prepare, obviously, but I wouldn’t focus everything on the opponent and forget about us, forget about our strengths and qualities and everything. So it’s this little balance, you know, not to forget how good we can be also.”
The 4-0 loss to Jeonnam on the last day of the season may well help Seoul E-Land ward off any signs of complacency, to serve as a wake-up call.
“This is something that has been happening all season for us. We haven’t been able to win three games in a row. Every time we win two, then we have, I don’t know, step back or something psychological, but it happened. So I would like to think that the last game we lost something, but we didn’t lose too much, and it can be a wake-up call, a good wake-up call for us to face the next game more focused than than the last one.”
But Osmar also says people shouldn’t read too much into that 4-0 loss, as it wasn’t as if Seoul E-Land were given a hiding.
“I think last game could be a little confusing, because of their big result. I wouldn’t say the game was to lose 4-0. Actually, we had more of the ball. We kind of, let’s say, play a little better, but without being dangerous, and the goals came from our own mistakes. It’s not like they destroy, they control, they dominate. So it can be a little confusing because of the big result, but we did some good things, and in my opinion, the bad things we did were pretty much duels. Not aggressive enough, not being all the players involved at the same time, maybe not understanding what the game needed properly.”
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Seoul E-Land, with home advantage, don’t actually need to win the game; a draw will do.
“It’s something new to me, for sure, and I don’t know what could be, fair to be honest, because just two professional divisions, not many teams, and sometimes it’s a big difference between bigger clubs and smaller clubs. It might not sound fair, but at some point, you have to reward who’s been higher in the table after the season. The season is fair, you know? After 36 games, you are where you are supposed to be. You were not unlucky after 36 games. So if you were good enough to be higher, why not have a little advantage? Anyway, you will have to face a first division team also. So yeah, I don’t think it’s too bad to have an advantage before you face a K1 team. Because, yeah, you will have the biggest challenge coming later. So, yeah, why not make it a little easier until that point?”
What quality, then, does Osmar think will give Seoul E-Land an advantage in the playoffs?
“Unity, probably. Let me explain. We are not a team with an individual player, with a player who scored 15 goals, with a main player. These kinds of teams, everyone has one foreigner, two foreigners who pretty much do everything and the team moves according to them and responds to them. They are in charge of making the points, basically. We are not that team. We are a well-balanced team, we have good defenders, good full backs, midfielders, attacking players and we also have the same quality behind on the bench and even the players who don’t get selected for the team. So, I would say the unity of the team compensates – if you can put it like that – maybe for a lack of individual quality sometimes, which is good as well. It made us the top-scoring team in the league anyways. So, unity and a well-balanced team.”
To hear what Osmar says about Kim Do-kyu’s attacking philosophy, what he thinks about the promotion-relegation system in K League, his goal-scoring form this season, the major difference between K League 1 and 2, his theory as to why Seoul E-Land have struggled in recent years, and much more, tune into the K League United Podcast, or what highlights of the interview on YouTube.
