The K League 1 Wrap-Up: FC Seoul Find Attacking Spark, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Win Again, and Jeju SK Move Out of the Bottom Three

As the 2025 K League 1 season returns from an international break, so too does columnist Nathan Sartain, who here recaps all the talking points from round 18.

Gangwon FC's Home Woes

With a 3-0 defeat against league leaders Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Gangwon FC have extended their winless streak at home to five matches, and dropped into the bottom three. Across this barren run of games, the Bears have damningly only mustered up two goals, while a once study defence has conceded 11 times.

In blunt terms, it’s a huge warning sign, and a major reason why Gangwon now find themselves in the bottom three. Just in Friday's match alone, it felt like there was a lack of confident conviction in the team as they continued to create a lack of high quality chances, and struggled to find ways of utilising their high ball possession to any great effect. Fortunately, the return of a key attacking player in Kim Dae-won is right around the corner, and the forward has history with helping pull Gangwon out of tricky situations by bringing goals, assists and everything in between.

As for the Green Warriors, they now have a six-point lead at the top of K League 1, and will be confident of continuing their hot-streak in midweek against Suwon FC.

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FC Seoul Soar Against the Griffins

There has been plenty of times this year when Seoul have fashioned countless opportunities for themselves, but failed to show a clinical edge. Even in some recent victories (like a 1-0 away win against Daegu), the capital city side could have earned more breathing room for themselves, but have ended up unable to hit the back of the net.

On Friday, however, Seoul put in perhaps a season-best performance, easing to a 3-1 away triumph over Gwangju FC. There, plenty fell perfectly into place for Kim Gi-dong’s men in an attacking sense, with eight of the team’s 10 shots on target, and the frontline a consistent enough threat. Shortly after Jeong Seung-won’s well-taken opener Seoul were peppering Gwangju’s box for a follow-up, and although it took until the second-half for it to come, the result only rarely seemed in any doubt.

All in all, Seoul have now risen into the Final A positions, with three wins from their last five representing a healthy momentum shift from just a few weeks ago. If they can play with same type of purpose as they did in round 18 going forward, fans will certainly have plenty more to look forward to watching as well.

FC Anyang and Jeju SK Earn Vital Points

As the quest for multiple teams to pull clear of the bottom places continues, FC Anyang and Jeju SK made some impressive strides thanks to their respective Saturday comeback wins.

For Anyang, a Bruno Mota brace meant the Violets beat 11th-placed Suwon FC 2-1, and moved up to seventh. Jeju, in a similar fashion, saw Yuri Jonathan and Denilson complete a resurgent second-half turnaround against rock-bottom Daegu FC to make it three consecutive wins. The Islanders are now out of the bottom three as a result, and just three points away from the top-half.

So what’s next for the two teams? Jeju have a midweek test of their refined counter-attacking tactical tweaks against Gwangju FC - who themselves are four games without victory - whereas an improved Anyang travel to face Gimcheon Sangmu. Sure, these matches are unlikely to define the season for any club involved, but they could provide a measuring stick of what’s realistic to aim for in the weeks to come.

One More Match

Elsewhere, Gimcheon Sangmu returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory against an in-form Pohang Steelers. Lee Dong-jun’s close-range strike just prior to the 30-minute mark was enough to separate the sides in a game of few clear-cut chances, and plenty of strong defensive work from the military side.

So that’s about it for this week! Round 18 didn’t feel like one which carried much in the way of clear talking points, but it certainly cemented Jeonbuk’s claim to being the best side in K League 1 so far in 2025, and reaffirmed how open the table appears to be for the most part.