December 3, 2025
The 2025 regular K-League season in South Korea had come to a conclusion, with just the promotion/relegation play-off games left to be played.
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, under ex-Brighton and Hove Albion coach Gus Poyet, had won their 10th title, finishing 14 points ahead of Daejeon Hana Citizen. Military-owned Gimcheon Sangmu, fielding players conscripted for military service into the armed forces, finished third, but as they are prevented from playing in Asian Club competitions, their place in the Asian Champions League Elite was taken by fourth placed Pohang Steelers.
At the bottom, Daegu came 12th and last to be relegated to K-League 2 and will be replaced by Incheon United, who bounced straight back after their unexpected relegation last year. Suwon FC and Jeju SK entered the two-legged promotion/relegation play-offs against Bucheon 1995 and Suwon Bluewings respectively. The two Suwon clubs were in the play-offs, but not against each other !
The second legs of the play-offs are on Sunday.
Suwon Bluewings
Suwon Bluewings are old friends of these diaries, and were involved in the first match in a “major” football league as football slowly emerged from Covid Lockdowns in May 2020, and even the BBC streamed their match at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Bluewings lost that game 0-1 with the goal coming near to the end, and Bluewings were also the losers in two other games featured in these diaries, losing 1-2 at home to Incheon United in 2021 and 0-1 at Incheon in 2022. They would be hoping to break their Fatbear jinx today !
Suwon is located 32km from the capital Seoul, and the Bluewings play at the 44,031 capacity Suwon World Cup Stadium, which as the name implies, was built for the 2002 World Cup hosted by South Korea and Japan. Their main sponsor is Samsung and their home colours are all blue.
Suwon Bluewings are one of the most renown clubs in South Korea, having won the K-League on four occasions and had twice won the Asian Club Championship. They also had a reputation as a cup-team, with 5 Korean FA Cup and 6 League Cups to their name.
However, Bluewings were relegated at the end of the 2023 season and were an underwhelming 6th in the 2024 K-League 2. This season had seen a significant improvement, finishing 2nd to enter the final round of the promotion/relegation play-off, and they came into today’s game on a nine-game unbeaten run ( 4 wins and 5 draws ). They possessed a home record of 10-7-3.
Bluewings were the best supported team in K-League 2, with an average attendance of 12,571, with 22,265 attending the top of the table clash with Incheon United in July.
Suwon were hoping to improve on the recent poor record of K-League 2 teams in the play-offs, 5 sides had failed since Daejeon were successful in 2022.
Brazilian winger Matheus Serafim was the joint-top scorer with 13 goals, the same as 35 year-old Russian striker Stanislav Iljutcenko, who appeared in these diaries scoring for Pohang Steelers in 2020. Ex-Ulsan Hyundai forward Ji-hyun Kim was next with 12 goals.
Bluewings’ three other foreign players were all Brazilians. Winger Bruno Costa was ex-Chapecoense and Atletico Minero, centre-back Leo Andrade had played in Portugal for Maritimo, in Russia for Khimki and for Lamia in Greece, whilst winger Paulo Henrique had played for two clubs in the UAE.
Left-back Ki-Je Lee ( 14 caps ) had been with the Bluewings since 2018 and had earlier played in Australia for Newcastle Jets, midfielder Kyu-seong Lee was on loan from Ulsan Hyundai and was the most valuable Korean player at €600K according to Transfermrkt, and 35 year old Min-woo Kim ( 22 caps ) played in Japan for Sagan Tosu and in China for Chengdu.
Jeju SK
Jeju Island is a popular tourist attraction with over 10 million visitors every year, mainly from South Korea, China and Japan. The air route between Gimpo Seoul Airport and Jeju International is officially the busiest air route in the world, with over 14 million seats available in 2024.
The area of the island is 1,826 square kilometres and the population was 665,953 as at August 2025, with around 500,000 people living in Jeju City.
The island’s football team, Jeju SK, play in the island’s second city, Seogwipo, and home is the 29,791 capacity Jeju World Cup Stadium, which was also built for the 2002 World Cup. The club were known as Jeju United until this season, with the change reflecting the increased support from owners SK Energy. The home colours are all orange, reflecting that oranges are a main crop on the island, and their nickname is The Tangerines.
The club was founded in 1982, and moved from the mainland to Jeju in 2006. Having been in the K-League since its foundation, Jeju finished bottom at the end of the 2019 season. However, the stay in K-League 2 lasted only one season, winning the 2020 K-League 2 title. Since being back in the K-League, Jeju have finished 4th, 5th, 9th, 7th before this season’s 11th placed finish.
Jeju finished their season with a 1-1 draw at home to Daegu and then a 1-0 victory at Ulsan to ensure they finished 5 points clear of Daegu and out of the automatic relegation place. Away from home they had been 4-5-11.
