SEOUL-- Ulsan Hyundai FC may have won the South Korean football championship last year, but head coach Hong Myung-bo insisted on Monday his mindset hasn't changed.
"We want to go into the new season with the same approach. We won't necessarily try to defend anything," Hong said at the K League 1 media day on Monday. Ulsan will kick off the 2023 season against the 2022 runners-up, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, on Saturday.
"We want to tackle a fresh set of challenges and chart a new path," Hong said. "We will do the best we can in every match, just as we've done all along."
After finishing in second place to Jeonbuk in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Ulsan finally exorcised their demons last year to win their first K League 1 title since 2005.
That spoiled Jeonbuk's bid to win a record sixth consecutive title. And Jeonbuk head coach Kim Sang-sik said Monday he will try to start a new streak.
"Our goal is to do something that's never been done before and lift three major trophies," Kim said, referring to winning the K League 1, the FA Cup and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League in the same season. "We will also try to go undefeated at home."
Ulsan and Jeonbuk are once again expected to duke it out for the league title. Incheon United, which finished a franchise-best fourth last season, could hang around the top-four once again this year.
"It's an honor to be mentioned alongside other contenders," Incheon head coach Jo Sung-hwan said. "There's obviously some pressure on us. But I think we're good enough to be in the top four with Ulsan and Jeonbuk."
Predictably, Ulsan will have a bull's-eye on their back this season. Teams will play each other three times in the first phase of the season, before the top six and the bottom six are split into two tiers for the final stretch.
When asked which opponent they'd like to beat all three times in 2023, the majority picked Ulsan.
"If we can beat Ulsan three times, we should be able to win the championship," Jeonbuk captain Hong Jeong-ho said.
Rim Chang-woo of Gangwon FC, whose team hasn't beaten Ulsan since May 2012, added, "I know a lot of people here have picked Ulsan and we're in the same boat. We just want to beat them once this year for a change."
The 2023 season will welcome two new participants that earned a promotion from the second-tier K League 2: Gwangju FC and Daejeon Hana Citizen FC.
Gwangju ran the table in the K League 2 last year, setting the league record with 86 points. Their head coach Lee Jung-hyo said he couldn't wait to show people what his team is made of.
"Our goal isn't just to avoid being relegated," Lee said. "We'll show fans of other teams what our brand of football is all about."
Daejeon coach Lee Min-sung chimed in, "It took us eight years to get to this stage. We'll do our best to stay here."
Source: Yonhap News Agency