June 13, 2024
Today saw round 15 of South Korea’s 2024 Women’s K-League, which for sponsorship reasons is called the Develon WK-League.
The league was inaugurated in 2009 and Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels have won eleven consecutive titles since 2013 after being the runners up in the first four seasons of the competition. The only side still active in the WK league with a title is Suwon FC, who won the championship in 2010.
The league consists of eight teams who play each other four times for a 28-game regular season. The second and third placed teams meet in a one-off semi-final, with the winners then proceeding to a two-legged final against the first placed side.
Unlike in the English Women’s Premier League, where all of the top sides are now part of the men’s club, in South Korea, only Suwon WFC are part of the same ownership of the men’s side, and only Incheon and Seoul City also play in the same city as a K-League side.
As the WK League is the only women's league in the country there is no relegation. Sides are allowed to sign up to three foreign players, apart from Mungyeong Sangmu who are not allowed to sign any foreign players due to their military status.
In 2023, Hwacheon KSPO finished second, one point behind Incheon Red Angels but lost the semi-final play-off 1-2 in extra time to Suwon. In the final, Suwon won the first leg 3-1, but Incheon bounced back in the return with a 6-2 victory, and a hat-trick for Hwq-yeon Son, to triumph 7-5 overall on aggregate.
South Korea National Side
The South Korean women's national side are currently 20th in the FIFA rankings which makes them the 5th strongest side in Asia
They missed out on a place in the 2024 Olympics, where despite beating Thailand 10-1, draws with North Korea and China saw them eliminated after North Korea beat China to top the group. Ultimately, Australia and Japan took the two spaces available for Asia.
South Korea qualified for the 2023 World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand, but they failed to progress from their group after unexpected losses to Colombia ( 0-2 ) and Morocco ( 0-1 ), and a 1-1 draw with Germany.
Midfielder Geum-min Lee ( 88 caps ) plays in the English WSL for Brighton and Hove Albion whilst Yu-ri Choe ( 61 caps ) and midfielder So-hyun Cho play for Championship side Birmingham City.
Gyeongju KHNP
Gyeongju Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power WFC were founded in 2017 and have been runners-up four times in the WK League but are yet to claim a title. They were runners up in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022 but could only finish fourth last season.
Gyeongju is located on the south-east coast of South Korea, south of Pohang, and just under 280 kms from the capital Seoul, which should take between three to four hours by road.
Home is the Gyeongju Football Park, which has 650 seats and an artificial grass surface. The seats are all along one side of the ground in a low stand, which quirkily has roofs at different heights.
Two of their players had featured in the most recent national squad, midfielder Sel-gi Jang had 102 caps, whilst defender Jin-Hui Kim was called up but was yet to make her full debut.
Japanese forward Mai Kyokawa ( 5 caps ) played last year in Germany for Potsdam in the Frauen Bundesliga and they have Pele in their squad, Brazilian attacker Bruna Pele !
Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels
The port city of Incheon is situated around 30km south-west of Seoul and is the third largest city in the country.
The Red Angels play at the Incheon Namdong Asiad Rugby Field, which has a capacity of just under 5,000, and is the home ground of the South Korean Rugby Union side.
Being 13 times champions, their squad was packed with national players. Defender and captain Hyr-ri Kim had 126 caps, striker Hwa-yeon Son had 56 caps, midfielder Jang Chang had 23 caps, defender Hye-ji Hong had 40 caps, and keepers Jung-mi Kim and Min-jeong Kim had 150 and 3 caps respectively.
Forward Hyo-joo Choo had 47 caps, midfielder Ye-eun Park had represented South Korea on 16 occasions, whilst ex-Rayo Vallecano Japanese midfielder Yoko Tanaka had 4 caps for Japan.
2024 Season So Far
Incheon started the day on top of the table with an 8-6-0 record to sit two points clear of second placed Hwacheon. Gyeongju were a further five points behind in third with a 6-5-3 record.
These sides had met twice already this season, with a 1-1 draw on the opening day of the season in Incheon but the Red Angels won the return fixture 2-1 in late April. Gyeongju had also lost 2-3 at Suwon and 1-2 at Hwacheon. However, they were on a run of four games without defeat, including a 3-0 revenge victory over Suwon.
Last week, Red Angels needed a 92nd minute header from Hye-ji Hong to win 2-1 at Seoul FC after falling behind with just under 20 minutes left to play.
Kyokawa was the top scorer for Gyeongju with 7 goals to be the second highest scorer in the division behind Chae-Rim Kang of Suwon on 8 goals. Min-Ji Yeo had found the net for Gyeongju 5 times.
Incheon’s goals had been spread around their team, with Jang Chang and Ji-yeon Seo having scored four times.
Matchday Information
The weather at the 19.00 local kick-off time ( 11.00 UK ) was sunny with temperatures around 27 degrees.
Gyeongju were in all green, and as their name suggested Incheon Red Angels were in all red.
The game was live streamed on the iTop21sports YouTube channel
Match Report
The light at the 19.00 kick-off was still bright although the twilight was starting to close in, and the floodlights were on. Gyeongju pressed early on, but Hong comfortably headed away a left-wing cross in the first minute.
Incheon’s response saw Seo’s looping header from the edge of the area easily saved by keeper Kim, shortly after which Son came out worse in an aerial challenge with Kwak and required extensive treatment but was OK to continue.
Both sides were looking to play attractive passing football, but neither was able to make much of impact in the opening 10 minutes. Namgung brought down Jang as the Gyeongju midfielder ran towards the visitor’s penalty area to concede a free-kick in a promising position on the left hand side of the pitch. Jang’s free-kick found centre-back Hye-yeong Kim 8 yards out, but a poor first touch enabled Hong to get a foot to the loose ball, and keeper Kim dived onto the ball to prevent a corner.