The average attendance this season was 7,421 with 11,049 attending the 2-0 win in first game of the season against FC Seoul, no doubt keen to get a glimpse of Jesse Lingard in the opposition line-up !
Brazilian forward Yuri Jonathan was the top scorer this season with 13 goals followed by midfielder Tae-hee Nam ( 54 caps ) on 6. Nam started in Reading’s academy in England before moving onto French side Valenciennes, then played for Al-Duhail and Al-Sadd in Qatar, then Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.
Keeper Dong-jun Kim won his single cap in 2015, centre-back Chai-min Lim played once for the National Team in 2014 and played in China for Shenzhen, and Ju-hun Song was another one cap wonder, winning his in 2017. Song had played in Japan for Albirex Niigata and in China for Tianjin and Shenzhen. Jung-min Kim also had one cap, won in 2018, and had played in Austria and Portugal.
Midfielder Chang-min Lee had 7 caps, forward/winger In-soo Yu started his career in Japan with Tokyo FC and defender Min-gyju Jang began his career with JEF United and Machida Zelvia in Japan. Midfielder Italo was from Brazil.
Matchday Information
The distance between Jeju and Suwon in almost 500 km, but as Jeju is an island, the most expedient way of making the journey would be to fly to Seoul-Gimpo airport and then taking a train or bus for the 40 odd kilometres to Suwon. The alternative would be to take a ferry to the mainland then drive or get a long-distance train.
Tickets for the game ranged between 15,000 to 32,000 Won ( £8 to £17 ), although Premium seats were 45,000 Won ( £23 ), and a box for 4 people was 300.000 Won ( £154 ).
The weather at the 19.00 local kick-off time ( 10.00 UK ) was dry but a freezing minus 5 degrees !
The match was streamed live on the K-League TV website, with a commentary in English. Bet365, who also live streamed the match, made Bluewings 23/20 favourites, with Jeju at 12/5 and the draw 11/5.
Jeju made two changes to the side that started at Ulsan, with Seung-sub Kim not living up to his name with a start, and Chang-woo Rim coming in at right-back. Yu dropped down to the bench and Ta-hae An missed out completely
Suwon Bluewings also made two changes, with Serafim returning to the side together with Min-Hyuk Lee, replacing Park and Kyu-seong Lee.
Jeju were in a change kit of all white whilst Suwon Bluewings were in their usual all blue.
Match Report
Suwon started at a fast pace and inside the first minute MH Lee’s tame left footed side footer was deflected wide for a corner off Song, which was headed off by RS Kim for another corner. The second attempt was headed clear by Yuri, back helping out his defence, but after being pumped back into the Jeju area, some head tennis ensued until KJ Lee sent a left footed 20 yarder well wide.
After 8 minutes Iljutcenko chest controlled a throw in and flicked back to JH Kim, who flashed a shot just wide from edge of the area.
The home fans were singing non-stop, and would continue to do so throughout the whole match, except when occasionally stopping to boo when Juju were attacking !
With 15 minutes gone, Bluewings keeper MJ Kim showed a poor first touch to a back pass and when Yuri bore down on him, the keeper hurriedly had to concede a throw to avert the danger.
A minute later Serafim produced a good turn and run down the right wing but his cross was blocked by RS Kim for corner. Taken short, the ball was cross to the far post to be headed down by Iljutcenko but keeper Kim caught the ball before it crossed the line.
Serafim was the found in space on right but could only shoot straight at the keeper, who clasped the ball to his chest.
The first Jeju attack arrived in the 27th minutes when Yuri rose above MH Lee to meet a floated cross from Rim, but his header from just outside the 6 yard box drifted wide.
From a Bluewings corner, Bruno Costa reacted the quickest to turn and shoot, but the effort went a couple of feet over the bar, and when Jeju’s attempt to play out from the back broke down, a low cross from Bruno Costa from the left wing was well claimed by the Jeju keeper.
The first yellow card of the game was brandished to Jeju’s Italo in the 38th minute for a bad tackle on MH Lee, stepping on his ankle. VAR looked at the incident and deemed yellow was sufficient, but it probably would have been a VAR red card in the English Premier League.
Lee recovered though, and soon after advanced onto a clearance and leapt in the air to shoot from 20 yards, but the ball bounced through harmlessly to keeper Kim to made a regulation save.
With half-time approaching, Iljutcenko played a lovely ball to put Bruno Costa in space in left-hand channel, and the Brazilian ran into area, but dragged his left-footed effort across the goal and it went a couple of feet wide.
Leo Andrade then levelled the number of yellow cards per side after flattening Yuri Jonathan just inside the Jeju half.
Three additional minutes were played, in which Jeju had nearly all the possession but they didn’t threaten.
