K League 'No. 1 Pass Speed' Jeju and J League are 10th... Decisive difference between Korea and Japan [Lee Jong Sung's Sports Culture & Industry]

*This content was translated by AI.

Last month, the CIES (International Centre for Sports Research) released interesting data for 915 clubs in football leagues in 58 countries around the world.

What CIES announced is the ranking of ball-friendly clubs. The proximity of the pass, the speed of the pass when attacking, the time of owning the ball and the number of passes coming below the knee in the opponent's team's final third (about 32-36m from the opponent's goal) were used as indicators to evaluate this.

According to the report, Bayern Munich (Germany) was the most ball-friendly soccer club in the world. Bayern Munich took first place in the speed of the pass in the attack and second place in the time of ball possession.

Bayern Munich manager Bangsang Kongpani (40) was heavily influenced by Pep Guardiola (56, Manchester City) when he played for Manchester City. Therefore, coach Kongpani values ball possession and prefers build-up through organic passes from the back. This is the main reason why Bayern Munich was evaluated as a ball-friendly soccer club.

Paris Saint-Germain (France), ranked second in the 2024-2025 UEFA Champions League. He was first in ball possession time and second in pass speed in attack.

FC Barcelona (Spain) and Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) ranked third and fourth after Paris Saint-Germain.

CIES' ball friendly club rankings can also be found by league. In the K-League, Gimcheon Sangmu, led by head coach Chung Jung-yong (57, Jeonbuk Hyundai) last season, was counted as the most ball-friendly club. Gimcheon Sangmu ranked first in the K-League in low-ball passes and close-range passes in the opponent's final third, and also ranked third in the speed of the pass.

After Gimcheon Sangmu, Ulsan HD, FC Seoul, and Jeju SK FC ranked second to fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Gwangju FC, which was led by coach Lee Jung-hyo (51, Suwon Samsung), ranked first in the K-League in ball share. This is interpreted as reflecting the characteristics of coach Lee Jung-hyo, who pursues a high ball possession of about 60% regardless of opponent.

Coach Lee Jung-hyo, who will lead Suwon Samsung in the K2 (second division) ahead of the 2026 season, also led the game with a 58% ball possession in the first game of this season against Seoul E-Land FC.

Compared to the K-League, the J-League of Japanese professional football had more ball-friendly clubs. Several factors played a role in this, but the biggest difference from K-League clubs was the speed of the pass.

The index of Jeju SK, which ranked first in pass speed among the 12 clubs in the first division of the K League, was 1.069. However, if you compare this figure with the 20 J-League first division clubs, it is low enough to rank 10th.

Cerezo Osaka, which was analyzed as the fastest-passing club in the J-League, was 1.223. Ranked 21st out of 915 clubs worldwide, it was a step higher than Manchester City in the English Premier League. In addition, Kashiwa Reysol, who ranked second in the J-League pass speed, also ranked 30th out of 915 clubs.

This is basically because the J League is focusing on rapid pass development. In particular, the quick pass from a short distance to instantly neutralize the opponent's defense line has become a feature of the Japanese national team as well as the J-League.

On top of that, the J League has been making efforts to increase the proportion of high-intensity sprints in which players sprint more than 20km/h to more than 10% of all sprints since 2023. J-League clubs consider high-intensity sprint ratio improvement to be the most necessary factor to play fast passing games.

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*This content was translated by AI.