WK League News

With two rounds left to play in the regular season of this year’s WK League, Hwacheon KSPO and Seoul City Amazones have done enough to secure progression to at least the playoff match. Either of them could still finish top of the table to bypass the playoff and proceed directly to the two-legged championship final. The third and final playoff spot is still up for grabs, with Incheon Hyundai and Gyeongju KHNP in contention. All other teams had already been mathematically excluded from progression prior to yesterday’s Round 26 fixtures.

Seoul had the chance to leapfrog Hwacheon into first position yesterday as they travelled to Gangwon-do to face their rivals head-to-head. Choi Jungmin’s goal following a corner gave Hwacheon an early lead and she almost doubled it within mere minutes as Seoul keeper Choi Yeseul’s weak save rolled across the front of an open net. Later in the first half, Hwacheon captain Jung Jiyeon’s cross missed its target of Lee Soobin, but neither of them minded as the ball bounced over Choi Yeseul and directly into the back of the net. It was a careless error from Choi, who has only made a handful of appearances for Seoul this year, and she knew it. After Hwacheon almost put a third past her, she was subbed off for Woo Seobin, one of the breakout stars of the WK League this season since being selected by Seoul at the 2025 WK League draft.

The second half was goalless, but the damage was already done for Seoul, and Hwacheon extended their lead by three points, guaranteeing them progression to at least the playoff, and giving them a much better chance of going directly to the final. With five points now separating them, Seoul would need to win both of their remaining matches and for Hwacheon to lose both of theirs (or draw one and lose by an enormous goal difference) to go top. Even so, results elsewhere guaranteed Seoul a finish within the playoff positions for the first time since 2014, when they were beaten to the final by (now disbanded) Goyang Daekyo. The same two teams had come up against each other in the previous year’s playoff, on which occasion Seoul beat Daekyo to progress to the final against Incheon Hyundai. They held the Red Angels to a draw in the first leg, but defending champions Incheon recorded a decisive victory in the second leg to lift the 2013 WK League trophy. In the intervening years, Seoul have come close to qualifying for the playoffs on a couple of occasions but never quite managed it until now.

Competing for the chance to face either Hwacheon or Seoul (whichever team finishes in second place) in the playoff are Incheon Hyundai and Gyeongju KHNP. Incheon currently have the advantage after their 1-0 victory over Changnyeong WFC at home last night. Both teams had their share of attacking opportunities and near misses as the game progressed, with a particularly agonising moment for Incheon late in the first half as a shot from Tori skimmed the goalpost by mere milimetres to go out for a goal kick. The Red Angels took the lead early in the second half thanks to youngster Bae Yebin, who took advantage of a defensive error to get on the end of a pass across the goalmouth from Tori and put it into the back of the net at close range. As the second half wore on, Changnyeong had a few chances but weren’t particularly threatening, and Incheon failed to capitalise on their own attacking opportunities, with Kim Yerin making a few key saves to keep the score at 1-0.

With their three points secure, there was more good news for the Red Angels as Gyeongju KHNP recorded a 0-0 draw at home against Suwon FC. Knowing the importance of this match for their playoff chances, Gyeongju started out aggressively, with 2024 WK League top scorer Kyokawa very narrowly missing the goal just a few minutes into proceedings. Suwon keeper Kim Kyunghee had to make a few saves throughout the first half but after a bit of a scrap in front of goal, Kim’s former Suwon teammate Moon Mira finally found the back of the net for Gyeongju. The goal was given and KHNP’s players were on their way back to the halfway line, but celebrations came to an abrupt end as the goal was cancelled due to a highly contested offside. After lengthy discussion between the officials, players and coaches, the score stood at 0-0, Gyeongju manager Song Juhee and coach Kim Dae-eun were each shown a yellow card. It’s not the first time this season KHNP have felt wronged by a questionable refereeing decision at a key moment, but with no VAR, the goal was cancelled and play continued. The second half went on in much the same manner, with Gyeongju creating most of the attacking opportunities but failing in the final third, protesting a number of refereeing calls,and ultimately taking only a point from a game they rather needed to win.

The result puts KHNP on the back foot as they look ahead to next week’s match against Incheon. It’s another home fixture, Gyeongju’s final one of the season, and they need to beat the Red Angels to keep their playoff hopes alive. Any other result will put them out of contention regardless of Round 28 and results elsewhere. The Red Angels have a little more leeway, as even a loss next Monday wouldn’t completely seal their fate, but both sides will be eager to take the three points and progress to the playoff against either Seoul or Hwacheon. It’s sure to be another tense evening at Gyeongju Football Park when the Red Angels land.

Elsewhere in Round 27, Suwon host Hwacheon in their final home match of the season, Sejong visit Seoul, and Mungyeong head south to Changnyeong. All matches will be played at 19:00 on Monday 29th October, with streaming via iTop21Sports on YouTube.