MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ― South Korea’s FC Seoul and China’s Tianjin Teda made it two wins from two games with home victories in the Asian Champions League on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal beat Al Gharafa 1-0, dealing a setback to Bruno Metsu who was making his debut with the Qatar club after being fired from the country’s national team.
In very cold conditions in the Korean capital, Seoul made the most of its chances to beat China’s Hangzhou Greentown 3-0 while in China, Tianjin Teda beat 2008 Champions League winners Gamba Osaka 2-1.
Gamba Osaka players could have been excused for having their minds elsewhere as Japan struggles to cope with the aftermath of last Friday’s horrific earthquake and tsunami.
FC Seoul’s Ou Kyoung-jun celebrates his goal. (Yonhap News)
Japanese clubs were still fulfilling their away fixtures while home games had been indefinitely postponed due to the disaster, both in the Champions League and the domestic J-League. Nagoya Grampus had been due to host Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, but that was cancelled, as was Wednesday’s game between Kashima Antlers and Australia’s Sydney.
Elsewhere Tuesday, Jeju United won 2-1 away at Australia’s Melbourne Victory, giving the Korean side its first points of the campaign while the Victory suffered successive losses and showed little improvement after firing long-time coach Ernie Merrick in the wake of the 5-1 hammering by Gamba in their first group game.