Pele was popping up on either wing but was being contained by the Red Angels defenders. A defensive mix-up between Kwak and Hye-yeong Kim then allowed Son to run clear down the left but her attempted pass across goal to Seo was poor and the Gyeongju keeper was able to intercept.
Gyeongju won the first corner of the game in the 20th minute but the delivery was too high for the flying Kyokawa and when Jang gathered the loose ball, her left footed effort from the edge of the area sailed harmlessly well wide.
A minute later Hye-yeong Kim cross-field clearance went only as far as Tanaka, but her 30 yard effort bounced gently straight to the keeper.
Incheon’s main tactic at this stage was to play balls down the left-hand channel for Son to run onto, but twice the moves were halted by raised flags for offside, and then a cross towards the far post was claimed by the Gyeongju keeper.
The two sides continued to be evenly matched with little sign of a goal coming, and with 30 minutes played Gyeongju midfielder So-dam Lee sent a 30 yard effort several yards over the bar and nearly out of the ground but it was stopped by the high protective netting behind the goal.
Pele was testing the referee’s patience with successive petty fouls, but the yellow card stayed in the official’s pocket.
There was near moment of panic stations for Gyeongju five minutes before the interval when keeper Kim dropped a cross from the left from Son but See-jin Lee was on hand to hoof the loose ball clear. Jang Chang then slipped a pass through the home defence for Son to latch onto but a brave challenge by Jin-hui Kim conceded a corner with an injury to Kim in the process. When the corner was eventually played to the far post, Hong’s header clearly deflected off Kwak but initially a goal-kick was awarded. However, after some complaints another corner was finally given.
In added on time Chang fizzed in a free kick into the Gyeongju area which Seo failed to get a head to, and the ball struck the unsighted keeper on the chest before being cleared.
It remained goal-less at the half-time whistle, after a half of precious few chances and neither side creating a chance worthy of the name.
Gyeongju made two changes at the start of the second half, bringing on Japanese midfielder Kitakata and forward Gwak.
Incheon quickly forced a corner at the start of the second half, which was well defended, and when Gyeongju broke, Pele’s curling shot from the edge of the area was pushed away by the diving keeper before it could sneak inside the far post.
When substitute Gwak attempted to make a break down the right-wing, Sung-mi Kim produced a fabulous sliding tackle to avert the danger and won possession.
Twelve minutes into the second half, Incheon keeper Kim appeared to have picked up a serious injury when Kyokawa slid in as the keeper was making a clearance but after treatment for a couple of minutes the veteran keeper was able to continue.
Son then did well to get past two challenges, but her long-range shot sailed a foot or two over the Gyeongju bar.
With 15 minutes remaining, Kitakata showed good skill to dummy her compatriot Tanaka, but the following chip from 25 yards was straight at the Incheon keeper and easily caught.
The first and only yellow card of the game was shown in the 78th minute, and perhaps unsurprisingly Pele was the recipient after another foul, this time on Chang, and was probably guilty under the totting up principle. The Brazilian was substituted almost immediately afterwards.
With less than 10 minutes left to play, See-jin Lee make a tremendous sliding tackle to stop Red Angels substitute So-hee Lee heading towards the Gyeongju area after pushing the ball past Jang.
The only real chance of the game arrived with 7 minutes remaining. The Gyeongju keeper’s pass out of defence went straight to Namgung, who took a couple of steps forward and then played a pass to Chang, who played an instant return pass. However, despite having a sight of goal from 6 yards, keeper Kim was off her line quickly and made a brave close-range block and held onto the ball. A glorious opportunity to snatch three points for the Red Angels was spurned.
As the game entered its final stages, Hyr-ri Kim surged forward from the back and lifted the ball over the Gyeongju back-line, but the Kim came off her line to dive on the ball before Choi could get to it.
At the start of 5 additional minutes to be played, the Incheon keeper had to be alert to gather a through ball before Gwak could take advantage, then at the other end the Gyeongju keeper had to do something similar to deny Son.
Yeo then blazed wildly wide from 20 yards after being teed up by Hyun as Gyeongju took play back to the other end.
At the final whistle it was still scoreless, and frankly a goal would have been unlikely if they had played until midnight. Despite much nice passing and technical skill, defences were on top with neither side having the spark of creativity necessary to create a match-winner.
The sponsors gave the player of the match award to home defender Se-jin Lee, who did have a decent game, and won a small trophy and what looked to be a toy mechanical digger for her efforts, in addition to being the “Queen Of The Match”. Jang also had a fine game for the home side.
However, for this correspondent, the outstanding performer in the game was Incheon’s Hong. Playing on the left side of a back three, she looked calm and composed and always seemed to find a team-mate in space when under pressure. Tall by Korean standards ( but apparently only 5 foot 8 inches ! ) she won just about everything in the air in defence, and was a threat at set-pieces in attack. Son also worked hard up front for the Red Angels, but lacked support, and maybe also needs to re-read the offside law !
Following this result, although still unbeaten, the Red Angels slipped to second place in the table on goal difference due to Hwacheon winning 2-0 at home against Mungyeong Sangmu. With Suwon winning 2-0 at home to Changnyeong, Gyeongju dropped to fourth.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xSGnFQp3hk
Gyeongju KHNP : DH Kim - Kwak, HY Kim ( Yeo ), JH Kim. SJ Lee – HJ Kim, SD Lee ( Kitakata ), Jang – Pele ( Hyun ), Kyokawa SE Kim ( Gwak )
Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels : JM Kim – , HR Kim, Moon, Hong – Namgung, Jang Chang ( Choi ), Park ( MS Kim ), Tanaka, SM Kim – Seo ( SH Lee ), Son
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