Korean Football Round-up 23rd September

 

A round-up of what's been going on in the world of Korean football over the last week.

K League

On the final day of the regular K League 1 season newly-promoted Gwangju FC went on to seal a top six finish. At the expense of FC Seoul and Gangwon FC, the Yellows snuck into Final Round A on goals scored thanks to a 2-0 win over Seongnam FC. Park Jin-seop’s side are guaranteed to secure the highest league position in the club’s history, the previous best was in 2016 when Gwangju finished eighth.

Pohang Steelers, meanwhile, moved up to third after emerging as 4-3 winners with 10 men at home to Sangju Sangmu. Serbian attacking midfielder Aleksandar Paločević bagged his first career hat-trick to move onto nine goals for the campaign. Pohang are now on the brink of a return to ACL following a four-year absence. No change at the top of the table as Ulsan and Jeonbuk both won over the weekend.

[READ: K League 1 Final Round Fixtures]

K League 1 Round 22 Goals

On Tuesday, the Final Round fixtures were released with the first group of matches coming up this weekend, beginning with a Super Match at Big Bird where, for the first time ever, Suwon Bluewings will take on FC Seoul in the bottom half of the split. Full details of which can be found on KLeague.com.

'Even if You Forget Your Name'

Monday 21st September was World Alzheimer’s day and to raise awareness, for their K League 1 Round 21 home fixture with Pohang Steelers, Suwon Bluewings on wore shirts with player names written by elderly Alzheimer's patients as part of the ‘Even if you Forget Your Name’ campaign. The shirts will be sold to raise funds for the Beautiful Foundation, a dementia family support charity.

Purples left black and blue

In K League 2, Daejeon Hana Citizen appointed  a new caretaker manager in Cho Min-gook. Cho had a one-year stint n charge of Ulsan in 2014, guiding them to sixth place. However, despite two new managers in the space of two weeks, Daejeon went on to suffer their second defeat in as many games - falling to a 2-0 loss at home to Seoul E-Land. With Jeju United beating Bucheon FC 1995 and Suwon FC overcoming Chungnam Asan, the Purples look resigned to the playoffs.

Out of Luc

Elsewhere in K League 2, Gyeongnam FC announced on Monday that the club has terminated the contract of striker Luc Castaignos. The 27-year-old had featured just six times in 2020, scoring once, but scored nine goals in 17 appearances in 2019 despite lengthy injury layoffs.

Yeoju Citizen's arrest

Meanwhile, sad news for football fans in the city it was announced earlier this week that the city of Yeoju no longer wishes to fund its K4 side. Founded just three years ago, Yeoju Citizen are currently 6th in K4 after winning their last three and are just two points off the playoffs.

From Russia With Love

Former Daejeon midfielder Hwang In-beom has made a bright start to life in the Russian Premier League. Since joining Rubin Kazan, the 'Son of Daejeon' has one goal and one assist in four appearances, two from the start. A red card in the 1-0 away win over Dinamo Moscow will be a minor blemish on Hwang's record but the 24-year-old can take solace in knowing that he has the best key passes per 90 minutes record in the division with 4.2.

'Son-setional'

And finally, where else but to the Premier League where it was 'Super Son-day' for Tottenham Hotspur who came from behind Southampton 5-2 with Son Heung-min scoring four. With Gareth Bale returning to Tottenham, it was quite the statement from Son who was able to equalise for Spur on the stroke of half time before turning the game on its head just two minutes after the restart. His hat-trick was sealed on 64th - the third in his career but first in the Premier League - before a fourth was added on 73 minutes.

🎬 🍿 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗡 & 𝗞𝗔𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗪!#THFC ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/WgdDHFDLEU

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 22, 2020