Pohang Steelers v Johor Darul Ta’zim: a defender short, and a lead the opener could not keep

Johor Darul Ta’zim travel to Pohang Steelers for League Stage 2 of the AFC Champions League on 13 October, and they travel without Eddy Israfilov. Stadium Astro reported that the Spanish-born defender is serving a two-match AFC suspension, which also rules him out of the home match against Port FC on 27 October.

Where the suspension came from

The ban is a legacy of the opener. Johor Darul Ta’zim drew 1-1 with Buriram United at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri on 15 September. Stadium Astro reported that Israfilov was sent off in that match. Johor Darul Ta’zim scored in the 26th minute and Buriram United equalised after 43 minutes. The campaign so far reads as a single draw.

That is the plain record, and it is worth being plain about what it does not show. A draw at home against Buriram United is not a collapse, and a single result is a thin base for any wider judgement about a season in a competition this long. It is also not nothing. A side that goes ahead at home and is level before the break has left something on the table, and the place to recover it is away from home.

The road ahead

The league stage is already drawn in full. After the trip to Pohang and the visit of Port FC on 27 October, Johor Darul Ta’zim go to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors at the Jeonju World Cup Stadium on 3 November. They visit Ratchaburi on 24 November and host Daejeon Hana Citizen at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium on 1 December. The campaign resumes in 2027 with a trip to Newcastle Jets on 9 February and a home match against Công An Nhân Dân on 16 February.

Read that list as a whole and the shape is clear: Pohang is the first of the away trips, with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Ratchaburi and Newcastle Jets still to come. StraitScore’s view: the opener left points on the table, and Pohang is the first chance to recover them away from home.

A busy week at home first

The trip also follows a cup tie. The club’s own matchday post had Johor Darul Ta’zim at home to Penang FC in the second leg of the Malaysia FA Cup quarter-final on 9 October, at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium. So the squad goes from a domestic knockout tie to a continental away match inside the same stretch of days.

What will decide it

So what, in the end, decides a match like this one?

Start with what will not. The temptation is to make it about the draw itself, as if one result defines a side. It does not; one match is too small a sample to carry that weight. Nor is it about the venue alone, because Pohang is far from the last away trip on the calendar.

The real questions are narrower. First, the back line. Israfilov is unavailable for this match and for the visit of Port FC, Stadium Astro reported, so whoever replaces him has to settle into a defence that conceded in the opener. Second, holding an advantage. Against Buriram United, Johor Darul Ta’zim went ahead and were pegged back before half-time. Third, and only third, the cup tie before it, whose demands nobody outside the club can measure.

StraitScore’s view is that the first of those carries the most weight. The suspension is known in advance, and the goal conceded against Buriram United is the only evidence yet of how this defence holds in the competition. The answer in Pohang will come from that end of the pitch.

Pohang Steelers host Johor Darul Ta’zim at the Pohang Steel Yard in Pohang on Tuesday 13 October, kicking off at 6pm Malaysian time.