The sides headed to the warmth of the dressing rooms with the score 0-0. Suwon had looked the more threatening but hadn’t really troubled the Jeju keeper, whilst next to nothing was seen from Jeju as an attacking force.
The crowd were subjected to Coldplay at half-time, I wasn’t sure if this was deliberately ironic given the minus temperature !
As the second half began, the ticket tape welcome for the teams was blowing on to the pitch, so to use an old Tommy Docherty quip, the best team on paper would win !
MH Lee quickly forced corner on left, and was taken by KJ Lee, who took all the Bluewings set-pieces. The corner was headed away as far as MH Lee, whose shot from the edge of area was blocked.
With 50 minutes on the clock, Jeju sent a dangerous looking cross from left, which was just too high for Yuri and at the other end a minute later, Serafim’s optimistic 30 yarder went high and wide.
Serafim then wriggled past two Jeju defenders to get into the Jeju area, but his low shot was pushed away by the keeper. Bruno Costa attempted to get to the rebound and appeared to get an arm in the face from RS Kim, but the referee waved play on, and VAR didn’t intervene.
Jeju briefly threatened when a cross by Nam was headed off by Leo Andrade for a corner, which Italo met at the near post, but headed well wide.
Iljutcenko outmuscled Yu and then ran past Italo but his cross from the left-hand byline was cut out by the Jeju keeper.
The main controversy of the match came in the 57th minute. SS Kim made a good run into Bluewings area after smart back heel by Italo, and his ball towards the near post hit Kwon on the arm. Loud appeals for a penalty were ignored by the referee and Suwon Bluewings broke and won a corner. However, VAR intervened and sent the ref to the pitch-side monitor to look at the handball, and surprisingly he ignored VAR and said no penalty.
Play continued with the Suwon Bluewings corner, which was headed over the bar.
Iljutcenko was pushed by Lim when in the air leaping for a header and landed awkwardly, but the free-kick was awarded to Jeju. The ball was quickly played forward and the Bluewings keeper MJ Kim came off his line, but was caught in no-man’s land. Yu got there first, pushed the ball past the stranded keeper and was then brought down for an obvious penalty. Yuri stepped up and sent a fabulous penalty into the keeper’s top right-hand corner. Against the run of play it was 0-1 after 68 minutes.
The home side looked to hit back and three minutes later, a delightful left wing cross from KJ Lee was just too high for Iljutcenko and the ball rolled off for goal-kick.
Serafim then won a corner, which was cleared as far as MH Lee, who shot high over the bar from 20 yards.
Jeju’s Song suffered an injury and was taken off the pitch on a golf buggy, but he was quickly able to return to the fray.
The first piece of action for Jeju substitute Choi was to see a yellow card pointed in his direction for pulling back Serafim. KJ Lee’s free-kick bounced into the area, Iljutcenko slid in but couldn’t reach it, and the ball bounced through to the keeper.
With two minutes of normal time remaining, Serafim won another corner, which flew across the 6-yard line, with Iljutcenko getting the final touch, glancing wide.
Bluewing substitute H Kim then struck a bouncing ball goalwards from 20 yards, but Jeju keeper Kim produced a good tip over the bar.
Ten added minutes were signalled and the Bluewings surged forward in search of an equalizer. Park crossed into the Jeju 6-yard box, but Choi was on hand to head out for a corner. KJ Lee ran into the Jeju area but saw his shot blocked by Oh for a corner.
Serafim ran from halfway to the edge of the Jeju area, but his left-footed shot lacked power and the keeper went down for a comfortable save. Park shot from 25-yards but again keeper Kim dived to his left to make a regulation save.
With added time just about up, RS Kim fouled Henrique to give the home side a free-kick 30 yards out on right. KJ Lee’s In-swinging free-kick was headed away by Song who then cleared a low cross from Henrique.
Immediately afterwards the referee blew his whistle to end the game. At 0-1. It was advantage to Jeju, who would presumably see this as a professional job well done. They didn’t do much going forward, but capitalised on an error and then defended diligently to win the game. Bluewings looked lively, with Serafim in particular catching eye, but lacked a cutting edge, and whilst they had a number of shots on target, Jeju keeper Kim was never unduly troubled.
It has been announced that the away and neutral sections of the Jeju ground had already sold out so there would be plenty of travelling support to see if the Bluewings could turn the tie around on Sunday.
Suwon Bluewings : MJ Kim – GH Lee, Kwon, Leo Andrade ( Jang ), KJ Lee – Serafim, Hong, MH Lee, Bruno Costa ( Park ) – Iljutcenko ( Paulo Henrique ), JH Kim ( H Kim )
Jeju SK : DJ Kim – Rim ( Shin ), Lim, Song, RS Kim – JH Kim ( Yu ), CM Lee ( Oh ), Italo, SS Kim ( Choi ) – Nam, Yuri ( Jang )
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