Pohang have lost all three Champions League Elite games, scoring once and conceding eight, and now go into a fourth with a caretaker in charge after Park Tae-ha left by mutual agreement. Gamba arrive unbeaten in six official matches but with a draw-heavy ten-game record and a goalkeeper reshuffle. The thing I'd watch is Pohang's first phase against a very direct, fast opponent: the caretaker himself said the key is how they play through Gamba's press.
Pohang first. Per Kyunghyang Sports the club ended Park's contract on Oct 30, and assistant Kim Sung-jae has led since the Jeju game, a 1-1 draw. In his pre-match comments (MK Sports) he called Gamba's football very direct and fast, and the captain, Jeon Min-gwang, said the players share responsibility for the coach's exit. A new voice can reset effort quickly, but it rarely rewrites build-up patterns in a few days, and our records show 0-3 at Kashima and 0-2 at home to Johor in this competition. That is the part a caretaker has least time to fix.
Gamba second. Myojin told MK Sports the schedule is very tight, with Machida on Nov 1 and Cerezo on Nov 8, and gave no hint on rotation. Welton came off in the 41st minute against Machida holding his thigh (Soccer Digest Web), and Rui Araki is out after elbow surgery per Football Channel, so Higashiguchi has been the keeper. Four of their last five results were draws, so they are hard to beat but not obviously sharp in the final third.
So the tension is a desperate home side with a loose structure against a visitor that is solid and tired. If Gamba rotate and lose some of their pressing intensity, Pohang's emotional lift might finally meet some space. If they stay intact, the first pass out of the back is where this gets decided. Which of those two do you think shows up first?
